Browns Owner: Manziel Will Be a Back-Up

Just call him Johnny Blue Collar.

Johnny Manziel's boss, Cleveland Browns owner Jimmy Haslam, made it perfectly clear that the newly crowned king of Cleveland will have to earn his position.

"Brian Hoyer is the starting quarterback. It's his job to lose," Haslam said to the Cleveland Plain Dealer.

Hoyer replaced Brandon Weeden in 2013 and was 3-0 as the Browns starter before tearing his ACL in Week 5.

Any ideas Manziel had about coming in and being the starting quarterback right away was put to rest, at least for now.

But why even pick the guy if you not going to let him play right away? And did Haslem actually order his war room brain trust to draft Mr Football over Teddy Bridgewater?

Well, you heard him.

"We were frank with [Manziel] on Friday that's the expectation. You're the backup quarterback," Haslam said. "This is a hard-working, blue-collar town; this isn't Hollywood. We want you to come in and go to work."

Well, it's a hard-working, blue -collar town seeking a winner, too. Browns fans bought season tickets with higher expectations than they've had in recent seasons. If Hoyer doesn't get the job done in a hurry, they're going to want Johnny Football at the helm.

As they should. Drafting Manziel is like buying a new Corvette and not driving it. Haslam can say he wants Maziel to start out as the back-up, but that won't last very long. All Hoyer has to do is have a bad half.

Wasn't the purpose of drafting Manziel to bring excitement back to the franchise? I'm sure part of this was to calm him down, try to make him focus on football, and possibly remind the fans that it's not all that easy for a quarterback to jump straight from college to the pro game.

But you know as well as I do that Manziel will be out in clubs and bars around Cleveland, partying his patootie off, and if Haslam ithinks he won't, he's either stupid or crazy.

He and the rest of Cleveland need to get ready, because it's all part of the experience that's known as Johnny Football.