Johnny Manziel vows to mature: "The money sign will not be back"
By JOHN DORN
Here lies Johnny Football. We knew ye far too well.
After packing more drama into his rookie season than some players do in entire careers, Johnny Manziel has vowed -- again -- to clean up his act. No more nicknames, no more money sign celebrations. For now, at least.
In a video interview with Cleveland.com, Manziel wouldn't elaborate on his offseason rehab stay, but did admit that he himself bought into the Johnny Football hype, and it affected his performance.
"I think it just overtook who I was as a person too," he said. "I think at times Johnny Football probably took over me a little bit and I bought into that. Like I said, I think I didn't do my best to hush things down, push down the hype."
The 22-year-old said he felt bad about his teammates having to constantly address his own behaviors. More from the on-field interview:
It's not fair for Joe Haden to be having to answer questions about me every day. It's not fair for Joe Thomas and all these guys to just continue to have questions asked about me. I don't think that's fair at all, and I don't want that on them. That's part of the reason why I'm up here today, to finally get me out here and get me answering these questions because I don't think it's fair for them.
He also addressed the question the entire world deserves to know: Why should we believe him this time?
"I think it's actions. actions speak way louder than words. so as much as I may have intended to do some of those things last year and really, truly wanted to, I don't feel like I was in a position personally and now I think I'm doing the right things and taking the right steps necessary for me to put myself in the best position possible to be exactly what this organization drafted me to be.
So there you have it. Johnny Football is no more -- for better or for worse. Heading into training camp, Manziel sits at second on the depth chart behind newly added Josh McCown. He certainly has plenty of work to do to win over the Browns organization, just one year after being selected in the first round of the draft.
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