Joel Bitonio is officially done. And on his way out, he made sure the rest of us did not forget what life was like in the 2014 Browns rookie class.
The longtime Cleveland guard announced his retirement Tuesday after 12 NFL seasons. All of them came in Cleveland. He made seven Pro Bowls. He earned first-team All-Pro honors twice. He outlasted basically every storyline that hit that franchise since the day he was drafted.
In his opening remarks at his retirement press conference, Bitonio could not resist pulling out the receipt that everyone in Northeast Ohio has been holding onto for a decade.
“I was drafted the same year as Johnny Manziel. We actually roomed together,” Bitonio said. “I learned some things not to do from him.”
The press room laughed. Of course they laughed. Johnny Football was the biggest joke in Browns history and somehow the only player from that draft class anyone remembered for the longest time. Bitonio quietly went out and built a Hall of Fame case while Manziel was getting kicked off NFL rosters and posting bizarre videos online.
It is a perfect closing line for a perfectly executed career. Bitonio was the un-Manziel. He showed up. He took care of his body. He treated football like a job. He did not give Cleveland fans drama. He gave them a left guard they could count on through three different coaching regimes, six head coaches, and approximately 47 starting quarterbacks.
Manziel, for his part, has moved on to other projects. He recently made his MMA debut and actually won. He has talked about mentoring a younger quarterback. Whether he is actually doing real work this time or just collecting checks for being a famous bust is anyone’s guess. Bitonio’s read on the situation, that you should do the opposite of Manziel, has aged like a vintage Cleveland tradition.
The Browns now have a serious hole on the offensive line. Bitonio was not just a Pro Bowler. He was the unit’s emotional core. He held that locker room together through one of the worst extended stretches of football any modern franchise has endured. Replacing his production is hard. Replacing his presence is harder.
Head coach Todd Monken now has to figure out how to absorb that loss while also navigating the team’s other big offseason headache, which is figuring out who is going to start at quarterback in Week 1. That conversation will probably also involve some echoes of the Manziel era, given how many quarterbacks have come and gone since 2014.
As for Bitonio, this is the right time. His body held up better than most. His reputation is spotless. His Ring of Honor case in Cleveland is already being written. And his final mic drop, taking one last shot at the rookie he had to share a hotel room with, will live on every Browns highlight package for years.
The kid from Las Vegas via Nevada went out the right way. Manziel went out his way. The contrast is the joke. It will land every time.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
