On Dec. 23, a Tuesday in the final week of the season, Manziel stood in front of about 20 media members and outlined his plan to become the Browns' answer at quarterback. He wanted to be "the guy" for Cleveland, he said, and would do so by taking his job more seriously in the offseason. He was more animated than he'd been all year, eager to declare his intentions.
But four days later, the day before the Browns' season finale on Dec. 28, stories in the Browns' facility began to circulate. That morning the Browns were packing up to head to Baltimore, but Manziel was not present for the walk-through. Team security drove to Manziel's downtown home to check on him.
Two team sources said security found a player who they felt clearly had partied hard the night before. One source used the words "drunk off his a--."
The official word was that Manziel was "late," but players said they didn't see Manziel until the Browns' chartered airplane prepared to take off in the afternoon and that he was not present all morning. The team fined Manziel for missing treatment on his injured hamstring, then had him sit in the locker room during the season finale that Sunday against the Ravens.
"Johnny's his own worst enemy," one source said.
Manziel had another news conference the next day, saying many of the same things from six days earlier: Actions must support words. He was featured in Instagram photos that night on Miami Beach, a few days later at a club in Houston and a few days after that on a mountain in Aspen, Colorado.