Johnny Manziel Is Bringing Real Football to Cleveland

The city of Cleveland is in a rebuilding year. Even the mayor said so.

When pressed about a pessimistic economic report for his city, Mayor Frank Jackson dropped the standby line that has placated those downtrodden fanbases for generations. "" he told one prominent financial magazine. "On that road, we might have a year or two here or there, but so what? In the whole scheme of things, it's not that important to me."

And why should it be? Jackson's job, unlike so many in northeastern Ohio today, seems to be safe. The 67-year-old lawyer found his way to the mayor's office in 2005. When he ran for a third term last November, he beat the other guy by nearly a 2-to-1 margin. That's job security.

But Cleveland's NFL team has enjoyed no such stability in its front office, or its sideline, or anywhere except maybe the bottom of the standings of the AFC North division. The franchise has finished last for more than "a year or two here or there." Since their resurrection in 1999, Cleveland has played in 15 NFL seasons, and in 11 of those seasons, they finished in the same place in their division—last.

They are on their third head coach in as many seasons. Their best player from 2013 could be suspended for all of 2014. The brown and orange adornments at 76 Lou Groza Boulevard seem to be forever covered in skies of gray, but the clouds may be lifting because He has come.

Now the Cleveland Browns have Johnny Manziel.

For the only NFL team without logos on their helmets, the Texas A&M rookie could finally give the Browns an identity like every other franchise seems to have. Luckily enough for Cleveland, based on Manziel's sinking to them to the 22nd overall pick in April's draft, it's an identity that no other franchise seemed to want.

Forget, for a second, about whatever kind of career the 2012 Heisman Trophy winner might have in the NFL. Pundits have talking heads have concerns about Manziel's play, his unimpressive height, his unwillingness to sit in the pocket, sure. Browns fans could be forgiven for spelling out "Any Given Sunday" with an asterisk. Not only have they been so bad for so long, but they've been pretty boring, too. Manziel is anything but, and suddenly Cleveland finds itself at the epicenter of the NFL's offseason hype.

And it started quickly. Browns season tickets and MANZIEL No. 2 jerseys were scooped up in the immediate hours after Manziel's name was called. And whether or not the story of that text from Manziel to a Cleveland assistant coach actually happened, it adds to the Johnny Football mythos.

Calling Manziel a legend now seems only slightly ridiculous. of his Memorial Day weekend trip to Las Vegas made him out to be equal parts Jersey Shore and Paul Bunyan. In lieu of Babe the blue ox were a handful of attractive 20-something women, just thrilled to be in the presence of one of the newest Cleveland Browns.

That alone, that vibe of having the gridiron's answer to Justin Bieber, makes the Browns relevant again. Manziel makes this team interesting. Because he is interesting. More to the point, he's willing to not pretend that he isn't interesting. Johnny Fucking Football is giving us that peek behind the curtain of a pro athlete's life that we've always wanted to see (enough already, Gronk).

So let's stop here and ask the question: why doesn't he have the reality show? With all due respect to Michael Sam and his personal journey, if we could follow around an NFL rookie for a full season, wouldn't we be following the quarterback with the weight of a city on his back and half the women in Vegas around his neck?

Until it was postponed, the Sam documentary series on OWN was being criticized as something that would distract a team with playoff inspirations, and all this before Sam has or hasn't even made the team yet. Still, credit Oprah and Roger Goodell deserve some credit for not being denied an opportunity to showcase some inclusiveness that casts the league in positive mainstream light ().

Sam's and Manziel's respective situations are very much apples and oranges. One is breaking ground for those of a certain sexual orientation. The other is just getting his rocks off in his own, relatively undignified way. Manziel's the guy I'd want to follow around.

The Browns brass, who haven't been in Cleveland for much longer than Manziel has, have come to terms with the player that they drafted. "There's definitely a benefit to allowing Johnny [to] be Johnny," general manager Ray Farmer a Cleveland-area radio station. "Inevitably you have to take a little bit of the edge off of somebody so that they can then start to really hit it as an NFL quarterback and attain greatness."

This second iteration of the Cleveland Browns has been notable, if not for its ineptitude, for its lack of star power. With the first overall pick in 1999, then-new Browns general manager Dwight Clark brought Kentucky quarterback Tim Couch up I-71 from Lexington. Five years later, Couch was out of Cleveland and would never play for another NFL team. That was the closest the Browns came to having a player with a prominent national profile, until they fell backassward into employing Josh Gordon and Jordan Cameron, the two players Manziel will be targeting a lot whenever he makes his way under center.

