If this whole football thing doesn’t end up working out, Johnny Manziel has a pretty good fallback option. The San Diego Padres drafted Manziel with the 837th pick in the MLB Draft this afternoon (via Twitter). The Browns rookie quarterback is listed as a shortstop.
According to USA Today’s Nick Schwartz, Manziel played a bit of baseball in high school, so the drafting is not completely random. The quarterback also threw out the first pitch at a Padres game last season.
As ESPN Stats & Info pointed out on Twitter, it’s unlikely Manziel will ever make the major league level (and it has nothing to do with his career in the NFL) – no 837th pick has ever played in an MLB game.
Let’s see what else is going on in Cleveland…
- After being “blindsided” by the organization over his firing in February, former CEO Joe Banner is unsure whether he’ll return to the NFL. “I’m not going to do anything for now, and whether or not I’m going to come back and do something in football is up in the air,” Banner told Mary Kay Cabot of Cleveland.com.
- Wide receiver Nate Burleson says injuries were the main reason why the Lions let him go, write Chris McCosky of The Detroit News. The veteran adds that he considered retiring and was close to accepting a job with one of the large television networks as an analyst.
- If the Browns decide to trade embattled star wideout Josh Gordon, ESPN.com’s Pat McManamon isn’t convinced the team would even receive a draft pick in return. He refers to the Randy Moss trade in 2007, when the Patriots sent the Raiders a fourth-round pick.