National Football League

Joe Thomas says Johnny Manziel's plight with Cleveland Browns 'a sad end'

Published Feb. 12, 2016 1:44 p.m. ET

share

facebookxredditlink

foxsports

Johnny Manziel's two-year stint with the Browns will most likely come to an end on March 9, the day the new league starts and the cap hit for Cleveland will be lessened.

Even his teammates have started to acknowledge that Manziel's time with the Browns will be over soon. Though left tackle Joe Thomas seemed somewhat despondent about how the whole thing unfolded.

"It's a sad end to the story in Cleveland for Johnny," Thomas said via Mary Kay Cabot of the Cleveland Plain-Dealer. "He's a guy that personally I like. I believe he has a lot of talent. He's got the talent to be an NFL quarterback, but it obviously hasn't worked out so far."

Manziel has endured a litany of scandals since being the 22nd pick of the 2014 NFL Draft. The 23-year-old was investigated for allegedly striking his ex-girlfriend Colleen Crowley and threatening to kill them both last month. It's the second time since October that Manziel has been under review by the league for a domestic incident. He was cleared of wrongdoing after police were called when he and Crowley got into a heated roadside argument last year in Avon, Ohio.

"It's just a sad turn of events right now,'' said Thomas. "It's hard to really say too much about allegations because plenty of innocent people get accused of things all the time, so you don't really know exactly what happened and obviously I wasn't there so I don't have a first-hand experience to go off of.

"But whatever he's dealing with, I hope that he's able to get that under control and get things straightened out and hopefully if football's important to him, be able to put everything he has in his life into football.

Last January, Manziel entered rehab for a lengthy stay. This past January, there were shenanigans that involved an alleged trip to Vegas. 

On Tuesday, Browns defended their handling of Manziel's late-season concussion, countering an NFL Network report that they lied about the injury to cover up the troubled quarterback showing up intoxicated for practice.

-- The Associated Press contributed to this report.

(H/T PFT)

share

Get more from National Football League Follow your favorites to get information about games, news and more

in this topic

National Football League