Sports

Did A Text From Manziel Influence Browns To Draft Him?

Johnny Manziel reportedly sent the Browns QB coach a text asking them to draft him.

Did A Text From Manziel Influence Browns To Draft Him?
The Plain Dealer / John Kuntz
SMS

Exactly why the Cleveland Browns settled on quarterback Johnny Manziel in the NFL draft appears to be anything but traditional.

It's now been revealed a simple text message from Manziel might've convinced the Browns to trade up for him at 22nd overall. (Via ESPN

Browns quarterbacks coach Dowell Loggains went on radio program "Sports Talk with Bo Mattingly" and said this: "We're sitting there, and they keep showing Johnny on TV. And Johnny and I are texting, and he shoots me a text and he says: 'I wish you guys would come get me. Hurry up and draft me because I want to be there. I want to wreck this league together.'"

From there, Loggains reportedly forwarded the text onto Browns owner Jim Haslam, and the team pulled the trigger on making a trade-up and picking Johnny Football. (Via New York Daily News

All this, if true, would add to the already odd reasons why Cleveland picked him. 

A writer for Deadspin says, ​"Between this story and the one about Jimmy Haslam consulting a homeless man, the Browns' war room comes across as one that was making [stuff] up as it went along."

You might remember, shortly after Manziel was drafted there was this report from ESPN stating Haslam was convinced to draft Johnny Football after a homeless man told him to. 

All in all, seems it's quite the unconventional way of drafting an equally unconventional quarterback.