ESPN talk show host Skip Bayless claimed on Monday's edition of "First Take" that Cleveland Browns rookie quarterback Johnny Manziel has an alcohol problem and needs help.
The eyebrow raising comments came after Manziel reportedly threw a party on Friday night before the Browns final football game Sunday against the Baltimore Ravens, causing him to miss treatment for an injury the next morning and two other players to be disciplined,
according to USA Today.
Josh Gordon was suspended from the team while and Justin Gilbert was deactivated for the final game, noted the newspaper. The Ravens beat the Browns 20-10 on Sunday. That brought Monday's "First Take" response from Bayless.
"My concern, I repeatedly said, was if Johnny continues to demonstrate that he has a problem with alcohol, and a problem with alcohol leading to partying and all that that entails, then I'm going to be out," Bayless told co-host Stephen A. Smith about the former Heisman Trophy winner from Texas A&M on according to USA Today.
"I'm going to be off the bandwagon. I will no longer support a kid that I do like personally, and I have come to that point Stephen A. In talking to people in and around the Cleveland Browns, I believe Johnny Manziel continues to have a problem with alcohol. And I believe, Stephen A., that it is time for Johnny to get some help. He continues to lie to his executives, to his coaches, to his teammates, to the media, and most of all, he continues to lie to himself."
TMZ reported Monday that Manziel ran up a tab of nearly $1,000 drinking vodka and champagne with a small group at a Cleveland bar. Sources told the celebrity website he was out until about 1:30 a.m. in the morning.
Mary Kay Cabot, the Browns beat writer for the Cleveland Plain Dealer, tweeted Manziel's explanation of his Friday night snafu to reporters on Monday.
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