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Freeman: More Hoopla From Manzielmania Than Tebowmania

BOSTON (CBS) - The NFL is a behemoth, and the King of American sports leagues -- maybe even the world.

So it should come as no surprise that the league now wants to start charging its Super Bowl halftime performers, which Adam Jones believes is the "height of arrogance" and greed.

Jones and Albert Breer, filling in for Toucher & Rich Thursday morning, continued this topic with Mike Freeman of the Bleacher Report.

Freeman has been covering the league for a long time, and he thinks one man is mostly to blame for the greed that exists in the modern NFL.

"I think Jerry Jones, to me, was kind of the sea change. I did a story a long time ago about Wellington Mara, the late owner of the Giants, criticizing Jerry Jones about being selfish and not caring about the league. When Jerry came in that's when things started to change. He started to do things more for Jerry and for the Cowboys, which you can't in some ways blame him. He wanted to make more money for himself and for his team. You had owners like that, followed by Dan Snyder, and to me that's when it all started to change."

Aside from that, and the increase in penalties in the preseason, the biggest story in the league is the quarterback situation in Cleveland. Former Patriots backup and Cleveland native Brian Hoyer was named the starter on Wednesday, and Freeman believes they couldn't have handled it any better.

"I was down at Browns training camp for like five days, and to me, the Browns organization handled the situation about as well as you could handle it. It was crazy. I mean, in some ways it was worse than Tebow. They handled it incredibly well to me, from top to bottom. The media relations and PR people handled the attention and the pressure very well. I thought (head coach) Mike Pettine kept his calm, never lost his temper with really stupid questions, and I thought Hoyer handled himself really well too."

The Manzielmania has quieted down (for now anyways), but it won't take long for it to rear its ugly head again.

"The first bad stretch Hoyer has the fans are going to be chanting for Johnny. The media is going to be questioning and asking questions about it. No question that will happen. I have a feeling Pettine will stick with Hoyer much longer than people think," said Freeman. "There won't be too quick of a hook."

Freeman also noted that this "isn't the same old Cleveland Browns" who make poor decisions, and has full faith they'll be able to continue to manage the Manzielmania and hype.

"This is a different regime and a different staff. They've handled things pretty well, and I think they'll continue to handle [the hoopla] well."

Listen below for the entire conversation!

Mike Freeman Bleacher Report

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