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Cleveland Browns coach Mike Pettine made clear the Browns’ concerns with the hotel lobby scrum that involved Johnny Manziel early Saturday are largely because of when it happened. “We’re never comfortable -- and I think [general manager] Ray [Farmer] alluded to it in our release -- with guys being involved in incidents that late at night,” Pettine said on the Mike and Mike show. “We trust that they’re going to be making good choices. The saying in the league, nothing good happens after midnight. That’s certainly the case the closer you get to the game.” The police report about the scrum indicated it happened at 2:36 a.m. the same day the team was going to fly to Atlanta. Two vastly different versions of events have been published, with the person involved saying he was a fan trying to talk to Manziel and Manziel’s agent saying the fan approached Manziel and a friend aggressively. Either way, the team clearly is concerned that Manziel was in the position to be involved in something as 3 a.m. approached. The concern is valid for a professional. It’s never good when a player has an incident in the wee hours before he and his teammates are flying to a game. It’s a spin off the old Irish saying: Don’t be going out when you should be coming in. Pettine was also asked if what happened would affect his decision to play Manziel, if he ever decided to do so. He hesitated briefly before saying: “Unless something unforeseen comes up, given what I know it would not have an impact on any decision to play him.” This doesn’t mean Manziel is about to see the field. Pettine made it more than clear on Monday that Brian Hoyer is the Browns quarterback.
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