Brian Orakpo let Johnny Manziel have it in Monday’s preseason match between the Washington Redskins and Cleveland Browns. After teammate Ryan Kerrigan took Manziel down for a sack, Orakpo mimicked Manziel’s famous ‘money sign’.
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While Manziel claims he didn’t notice the gesture, it was a finger-long gesture of his own that drew plenty of eyes, including those of Orakpo, who only laughed it off.
“It was hilarious,” Orakpo said per the Cleveland Plain Dealer. “We were messing with him a little bit, just saying this ain’t college and stuff like that. We were having a little fun. Manziel flipped us off. It was something funny. We were all laughing on the sidelines.”
It’s a defensive player’s dream to get such a rise out of a quarterback. While Manziel knows all the right things to say off the field, his fiery demeanor on the field has opened him up to additional aggravation from defenders in his limited time in the NFL.
This latest incident will only make defenders try harder to get under Manziel’s skin in future games.
Of course, nagging defenders may be the least of Manziel’s concerns at this time. His head coach is peeved by his gesture and his performance against Washington didn’t lend itself to a must-start status for Week 1 against the Pittsburgh Steelers.
If the saying, ‘the hardest metal is forged from the hottest fire’ then Johnny Manziel is going to leave this preseason sitting atop the Iron Throne.
The best way to cool himself off is to go back out on the field next week and create more scoring drives for the Browns.