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The Cleveland Browns haven't had a lot of luck drafting quarterbacks since coming back o Cleveland in 1999, but they thought they'd finally found their man in Texas A&M's quarterback Johnny Manziel.
The Browns traded up from pick No. 26 to 22 to select Manziel, presumably their QB of the future. The Browns and Mazniel may have gotten a minor scare Friday when a 'supposed' lawsuit for sexual harassment was revealed.
BREAKING: Johnny Manziel sued for sexual harassment; plaintiff seeks $25 million http://t.co/ryvNDzPiHf
— Darren Heitner (@DarrenHeitner) May 23, 2014
Manziel suit was definitely filed. I just double-checked for the filing in the court system: pic.twitter.com/91gJ75YMdf
— Kristi Dosh (@SportsBizMiss) May 23, 2014
The document is full of grammatical and spelling errors and is almost certainly fake and/or frivolous, which Manziel's agent quickly acknowledged:
This joke "lawsuit" is obviously 1000000% fake and/ or frivolous. Embarrassing I even have say this after reading the nonsense.
— Erik Burkhardt (@ErikBurkhardt) May 23, 2014
To sum it up, this is a hoax lawsuit that a court actually allowed to be filed, and Mike Florio (also a lawyer) of Pro Football Talk broke it down:
Courts typically accept whatever comes in, and then they sort it all out later. But it may be time for courts to revisit that approach, given that anyone can put together anything and send it in and have it become officially filed — which gives it a weird sense of credibility and legitimacy, even when it’s clearly a hoax.
The lawsuit, which was field on May 16, 2014, was sent to us last night by a reader. The named plaintiff is Samatha Schacher. Whoever drafted the hoax lawsuit has tried to create the impression that it’s the same Samantha Schacher who serves as an HLN contributor and co-host of the network’s Dr. Drew show. (There’s a reference in the lawsuit to Manziel suggesting a "threesome with Dr. Drew.")
For a franchise with as much heartache and disappointment as Cleveland, having their 'franchise' QB sued for sexual harassment two weeks after losing their franchise receiver, Josh Gordon, for potentially the entire 2014 season, would have been borderline tragic.
Manziel, who went 300-of-429 for 4,114 yards (70%) with 37 touchdowns and 13 interceptions while rushing 144 times for 759 yards (5.3) and nine TDs in 13 games in 2013, is battling Brian Hoyer to open the regular season as the Browns starting QB.
If this lawsuit does turn out to be real, which it appears it is, this will at least be a distraction for Manziel as he tried to win the starting QB job as a rookie.