All has been quiet on the Johnny Manziel front for a while, considering the Cleveland Browns rookie quarterback has barely played all season.
But a fight at an apartment complex well after midnight on Friday, involving a fan approaching Manziel for a hug and him getting punched by someone Manziel was with, might change that. Even though it seems Manziel didn't have anything to do with it, other than having his personal space invaded.
Cleveland police were reportedly called at 2:36 a.m. early Saturday to the scene of a fight that involved 20 men and two security guards at The 9, a high-end apartment complex in Cleveland where many pro athletes live, according to CleveScene.com. According to CleveScene, citing the police report, 33-year-old Chris Gonos of Sandusky saw Manziel, wearing a white hooded sweatshirt, and his friends waiting for an elevator. Gonos pointed Manziel out to his girlfriend. CleveScene said according to the report, "at this time victim stated to the unidentified male, 'I'm the biggest Browns fan ever, I love you, I want to give you a hug.'"
Then, CleveScene.com wrote, citing the police report, Gonos took one step toward Manziel and was struck several times in the face by "the offender," a man with Manziel named Kirk. The police report, which CleveScene published parts of, said the man with Manziel named Kirk stated to police that "the victim attempted to assault his client and he defended him."
The initial story, based on the police report, did not say that Manziel did anything at all during the fight. After that the man was given a "beat down" by the group Manziel was with, giving Gonos a "swollen lip, right eye swollen, red face."
CleveScene, after breaking the story, got a hold of Gonos for his take on what happened, including his brother tackling Manziel for some reason once the fight started. Here are Gonos' full comments from CleveScene:
"Yeah, it actually all started through me. We had a room – it was my brother’s birthday — so we were staying at the Metropolitan at the 9. We partied there, and at the end of the night I was going back up to my room, and I noticed the guy. I was like, 'Man, that’s Johnny Manziel.' They were trying to keep it quiet, keep it low, and I was like 'Johnny Football!' I was just excited. But anyways, I went to give him like a handshake, or dap or whatever you want to call it, one of his buddies like tackled me. It was going down, a whole bunch of people started fighting. It ended pretty quick."
"I got a bruised hip and a bruised elbow, and somebody hit me in the back of the head, too. My brother saw what was going on and he ran he tackled Johhny Manziel – I guess he got the sack and the fumble. He tackled him, yeah, I’m talking about he speared him all the way to the back wall. I was cornered; I was by myself and Johnny Manziel and like three or four of his buddies were all coming at me. (My brother) just came to help me out, and I guess Johnny sucker punched him while the security guard was holding him. It should be all on video."
"No [one was arrested], like 20 officers came and I was sitting in the lobby because I did not do anything wrong but be a fan. All these cops run into the lobby, and they’re like, “Who was fighting, who was fighting?” and I just raised my hand, and was like, listen, watch the camera, and stuff like that. I may be guilty of being a fan, but that’s about it. I even showed them the guy that sucker punched me and the cops walked right up to him, talking to him for a while, and they let us all go. They just told me I had to leave the hotel, and me and my ride, we left. Manziel never punched me, but he got a sucker punch on my brother."
"I know somebody else in the group smashed Johnny right in the face. Smashed him, smashed him. I watched the whole game to see if we could spot him on the sidelines."
Browns general manager Ray Farmer released the following statement, which said the team is looking into the incident, via the Cleveland Plain Dealer.
"We are aware of the incident and are in the process of gathering additional information in order to gain a complete understanding of what occurred,'' said Farmer in a statement released by the club. "Nonetheless, the time of the incident is concerning to us.
"We continually stress to all of our players the importance of sound decision-making in an effort to avoid putting themselves in these types of situations. We have addressed this appropriately with the player and will have no further comment at this time."
This sounds like a story of an aggressive fan clearly crossing a line, and a friend or bodyguard who might have been a little overzealous protecting his famous buddy from a fan who was moving in for an uninvited hug. It might turn into yet another off-field story about Manziel but it probably should have another moral: Don't approach random people, especially celebrities, expecting a hug (or dap or whatever Gonos wanted) unless you're also willing to get punched.
No comments:
Post a Comment