Titans’ Jurrell Casey says Manziel hasn’t earned ‘Johnny Football’ nickname

Just call him “Jurell Football.”

Tennessee Titans defensive lineman Jurrell Casey refuses to call Johnny Manziel by anything other than his legal name, even though most of the sports world loves to call the Cleveland Browns quarterback by his “Johnny Football” nickname. Casey’s Titans play Manziel’s Browns on Sunday.

Casey, who had three tackles and a sack last week, seemed almost offended by the nickname. He said Manziel hasn’t earned it.

“That’s more so what the media likes to hype on,” Casey said, according to 247Sports.com. “You’ve got to earn your respect in this league. As of right now, he really hasn’t done too much to really go out there and call him Johnny Football. He’s Johnny Manziel to me. We’ve got to out there and put a hat on him as much as possible.”

The Browns announced that Manziel would start on Sunday after Josh McCown wasn’t cleared from a concussion. Manziel played last week after McCown was knocked out of the game, and he completed 13-of-24 passes for 182 yards with a touchdown, an interception and two fumbles in the loss to the Jets.

While Casey has a point in that Manziel has done very little at this level to earn himself such a bold nickname, the public clearly loves themselves some “Johnny Football.” Or at least fans enjoy talking about him. 

A quick Yahoo search came up with over 10 million search results linked to “Johnny Football” and “Manziel.” A search of “Jurrell Casey” turned up 133,000 search results.  Clearly Johnny Q. Public is well aware of “Johnny Football,” even if Casey won’t recognize that nickname.

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Kristian R. Dyer writes for Metro New York and is a contributor to Yahoo Sports. Follow him on Twitter @KristianRDyer. Email him at [email protected]