Armour: Johnny Manziel remains more frat boy than NFL quarterback

Johnny Manziel needs to decide whether he wants to be a frat boy or a franchise quarterback.

A week after being handed the keys to the Cleveland Browns, Manziel was demoted to the No. 3 quarterback Tuesday because of yet more juvenile behavior. This time it was photos and a video of Manziel partying in Austin, Texas, during Cleveland’s bye weekend.

In the video, Manziel is clutching what appears to be a bottle of champagne.

“He still has to consistently demonstrate that he has gained a good understanding of what it takes to be successful at the quarterback position on this level,” Browns coach Mike Pettine said in his statement announcing Manziel’s demotion.

“It goes well beyond the field.”

NFL DRAFT HUB: Latest NFL Draft mock drafts, news, live picks, grades and analysis.

NFL coaching hot seat rankings: Who's in trouble before Thanksgiving?

Time and again Johnny Football has promised to grow up, swearing he understands the responsibility that comes with his position. Yet he always winds up reverting back to his childish ways, usually sooner rather than later.

Rather than hunkering down with his playbook, he partied his way through the summer after he was drafted. There were trips to Vegas, trips to Austin. There was that infamous photo of him drinking on an inflatable swan. (Go ahead, Google it. It’s worth another look.)

He said at the end of his rookie season that he’d do whatever it took to be “the guy” in Cleveland, then missed the walk-through for the final game, reportedly because he was hung over.

Even spending most of the off-season in rehab didn’t make him wise up. Police had to be called after an altercation with his girlfriend, and Manziel admitted to officers that he’d been drinking earlier in the day.

Eagles OL Lane Johnson: Fans don't give us home-field advantage

The NFL eventually cleared him, announcing last Tuesday he had not violated the personal conduct policy. But chastened once again, Manziel promised that the Browns had no reason to worry about him, that he wouldn’t “do anything that’s going to be a distraction to this team or be an embarrassment to this organization.”

Two days later, he was acting like the charter member of Sigma Imma Tura.

“It's a little easier to handle when it's just a one-time occurrence,” Pettine said after practice, a few hours before he announced Manziel had been grounded. “But when behavior repeats, not just him but with anybody, it's certainly a cause for concern.”

If Manziel were an ordinary 22-year-old – he turns 23 on Dec. 26 – his behavior would raise eyebrows, at most. Partying his 20s away may be childish and foolish, but he’d be the one to pay for it. There would be little to no impact on anyone else.

That’s not the case here.

Bell: Widespread blame for bungling concussion of Rams' Case Keenum

Just as there’s no way to separate Manziel the person from Manziel the player, there’s no way to separate him from the Browns. The former first-round pick is the image of the franchise as much as that orange helmet, and everything he does reflects back on them.

The Browns invested a lot in Manziel, hoping that the Heisman Trophy winner with the Hollywood hype would revive the long-suffering franchise.

So far, though, Manziel has brought the Browns more headaches than wins.

Unless he grows up, he's in no shape to quarterback a team, let alone lead it.

Follow Nancy Armour on Twitter @nrarmour 

PHOTOS: Johnny Manziel's career in pictures