Sports
Johnny Manziel praises Shedeur Sanders’ Browns approach after stellar preseason debut: ‘Continue to grind’
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Johnny Manziel was once in Shedeur Sanders‘ shoes – a Cleveland Browns quarterback with high expectations and a national spotlight.
Manziel was a Browns first-round pick in 2014 with the entire city of Cleveland hoping “Johnny Football” could spring life into a franchise desperate for consistency at the quarterback position.
NFL fans know how that ultimately played out for the Browns and Manziel, but the 2012 Heisman Trophy winner has loads of optimism for Sanders, a fifth-round pick, as he embarks on his first season in the league.
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Former Texas A&M and Cleveland Browns quarterback Johnny Manziel looks on prior to the game against the Texas Longhorns. (Maria Lysaker/Imagn Images)
“I think everything he’s done since he’s gotten to Cleveland has been exactly what he should be doing,” Manziel told Fox News Digital about Sanders, while also discussing his partnership with Sling TV.
“Obviously, a crowded quarterback room. I think a lot of people, at least for me, enjoyed watching Shedeur play in college. I also really liked watching [Browns third-round pick] Dillon Gabriel play in college. I think the guy has a lot of talent, a great arm. So, I think for [Sanders], continue to go through this preseason. Try to get better week in and week out, and if they name you the starter, amazing. If you’re the [No.] 2, amazing. If you’re the [No.] 3, whatever. Sit there and continue to grind, learn the offense, and continue to try to get more comfortable, and good things will happen.”
EX-NBA PLAYER MAKES SHEDEUR SANDERS-LEBRON JAMES COMPARISON AFTER QB’S PRESEASON DEBUT
While Manziel and others have said before the start of training camp that Sanders could win the job, it’s expected that Joe Flacco, the longtime veteran quarterback, will begin the season as the Browns’ starter under center.
But all the talk around the Browns after their first preseason game last week was about Sanders, as he was named the starter by head coach Kevin Stefanski and played well into the third quarter.
Sanders went 14-for-23 passing for 138 yards and two touchdowns, flashing his signature touchdown celebration along the way to a 30-10 victory against the Carolina Panthers.
It’s a performance like this that has Manziel reminiscing about the NFL Draft back in April, and how Sanders fell into Day 3 and the fifth round before Cleveland scooped him up.
Cleveland Browns quarterback Shedeur Sanders (12) throws against the Carolina Panthers during the second quarter at Bank of America Stadium. (Scott Kinser/USA Today Network via Imagn Images)
“I didn’t think there was any way he was getting past Day 2. You’re just sitting there and this guy’s getting billed as somebody who’s getting taken in the first round and this and that. Wild to see, but you get into a position that is in need of a quarterback, right? You have a vet in Joe Flacco, you got two rookies that are in there, and Kenny Pickett. I’m sure they’re going into that quarterback room and being like, ‘Listen, you guys go out every day and battle for this. We’re going to mix up reps, we’re going to give somebody something this day and that day.’”
Manziel added how he thinks it’s funny to see fans clamoring over reports from the Cleveland media about which quarterback threw the most touchdowns or had the best day on the practice field.
“In the grand scheme of things, it’s all bulls— until you get to the real game, and real bullets are flying,” Manziel said. “I’ve been having a good laugh seeing the practice statistics pop up.”
But once again, Manziel knows how much the media can play a part in the perception of a player and a team. While many think about New York, Los Angeles or Boston media when it comes to sports, Manziel explained why he thinks Cleveland is also a tough place to impress.
Cleveland Browns quarterback Shedeur Sanders (12) at the line of scrimmage in the third quarter at Bank of America Stadium. (Bob Donnan/Imagn Images)
“I think people who have covered that team for years and years and years have dealt with the highs of having high expectations going into a season, and seeing them crumble,” he said. “There hasn’t been the success there that they want, so of course, it’s been extremely frustrating. Of course, it’s a tough media place to be in when you’re not winning games when you feel like you should be, especially when you have good pieces on the team.
“The one thing that I do know about [Sanders], and Deion, knowing him through the years, he’s going to be prepared for that. He’s going to have the right answers for it. He’s going to be able to weather the storm. It’s one of those things where you go out and have a nine-, 10-, 11-win season, those questions will start to feel more warm and fuzzy for sure.”
Sanders is unlikely to follow up his first taste of the NFL with any great performance after suffering an oblique injury at Browns practice this week. Cleveland takes on the Philadelphia Eagles for their second preseason game on Saturday night.
As someone who was once in his shoes, Johnny Manziel believes Shedeur Sanders is doing all the right things as a Cleveland Browns QB. (Getty)
A DIFFERENT WAY TO WATCH FOOTBALL
Manziel partnered with Sling TV, a subsidiary of DISH Network Corporation, to promote a different way to watch football this season – one that truly taks the consumer into consideration.
Sling TV is offering three new streaming subscription packages: Day Pass for instant 24-hour access, Weekend Pass, which grants Friday-through-Sunday access, and Week Pass for a full seven-days worth of access.
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When it comes to football, especially on the college level, not all fans want to pay a premium for games they won’t watch. Manziel loves that he can pick and choose the right streaming subscription with Sling TV to satisfy his watching needs.
