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Titans’ Jurrell Casey: Manziel doesn’t deserve to be called Johnny Football

Cleveland quarterback Johnny Manziel will get his third NFL start Sunday against Tennessee.

Cleveland quarterback Johnny Manziel will get his third NFL start Sunday against Tennessee.

(Brad Penner / Associated Press)
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Johnny Manziel will be Cleveland’s starting quarterback against Tennessee on Sunday.

Johnny Football will not -- at least as far as Jurrell Casey of the Titans is concerned.

“You’ve got to earn your respect in this league,” Casey said, according to 247 Sports. “As of right now, he really hasn’t done too much to really go out there and call him Johnny Football. He’s Johnny Manziel to me.”

Johnny Football was the nickname pretty much everyone used for Manziel during his years as a superstar at Texas A&M. Coming out of college, the Heisman Trophy winner once said that he didn’t think a lot of people even knew his real last name.

But success in the NFL has been elusive for Manziel. Playing in five games as a rookie last year, he completed 51.4% of his passes with no touchdowns and two interceptions for a passer rating of 42.0.

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After replacing injured starter Josh McCown last week, Manziel threw for his first NFL touchdown but also committed three turnovers.

Cleveland Coach Mike Pettine announced Friday that Manziel would get his third NFL start this weekend since McCown has not been cleared to return from a concussion by an independent neurologist.

Manziel will face another Heisman winner on the other side of the football -- Tennessee’s Marcus Mariota earned the honor with Oregon last year.

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