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Sports

Maybe Johnny Manziel is Just a Dipshit Who Can't Play Quarterback

Johnny Manziel is in trouble again.

One week after announcing that Johnny Manziel would be the Browns starting quarterback for the remainder of the season, Cleveland head coach Mike Pettine has threatened to bench the former Texas A&M superstar. The reason: a brief video of Manziel holding a bottle of champagne and dancing with a DJ in a club during his bye week. Never mind that he slammed his girlfriend's head into a car window during an argument that began while driving and continued while parked on the side of the road, Johnny doesn't "get it"—"it" meaning possessing the qualities of an anthropomorphic playbook who always Does The Right and Honorable Thing—because he was partying on his bye week. May we offer another reason Johnny doesn't "get it": maybe he's a dipshit who can't play? And maybe the Browns are dipshits for ever thinking he could?

The world—not to mention current NFL rosters—is littered with college stars who couldn't hack it as a professional quarterback, for any number of reasons. Some guys have all the tools and none of the smarts; some have none of the tools and all of the smarts; and others have some other combination of the two, and still can't get out of their own way. Others still don't ever get it, but can somehow still play. Everyone wants their quarterback to be Tom Brady but, thankfully, there's only one of those guys.

The Buffalo Bills selected J.P. Losman with the 22nd pick of a draft that included Ben Roethlisberger, Eli Manning, and Phillip Rivers. He started 33 games over five seasons. Maybe you remember his name. Go look at the quarterbacks who have started games for the New York Jets since 1990. You will read the words "Browning", "Nagle," "Brooks," and "Bollinger" several times.

Ryan Leaf!

Kerry Collins played 16 years in the league, most of them while battling alcoholism. But he threw more touchdowns than interceptions and went to a Super Bowl. Playing quarterback in the NFL is extremely difficult; some guys can do it, and some guys can't. It's entirely possible Johnny Manziel, basically Matt Leinart v2.0, can't hack it as a quarterback because he never could in the first place, not because all his partying means "he doesn't get it."