The way Johnny Manziel tells it, the man who approached him at a downtown Cleveland apartment complex -- and incited a late-night brawl with the quarterback's entourage -- wasn't some happy-go-lucky fan looking for a hug. Manziel's version of his latest off-field incident, which we heard for the first time during a press conference Friday afternoon, describes an aggressive drunk who accosted Manziel at his home.
Johnny Manziel says alleged brawl victim was aggressive, intoxicated
The quarterback’s account of last week’s apartment fight differs sharply from that of Chris Gonos, who claims he was sucker punched while trying to hug Manziel.
“He came at me, put his hands on me, was extremely aggressive,” Manziel said of the alleged victim, Chris Gonos, according to Mary Kay Cabot of the Plain Dealer. The Cleveland Browns quarterback, who equated being approached at the elevator to being approached on the front porch of a house, claimed that Gonos was intoxicated.
That differs from the account that Gonos gave to police. Both in the official police report and in an interview with the website Scene, the self-described Browns fan claimed he approached Manziel to greet him (Gonos told police he attempted to hug the quarterback; he told Scene he attempted to “give him a handshake, or dap or whatever”), at which time he was repeatedly punched in the face and then jumped by members of the Manziel’s crew.
Manziel claimed Friday that he and his friends attempted to avoid an altercation at all costs and that his roommate “tried to diffuse the situation as professionally as possible.” He said he is frequently approached by fans and is willing to greet them all, according to Pat McManamon of ESPN.
No arrests were made after the incident, which occurred around 2 a.m. ET.
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