The afterglow of the Super Bowl has been disrupted by the dusting off of the police blotter, with two players grabbing headlines that otherwise would go to more talk about quarterbacks taking too long to jump on fumbles and/or leaving too quickly the post-game podium.
The NFL says that it began reviewing incidents involving Bills running back LeSean McCoy and Browns quarterback Johnny Manziel “immediately after they occurred.”
While paid leave is possible for both players, nothing will happen in the immediate future.
“The players are off per the CBA and not being paid now,” NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy told PFT by email. “It would serve no purpose and is not what paid leave was designed to accomplish.”
Paid leave was designed to take the heat out of a hot kitchen by putting the player on the couch without officially suspending him. With no games currently being played, there’s no reason to take action.
That’s very good news for the Browns, who can now resume waiting for March 9 to cut Manziel without having to rush to create cap space so that he could be put on permanent unpaid leave before the league puts him on paid leave.