Johnny Manziel's Benching About a Breach of Trust, Not Partying

When Cleveland Browns head coach Mike Pettine named quarterback Johnny Manziel as the team's starter for the remainder of the season on Nov. 17, he essentially said to Manziel, "We trust you." But it didn't take even a week for Manziel to violate that trust and be demoted—not just to second string but to the No. 3 spot at the position.

The breach of trust in question came the following weekend, during the Browns' bye week. Just days after Manziel promised his coaches and his team he would stay out of the public eye and avoid drawing negative attention to himself—and saying so publicly—a video surfaced, shared by TMZ, of him partying in Austin, Texas.

But it wasn't just or specifically Manziel's partying that saw him benched. Though not a promising development given the time Manziel spent in rehab earlier this year, it was reportedly his denial of the video being current, his instruction to his friends to deny the freshness of the video to the Browns' brass and the outright lying he did to try to cover his tracks that ultimately doomed him, according to Jay Glazer of Fox Sports.

Pettine said so himself when pressed about the reasons behind Manziel's benching, saying on Wednesday, "When you have a great opportunity in front of you it is important that you demonstrate that you can handle the responsibility that comes with it. I can't emphasize enough the importance of the trust and the accountability piece. This is where we had an obvious shortcoming."

He never specifically referenced partying or drinking being the issue but rather the lying and lack of trustworthiness. This was echoed in the comments of Manziel's teammates Joe Thomas and Brian Hartline, with the former saying, per Cleveland.com, "I think it's probably more than what you see on the surface from a TMZ report or whatever report." The latter added, "I'm just saying that it's an in-house thing that kind of spills outside because Johnny is Johnny."

When Manziel said, "I let [Pettine] know that I am not going to do anything that is going to be a distraction to this team or be an embarrassment to the organization. That was the thing he stressed to me as well. He stressed that back. ... I don't think you have to worry about me this week," Pettine held Manziel to it. After all, "words into action" has been Pettine's refrain this year.

That Manziel could not keep his promises, follow rules he agreed to and breached the trust of not just his coaches but also his teammates are the reasons behind his benching. It wasn't how Manziel violated the trust; it's simply that he did.

That's the "in-house" issue Hartline was describing; Manziel's lack of accountability is something he and other Browns players have likely seen frequently from the quarterback, and it finally boiled over in a big way after Manziel was named as the face of the franchise. The promotion, the bye week, the promises in private meetings and public press conferences were tests, and Manziel failed.

Though it's certainly concerning to see Manziel in some degree back to his old ways, Pettine's discipline isn't about saying when and where Manziel can consume alcohol and whether he can have a bit of fun during his time off. It's about Pettine specifically asking Manziel to heed his requests, Manziel specifically saying he will and then choosing to do the opposite.

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Lying and broken promises are reasons enough for Manziel to no longer be Cleveland's starting quarterback. If the coaches have no trust in him, then how are his teammates going to trust him? And what message would it send to the locker room if the coaches claimed to hold Manziel to a specific set of standards and then, when he breaches them, look the other way? 

While Manziel has clearly made on-field progress and seems, by all accounts, to be working far harder on his craft than a year ago, Pettine has noted on-field performance alone does not a starting quarterback make.

"It is not just about talent," said Pettine. "It is not just about what you do on the field. To be successful at the position requires a great understanding of what is involved in the non-physical aspects—the leadership, the trust, the accountability, responsibility, the diligence."

Pettine had hoped Manziel possessed these qualities. But based on last weekend, and how Manziel handled the situation, Manziel still has quite a ways to go before he's the type of quarterback Pettine and the Browns (and likely many organizations around the NFL) deem worthy of being a starter.

Every coach in the league has rules his players must abide by—for example, as reported by TMZ, Dallas Cowboys head coach Jason Garrett recently cut two players for not wearing suits to a road game, something he requires. Players may find these rules silly or stupid, but they're still the laws of their land, and they must be followed.

It doesn't matter whether Pettine told Manziel not to create a negative scene during the bye week or not to buy a teddy bear—if he breaks the rules, he suffers the consequences. And the consequences are understandably more severe for a quarterback, particularly one such as Manziel, whom the Browns have likely been trying to hammer the concept of responsibility into for well over a year now, and who still clearly just doesn't get it.

Manziel has an uphill climb ahead of him to regain the trust of his coaches and teammates. As Pettine said, "We tell our players, 'You lose trust in buckets and you regain it in drops. I think that certainly applies here."

Whether he regains it in time to remain a Browns quarterback, we do not know. Pettine called the situation a "hurdle" for Manziel and "not a dead end."

But Manziel's inability to abide by team rules is a sign the dead end could be approaching; this likely isn't the first time something like this has happened with Manziel. He must work, though, to make sure it's the last, or else his chances for redemption could be running out.