One could argue that Manziel, who will wear the same No. 2 that Couch wore, has no reason to enslave himself to such miserable tradition. But Manziel as a football franchise Ghandi is far from a sure thing. The learning curve is, as it is for any other rookie, steep, especially for a quarterback—who, according to , only attended 60 percent of his teams meetings. Not 60 percent of his classes at Texas A&M—60 percent of his football meetings, where the majority of football business is being handled. Classroom work and film study are vital to the development of any NFL rookie, especially one who earned his salt in college by pulling touchdowns out of his ass.

The scout's verdict is as clear as it is damning. "Arrogant and full of himself…Will never take football seriously enough for our coaching staff."

Hey, the Patriot Way's not for everyone. That's not to say Johnny Manziel won't be trouble, but this is a fun kind of "trouble" that the NFL enjoys. For a league that drags its feet when dealing with Ray Rice's ugly Ike Turner moment from February and the discovery of Aldon Smith's doomsday bunker from last September, to say nothing of Colts owner Jim Irsay and his public bout with substance abuse, Manziel, brings a more playful set of quirks to the table. Oh, he likes to hang out with girls? You don't say. He used a fake ID around College Station? Well I never… Nobody will be taking Manziel to task for such minor indiscretions (until they do, of course).

Even ESPN's troll in residence Skip Bayless is gushing over the prospect of Manziel in the NFL. "," Bayless wrote before the draft, "And Bill O'Brien, who has never been head coach for a down of NFL football, dug in and concluded Manziel was too short and too Hollywood and too headstrong for him, I'd thank my new coach and fire him. Manziel is far, far more valuable."

The words revolving around Manziel the most could have been yanked straight from a Franklin Covey book. Confidence. Inspiration. Leadership. A certain magic to him. Nobody was calling Andrew Luck magical. If the NFL doesn't work out for Manziel, he might have a future as a unicorn.

It's the effort where the wily Texan will have to shore up his game, especially if he wants to see the field. Sitting in front of him on the depth chart is Brian Hoyer, a ninth-year pro with no overwhelming physical gifts, but a ninth-year pro who impressed in limited action last year. After Brandon Weeden suffered a thumb injury, Hoyer took over, winning all three of his starts as QB1 before suffering a torn ACL.

But even if Hoyer stays healthy in 2014, his replacement-level tangibles probably won't be enough to keep Manziel on the bench for an entire season, especially since the incumbent will likely open Week 1 without Josh Gordon, adding pressure to the front office's plan to wait before unleashing the JFF Experience on the league..

Gordon, it should be pointed out, is really blowing holes in the theory that smoking marijuana isn't addictive. Gordon, who was kicked out of Baylor after failing two drug tests, already served a two-game suspension last season for failing his second test administered by the NFL. Apparently, the third time's the charm, since Gordon is now . Pending appeal, Gordon would be kicked out of the NFL, and not eligible for reinstatement before 2015.

Climbing up the depth chart is something Manziel hasn't done since his sophomore year, when he for Tivy High School in dinky little Kerrville, Texas. But if JFF does find himself under center, he'll have to win that elusive level-up achievement known as The Respect Of His Teammates, one of which is Browns running back Ben Tate.

"I feel like [Manziel gets too much attention]," Tate . "He hasn't played a down in the NFL yet. So … I don't know … That's for y'all to figure out."

But nothing delivers respect like winning, and if Manziel is successful early, Mike Pettine will have to figure out how to keep his quarterback corralled, and not just off the field. Ole Miss and Duke aren't on Cleveland's schedule this year, and if Manziel tries to tuck and run in the way he did against those school while at Texas A&M, he could be finishing 2014 the way Hoyer finished 2013—on injured reserve.

That said, whoever gets the Week 1 nod will have some weapons. Cameron seems poised for another monster year after catching 80 balls last season. The offensive line, anchored by Pro Bowlers Joe Thomas and Alex Mack, could be the best in the division. Tate gives the Browns a more consistent threat from the backfield. The pieces are there for Cleveland to be positioning for the present.

But flip on any pregame show and you'll hear someone say it: the NFL today is a quarterback's league. The Cleveland Browns got themselves a good one who also doubles as a budding folk hero. The Browns and Johnny Manziel will be wrecking the league together soon, as they should. It's time to let some of these other teams start rebuilding.

Josh is a freelance sportswriter, analyst and host. You may know him from such websites as Deadspin, Kissing Suzy Kolber, With Leather, WashingtonPost.com, and Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter @JoshZerkle.