Manziel on fight: Accosted by 'very intoxicated, very aggressive person'
Cleveland Browns rookie quarterback Johnny Manziel has told his side of the incident involving him, his entourage and the fan who reportedly asked Johnny Football for a hug.
Police intervened in the incident, which turned aggressive at an apartment party last weekend, Manziel — who was not directly involved in the scrap with the fan — said Friday that he and his friends were a victim of a drunk and overbearing fan.
"... At this point in the night this was a very intoxicated, very aggressive person that approached me in the lobby, putting his hands on me, kind of toying with me as I got back, just kind of trying to kind my own business and get upstairs to my room," Manziel said, per the Cleveland Plain Dealer. "As this man kept attempting to come at me, just being extremely aggressive, and as we tried to coax him into getting into his elevator and going on about the night, the guy got very aggressive and luckily for us ... security was able to get things under wraps."
Manziel disputed that he was rolling deep that night with an entourage, explaining that the group he was with was much smaller.
"[He] came at my roommate. It all happened very fast," he said. "There was no entourage with me. I was with one other person and my mother was upstairs, so it's about as much entourage as you get being with my mom.
"As it escalated and it got a little out of control, security got it under wraps and I was able to get up into my room."
Per to the Plain Dealer report, Manziel's face showed no signs of beating, which would dispute the account of Chris Gonos, the man who approached Manziel and said he "smashed" Manziel's face. Manziel would not say if any of Gonos' punches hit him, or whether he threw any punches at the fan himself. Gonos had claimed that Manziel sucker punched his brother.
Manziel said neither he nor roommate Dana Kirk plan to press charges at this time and that he expected the security video to corroborate Manziel's account of the story.
Browns head coach Mike Pettine has said that, "barring unforeseen circumstances," the incident will not have an effect on Manziel's playing time. That time lately has been zilch, so, yeah.