Ed Puskas: Don’t blame it all on Johnny Football

There is a story about former Cleveland Browns coach Paul Brown and his team taking a bus from a hotel to a stadium.

Somewhere along the way, the driver got lost and eventually admitted he had no idea where they were and how to get where they should have been going.

Brown — as you might suspect — lost his patience. But always the pragmatist, the future Pro Football Hall of Famer told the driver:

“I don’t blame you. I blame the guy who hired you.”

In Brown’s day, the Cleveland Browns were the New York Yankees of the NFL, or so I’m told. I didn’t get to experience the Paul Brown Browns, thanks to perhaps the first of a series of incredibly bad decisions by then-owner Art Modell.

Other highlights from Modell (motto: “I don’t have as much money as most owners, but I’ll make up for that by wasting it and hiring bad people”) included trading Paul Warfield, firing Marty Schottenheimer and signing Andre Rison.

Oh, and moving the Browns to Baltimore.

But Johnny Manziel and the circus the Browns are today?

Can’t blame Modell for that, but we can blame current owner Jimmy Haslam, who clearly bought into the Johnny Football hype when Manziel was wrecking the SEC. The Browns traded up in the 2014 draft to get the diminutive quarterback, but have only series of embarrassing moments — and a few highlights this season — to show for selecting him head of Teddy Bridgewater and Derek Carr.

It isn’t just that Manziel’s skill set was questionable for the NFL. It’s that his head was questionable. Manziel’s decision-making — specifically off the field — has left something to be desired going back years.

Maybe that’s understandable. How many college-age kids always make the right choices, especially those in the hot glow of the athletic and social spotlights?

Fair enough. But had the Browns done their homework in 2014, they’d have realized how immature he really was.

Homework? Ha! Let’s wreck this league!

Manziel was woefully unprepared for the job and eventually spent 70 days of his offseason in rehab.

He made strides on Sundays this season, but still clearly has issues being a professional the other six days of the week.

Manziel was demoted to third string Tuesday in the wake of another embarrassing video. It was a rollercoaster day for me as a Browns fan and a journalist.

Part of me felt — and still does — that Manziel is caught between coaches who don't want him and a front office that forced him on them. And that he’s entitled to have some fun.

Another part of me felt that even at 22 — when most of us still struggle with making the right reads on and off the field — Manziel owes the Browns his best effort seven days a week. Even in a bye week.

But I don’t blame Johnny Football. I blame the guys who hired him — Haslam and soon-to-be-unemployed Browns general manager Ray Farmer.

They knew what they were getting and even if they didn’t know all of it, they came to feel — mistakenly, of course — they could change Manziel.

They say history repeats itself and it’s true.

This time, Farmer and Haslam are driving the bus and they’re both lost.

Write Vindicator Sports Editor Ed Puskas at epuskas@vindy.com and follow him on Twitter, @EdPuskas_Vindy.