It was thought at one time not that long ago that quarterback Johnny Manziel would someday be throwing touchdown passes to wide receiver Josh Gordon.
Manziel would use his quickness to scramble around to buy time until he could stop, plant his feet and throw home-run balls to a streaking Gordon.
Those two young guys would lift the Browns out of the doldrums.
But now it is a certainty that will never happen — not in Cleveland at least.
The two players remain property of the Browns, but Manziel will soon be jettisoned, likely on March 9 as NFL free agency begins. From a first round pick in the 2014 NFL Draft to out on the street less than two years later, his is arguably the greatest and quickest fall from grace in team history, and perhaps even in NFL history. It’s been numbing to watch.
As for Gordon, he hopes to eventually be reinstated by the league and, if the stars all align in just the right way, play for the Browns this season.
Both have had their off-the-field troubles. They are well-documented. So why, then, are the Browns so anxious to get rid of Manziel and so determined to hold onto Gordon?
OK, other than the reason Gordon is so much better than Manziel.
It’s not that hard to figure out.
Manziel doesn’t appear to care about doing the right thing and getting his life in order. He continues to party in a very public and many times seemingly out-of-control fashion, and police in his home state of Texas are now investigating his alleged involvement in a possible domestic abuse incident. That takes his dysfunctional behavior up – or, as it were, down — to an entirely new level.
He’s an embarrassment to himself, his family and friends and the Brown. Bringing him back into that locker room would serve no useful purpose to anyone. It would expose to his soon-to-be former teammates to the cancer Manziel has become.
He needs help the kind of which the NFL can’t give him. He needs it from trained professionals. Indeed, the last thing he should be worried about right now is football. His are potentially life-threatening problems.
As for Gordon, he is no angel, either, as he continues to battle substance abuse problems that date all the way back to his college days. He sat out all of 2015 for violating the NFL’s substance abuse policy.
But here’s the difference: Gordon at least appears to want to get his life straightened around. He now seems to be doing the right things in hopes of proving to the NFL that he is worthy of reinstatement – worthy of getting another chance.
Whether Gordon gets that chance, and if he does get it, whether he can make the most of it by keeping himself clean, remains to be seen. This problem has kept getting the best of him, but it is hoped that his year away from football, with no guarantee that he will play again anywhere in the league, has made him finally – and seriously — confront his issues head-on and as such has made him more determined than ever to win this battle.
That’s in stark contrast to Manziel, who seems content to let his issues bury him alive.
Neither player can go back in time and erase the mistakes they’ve made. All they can control is to do better from this point forward, and in that regard, betting on Gordon has a much, much, much better chance of paying off for the Browns.
