Star QB's Secret Draft Strategy: Text the Coach

And it worked for Johnny Manziel, now with Cleveland
By Matt Cantor,  Newser Staff
Posted May 17, 2014 2:02 PM CDT
Johnny Manziel's Text to Browns: 'Hurry Up and Draft Me'
In this pool photo provided by the Cleveland Browns, quarterback Johnny Manziel talks with reporters after a workout at NFL football rookie minicamp at the team's facility in Berea, Ohio.   (AP Photo/Cleveland Browns, John Reid, Pool)

Johnny Manziel, who in 2012 became the first freshman to earn the Heisman Trophy, didn't want to wait around during the NFL draft. So he texted the Cleveland Browns' quarterbacks coach, Dowell Loggains, asking him to "hurry up and draft me because I want to be there. I want to wreck this league together." Loggains told the story this week on Sports Talk with Bo Mattingly in Arkansas, cleveland.com reports. "When I got that text, I forwarded it to the owner and to the head coach," Loggains said. "I'm like, 'this guy wants to be here.'" That's when owner Jimmy Haslam "said, 'Pull the trigger. We're trading up to go get this guy.''' The team did so, trading up to No. 22 from No. 26. Manziel's new jersey is already the best-selling NFL jersey since April 1, USA Today notes. (More Johnny Manziel stories.)

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