Johnny Manziel text to Browns: ‘Hurry up and draft me’

Johnny Manziel had a long wait before hearing his name called during last week’s NFL draft -- much longer than many anticipated.

Can’t blame the guy for getting a little impatient.

But even after a three-hour wait, very few people would have the guts to send out a text telling a team to “hurry up and draft me.”

Then again, there’s only one Johnny Football. And that’s just what he is said to have done, encouraging the Cleveland Browns -- who had already passed on him earlier in the first round -- to move up in the draft and make him their quarterback of the future.

According to Cleveland quarterbacks coach Dowell Loggains, the tactic worked. The Browns made a trade with Philadelphia and claimed Manziel with their newly acquired 22nd overall pick.

“We’re sitting there and they keep showing Johnny on TV and Johnny and I are texting, and he shoots me a text and he says, ‘I wish you guys would come get me. Hurry up and draft me because I want to be there. I want to wreck this league together,’ ” Loggains said Thursday on Sports Talk with Bo Mattingly on Arkansas ESPN.

“When I got that text, I forwarded it to the owner [Jimmy Haslam] and to the head coach [Mike Pettine]. I’m like, ‘This guy wants to be here. He wants to be part of it.’ As soon as that happened, Mr. Haslam said, ‘pull the trigger. We’re trading up to go get this guy.’ ”

Hopefully the Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback and the team that hasn’t won more than five games since 2007 are on the same page about what it means to “wreck this league.”