Cleveland Browns quarterback Johnny Manziel said Wednesday he will no longer do his trademark money sign — part of a larger effort to quiet the distraction his persona had become to his teammates.

“The money sign will not be back. I will not be making it out there,” Manziel said Wednesday in his first comments to Browns media since he ended a 10-week rehab stay in early April.

Manziel admitted that during his rookie season last year — which he termed “a disaster” Wednesday — he was a distraction off the field at times.

“I feel bad about that today,” he said. “I feel bad about that throughout the last months of my life really thinking back and seeing how much of my life outside of this field and outside of this locker room was documented. It’s not fair for Joe Haden to be having to answer questions about me every day. It’s not fair for Joe Thomas and all these guys to just continue to have questions asked about me. I don’t think that’s fair at all and I don’t want that on them.”

He added that Johnny Manziel could not handle the “Johnny Football” persona that had been created around him at Texas A&M and via social media.

“I think it just overtook who I was as a person, too,” Manziel said. “I think at times Johnny Football probably took over me a little bit, too, and I bought into that. … I think I didn’t do my best to hush things down, push down the hype.

“I think at times I welcomed it with immaturity and just accepted that a little bit. And that’s my fault. At the end of the day everything that happened last year is not on anybody else but myself.”

He said he could not handle the hype and spotlight that focused on him and he wants to “suffocate that a little bit.” Moving forward, he wants to be conscious of the effect his presence has on his teammates.

“Whatever I can do to help quiet the noise that has surrounded this team and surrounded myself, I don’t want that anymore. I just want to be another player on this team that is in here trying to get better and just trying to be successful,” he said.

Source: ESPN

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