Former Browns GM takes blame for drafting Johnny Manziel

Johnny Manziel is no longer a member of the Cleveland Browns, and the team’s former general manager is accepting the blame for drafting him.

The post-Johnny Manziel era has begun in the city of Cleveland, as it has been almost two months since the Cleveland Browns let go their quarterback who was taken two years ago with high hopes of leading the team to the playoffs for years to come.

While you can safely say that the two-year “Manziel experiment” was a complete and total bust, there has been very little public comment from those who were responsible for making the decision to bring Johnny Football to Northeast Ohio in the first place.

The team’s former general manager, Ray Farmer, went on CBS Sports Radio this week and spoke about what went into the decision to take Johnny Manziel. At first, he was quick to say that the pick is a team decision before acknowledging that the final blame will be placed on him:

"“There are very few decisions made in anybody’s draft in a vacuum. The GM very, very, very rarely says ‘Hey I’m taking this guy and there’s nothing anybody else can say about it. The head coach doesn’t do it, the owner doesn’t do it. In that case, I would tell you that there were a lot of conversations that happened and the selection was made.”“It’s the reality of the National Football League that whoever gets selected, that name is going to get attributed to the general manager, whether he selected that guy or not. So for good, worse, better, doesn’t really matter, Johnny Manziel is mine and I have to own it.”"

Manziel is still a free agent looking for a team that wants his “talents” for the 2016 season, but he has more important issues to deal with. He was recently indicted for a domestic violence incident involving an ex-girlfriend in late January near Dallas, Texas.

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