Johnny Manziel does dumb thing, media freaks out once more

For some unexplainable reason, many media members don’t like Johnny Manziel. Let’s set aside for a second that Johnny Manziel is a hero, and realize that nearly every other player in the NFL publicly projects some sanitized #brand that’s safe enough to get a sponsorship from some corporate behemoth. But not our friend Johnny Football—no, Johnny rides around on swans swigging champagne. One would think, if anything, beat writers would give the guy a break for providing so much material…and yet!

This confounding fact of life played out in microcosmic form, when Manziel tossed a water bottle at some kid after said kid had been “relentlessly” harassing him outside a pool at the Four Seasons in Cleveland on Saturday. The situation then “escalated,” the Cleveland Plain Dealer reports, and Manziel’s entourage then got between Manziel and the instigator, and today, the inevitable hot takes started pouring in:

But there is a down side to wealth and fame, and those who deal with those things well understand that fully and learn to manage it. They learn how to act like an adult and how to carry themselves as professionals.

It’s time for Manziel to learn that.

Because he’s Johnny Manziel, this story will be chalked up to yet another one of his “character issues,” when all he’s mostly been guilty of recently is overreacting to aggressive fans (like in November, when some guy trying to hug Manziel led to a brawl). Just read that Plain Dealer column —there’s like six grafs discussing how he’s “staying out of the spotlight” and his “changed demeanor.”

The implication, in column after column dedicated to how his comeback is “not there yet,” is that this is just yet another item on a laundry list of immature actions holding him back. Maybe! Mostly, he’s just being dumb. Let dumb Johnny Manziel live.

Michael Rosen is a reporter for Fusion based out of Oakland.