Twitter Twaddle

For the past week or so--for a reason I can not comprehend--I've been getting email notices from Twitter that there's a new tweet I might want to look at. A tweet from Johnny Manziel.

If you don't remember, he was the Browns' #1 pick some years ago (2014). "Johnny Football." His career ruined by alcohol and other sorts of poor judgment. (I know this from the very little I've read about him.) So, yes, Johnny Manziel.

Why?

I don't follow him; I haven't checked, but I'm certain he doesn't follow me. (I just now checked: He is not following me!) I have very few, by the way--followers, that is. Millions shy of Pres. Trump's followers--and, I know, I'm far less interesting than he.

I don't tweet much. Every day I post links on Twitter to my two blogs (DawnReader and Daily Doggerel). But that's pretty much it.

So ... how does Johnny Manziel figure in all of this?

I can't imagine. But here are some guesses:

• He knows I grew up in Hiram, Ohio, where the Browns used to have the summer training camp (at Hiram College).
• He knows I used to be a big fan of the Browns. (I stopped watching football some years ago.)
• He knows I once reviewed a Terry Pluto book about the Browns (When All the World Was Browns Town, 1997, a book about the '64 championship season).
• He has a fondness for doggerel. (Hey, the Dog Pound!)
• He likes knowing there's someone who has fewer followers than he.
• On Twitter one day, he mis-clicked.
• On Twitter one day, I mis-clicked.

I felt sorry for Johnny Manziel, back when he was in the Cleveland news. A young man with powerful talent--but more powerful demons. As his career imploded, I remember hoping all would work out for him. I have no idea what he's doing now, but I'm guessing that it resembles in no way his dreams from boyhood and adolescence. And that, of course, is profoundly sad--for him and for anyone else who must surrender hope. 

Which, of course, eventually, is just about all of us.