“I get these notifications on my phone that say, ‘You get charged X amount for this or that.’ I’m like, ‘Man, I’m just trying to watch ball.’ To have something start at $4.99, and you pick which one you want – you want a day, a week, a weekend. Being an SEC guy through and through, I think for me, it makes it easy for me to watch whatever I want whenever I want and it’s really easy. You don’t have to sit there with overhead or anything else going on. For me, I don’t think it can be any better.”
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In the latest gambling scandal to rock sports, a federal indictment accuses bettors and athletes of “point-shaving” in NCAA and Chinese Basketball Association games.
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NCAA president responds to integrity concerns after alleged point-shaving scheme leads to dozens of arrests
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The NCAA said that protecting the “integrity” of its athletics is “of the utmost importance” for the organization after at least 26 people were charged Thursday in connection with fixed college basketball games, and urged states to “ban risky bets.”
Prosecutors said the alleged participants bribed Chinese Basketball Association players in 2022 “to underperform and help ensure their team failed to cover the spread in certain games and then, through various sports books, arranged for large wagers to be placed on those games against that team.”
The following year, the participants allegedly expanded their scheme to the NCAA, recruiting players and paying bribes between $10,000 and $30,000 per game.
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NCAA President Charlie Baker and Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Campbell announce a gambling prevention program aimed at kids during a press conference at TD Garden. The program includes a school curriculum on the risks of gambling that will be rolled out to schools statewide, as well as new money towards research to understand the scope of the problem. (Matthew J. Lee/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)
According to the indictment, more than 39 players on 17 different teams attempted to fix more than 29 NCAA Division I men’s basketball games, including conference tournament contests. The organizers of the alleged scheme placed wagers totaling millions of dollars.
“Protecting competition integrity is of the utmost importance for the NCAA. We are thankful for law enforcement agencies working to detect and combat integrity issues and match manipulation in college sports,” NCAA President Charlie Baker said in a statement.
Baker said the indictments were “not entirely new information to the NCAA,” as it had conducted “integrity investigations into approximately 40 student-athletes from 20 schools over the past year.”
The NCAA logo on entrance sign outside of the NCAA Headquarters on Feb. 28, 2023 in Indianapolis, Indiana. (Mitchell Layton/Getty Images)
The NCAA added that 11 athletes from seven schools were “recently found to have bet on their own performances, shared information with known bettors, and/or engaged in game manipulation to collect on bets they — or others — placed” and have since been permanently banned.
“Additionally, 13 student-athletes from eight schools (including some of those identified above) were found to have failed to cooperate in the sports betting integrity investigation by providing false or misleading information, failing to provide relevant documentation and/or refusing to be interviewed by the enforcement staff. None of them are competing today,” Baker added.
Baker also called on states to crack down on “threats to integrity,” specifically prop bets, “to better protect athletes and leagues from integrity risks and predatory bettors. We also will continue to cooperate fully with law enforcement. We urge all student-athletes to make well-informed choices to avoid jeopardizing the game and their eligibility.”
The chargers on Thursday included bribery in sporting contests, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, and wire fraud.
“[Defendants] aided and abetted the carrying into effect, the attempt to carry into effect, and the conspiracy to carry into effect, a scheme in commerce to influence by bribery sporting contests, that is, Chinese Basketball Association (“CBA”) men’s basketball games and National Collegiate Athletic Association (“NCAA”) men’s basketball games, with the defendants engaging in different aspects of this scheme, with knowledge that the purpose of this scheme was to influence in some way those contests by bribery,” the indictment said.
General view of the SEC Men’s Basketball Tournament Championship game between the University of Kentucky Wildcats and the University of Florida Gators at the Georgia Dome on March 14, 2004, in Atlanta, Georgia. (Doug Pensinger/Getty Images)
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The announcement follows the federal government’s crackdown on illicit sports gambling and point-shaving schemes that involved the NBA in October.
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Twenty men have been charged in a point-shaving scheme involving more than 39 college basketball players on more than 17 NCAA Division I teams, leading to more than 29 games being fixed, according to a federal indictment unsealed Thursday in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.
Fifteen of the defendants played college basketball during the 2023-24 and/or 2024-25 seasons, according to the indictment. Some have played this season. Two of the players named in the indictment, Cedquavious Hunter and Dyquavian Short, were sanctioned in November by the NCAA for fixing New Orleans games.
At least two of the defendants, Shane Hennen and Marves Fairley, were also charged in a federal indictment in the Eastern District of New York centered on gambling schemes in the NBA.
Former NBA player Antonio Blakeney was named but not charged in the indictment. The indictment describes Blakeney as being “charged elsewhere.”
The scheme, according to the indictment, began around September 2022 and initially was focused on fixing games in the Chinese Basketball Association. The group later targeted college basketball games, offering bribes to college players ranging from $10,000 to $30,000 to compromise games for betting purposes, according to the indictment.
“In placing these wagers on games they had fixed, the defendants defrauded sportsbooks, as well as individual sports bettors, who were all unaware that the defendants had corruptly manipulated the outcome of these games that should have been decided fairly, based on genuine competition and the best efforts of the players,” the indictment said.
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Bettors and players fixed dozens of NCAA basketball games, prosecutors say
NCAA president responds to integrity concerns after alleged point-shaving scheme leads to dozens of arrests
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