Titans safety Bernard Pollard’s sensibilities were offended by Browns quarterback Johnny Manziel unleashing his middle finger at the Redskins bench during Monday night’s game, but one of Pollard’s former teammates with the Ravens thinks Pollard and other critics of Manziel’s gesture are making much ado about nothing.
Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco said he has flashed the offending digit over the course of his career, including at Terrell Suggs during a recent practice, because people react emotionally when they’re hearing trash talk on the field. While Flacco says “you want to limit to the point where no one else sees it,” he also thinks that those expressing outrage about Manziel’s gesture should take a deep breath.
“I think we’ve all seen the middle finger before,” Flacco said, via Cleveland.com. “We should get over it.”
Manziel’s use of the finger would have been a story regardless of how he played against Washington and there’s no doubt that a quarterback has to keep his composure under fire, but the reaction would have been a lot less intense if Manziel had played well during the game. Then the majority of the discussion would have been on giving Manziel the starting job, which suggests that Manziel’s immediate focus should be on performing better rather than questions of on-field decorum.