Johnny Manziel appears on regional cover of Sports Illustrated

Johnny Manziel was selected No. 22 overall by the Cleveland Browns. (Brad Penner/USA Today Sports)

Some went wild when the Cleveland Browns selected Johnny Manziel at No. 22 overall, but many Clevelanders remain wary of Johnny Football.

Mark Bechtel details that tension in this week's issue of Sports Illustrated.

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"Before the draft The Plain Dealer asked readers if they thought the Browns should take Manziel with the fourth pick," Bechtel writes. "Seventy-six percent said no. Granted, he went 22nd, but it seemed evident that skepticism remained.

"This is a fan base that's nostalgic for a brief era -- the mid-1980s -- whose highlights were two of the most crushing defeats the NFL has ever seen, the Drive and the Fumble. It's a city that is going on 50 years without a championship in any sport. Unbridled optimism left town with Jimmy Brown."

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And yet, the Manziel pick couldn't be more important to the city.

"What does the Manziel pick mean to the town and the team? 'Everything, [says Chuck Booms, a sports talk host in Cleveland.] They have not been on the map since [returning to the NFL in] 1999. It's been a decade and a half of garbage.'"