Cleveland Browns quarterback coach Dowell Loggains has revealed that he received a text from Johnny Manziel on Draft night pleading for the team to pick him.
Manziel was widely expected to go with one of the first picks in this year's Draft but found himself sliding down the board before eventually being snapped up by the Browns with the 22nd overall pick.
Cleveland had already chosen cornerback Justin Gilbert with the eighth overall selection, but traded up for a second first-round pick in order to draft Manziel as well.
Loggains revealed that a text from Manziel, which read "I wish you guys would come get me. Hurry up and draft me because I want to wreck this league together" sparked the decision to trade up in order to get him before another team took the chance.
"When I got that text, I forwarded it to the owner [Jimmy Haslam] and to the head coach [Mike Pettine]. I'm like, 'This guy wants to be here. He wants to be part of it.' As soon as that happened, Mr Haslam said, 'Pull the trigger. We're trading up to go get this guy,'" Loggains told ESPN.
"Mr Haslam and Coach Pettine had called me down to the draft room a couple of times throughout the night, and we had almost made trades with Tennessee and Dallas and backed out. We were sitting there, and Coach Pettine keeps texting me, and we're going back and forth and we're going, 'Hey does Dallas take him here? No they won't.
"Does St Louis take him at 13?' We knew we had to get in front of the Chiefs [at number 23] because we knew they would draft him. It was Manziel and then everybody else."
Manziel is expected to compete with Brian Hoyer for the starting job in Cleveland.
Barney Corkhill
