Welcome to the NFL, Johnny Manziel! This is gonna be fun

Cleveland Browns quarterback Johnny Manziel had a rough night against the Washington Redskins on Monday.

Aug. 19, 2014 7:59 AM PT

Johnny Manziel was mocked with his signature “money” gesture Monday night after being sacked by the Washington Redskins.

Soon the NFL could be flashing that symbol at the Cleveland Browns quarterback as well. Figuratively speaking, of course.

Manziel could be fined more than $11,000 for giving the Redskins bench the middle finger — and being caught doing so on national TV — during the third quarter of the Browns’ 24-23 preseason loss on ESPN’s “Monday Night Football,” the NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport is reporting.

Washington linebacker Brian Orakpo, the player who showed Manziel the money sign after a sack by teammate Ryan Kerrigan, called the bird-flipping incident “hilarious.” Manziel called it a “lapse of judgment,” while Browns Coach Mike Pettine said the gesture “does not sit well.”

Is this great or what? The guy who helped us through a long off-season with one story line after another doesn’t appear to be slowing down at all now that real football is almost upon us.

Can you imagine how it’s going to be if Manziel actually somehow wins the starting quarterback job with the Browns? That could happen, even though he didn’t do much to earn the spot Monday night. He was 7 for 16 for 65 yards and a touchdown (a screen pass to Dion Lewis).

Incumbent starter Brian Hoyer was even worse, completing just two of six passes for 16 yards. Against the Redskins starters, Manziel was 2 for 7 for 29 yards and Hoyer was 0 for 2.

Something tells me Pettine won’t be making that quarterback decision Tuesday like he’s been promising. Fine by me. Gives us more time to talk Manziel.

You’re not sick of it already, are you? Remember, it’s still preseason.

Just think how it would be if Stephen Jones hadn’t snatched that draft card from his father’s hand at the last second (or so the story went on Monday) and Johnny Football had ended up in Dallas rather than Cleveland.

On second thought, don’t. Like I said, it’s only preseason. We should probably pace ourselves.

Twitter: @chewkiii