Browns running back Ben Tate has had enough with the media circus that follows rookie QB Johnny Manziel. After one of the Browns OTA practices he went on a mini-rant about the media’s coverage of Johnny Football.
“I feel like it,” Tate said when asked if Manziel receives too much attention, according to ESPN.com’s Pat McManamon. “He hasn’t played a down in the NFL yet. So … I don’t know … That’s for y’all to figure out.
“It’s just as a player I know that I would get tired if people were constantly monitoring if I picked my nose, if I spit to the left or right,” Tate added. “I mean, it’s annoying. He’s a human being.
“He’s a great football player, so I understand why he gets some of the constant media attention. At the same time, I just figure at this stage he’s tired of it and he wants to come in here and do his job and try to win the starting quarterback position.”
It seems as though Tate has a larger problem. He isn’t able to tune out outside noise and criticism, which isn’t a great quality for a NFL player on one of the league’s worst teams. Tate said this before he went to the locker room.
“Y’all just hype everything up and make everything bigger than it is,” he said to the assembled media on Tuesday. “That’s what y’all are standing over here for, right?”
You thought Tate would stop talking after those comments?
And for ppl trying to say I dissed Johnny I got 1 finger up to yall and it’s not my pointer. My point was I’m sure he is tired of it all
— Ben Tate (@BenTateRB) June 3, 2014
And for ppl trying to say I dissed Johnny I got 1 finger up to yall and it’s not my pointer. My point was I’m sure he is tired of it all
— Ben Tate (@BenTateRB) June 3, 2014
Ben Tate needs to worry about proving that he is worth being a #1 running back in the NFL and less about Money Manziel and the Cleveland reporters. This is only OTAs and the coverage of Manziel is only going to grow as the season approaches.