The smoke visible from the space station comes from Berea, Ohio, where the Cleveland Browns, once again, are presenting themselves as a house afire.

To call this a tough month for the team would be akin to saying it's snowed a bit in Boston recently.

Where and when it stops is everyone's question, and has been since the turn of the century. This offseason's hijinks won't stop until the results of the NFL's investigation into the text message issue ends. General manager Ray Farmer was involved in the texting, per sources aware of the texts.

That's the same guy who huffed and puffed and blew Josh Gordon's house down the day Gordon's suspension was announced.

In a statement about Gordon, Farmer expressed outrage at the receiver's pattern of behavior, then said he wouldn't talk about Gordon anymore.

That pretty much makes it easy not to answer questions about it.

And makes it pretty much impossible for the team to explain how it tried to help and support Gordon.

The team no doubt feels like Farmer's words were consistent with past statements, but pounding the table at that point seemed odd.

So ... there's that.

But when Cleveland.com and CBSports.com both reported Farmer was the guy sending the against-the-rules texts during games, it added another layer to a long offseason -- which, when you think about it, really has only been a little more than a month.

ESPN.com confirmed those reports, with the addition that they were largely sent to quarterbacks coach Dowell Loggains. The messages dealt with quarterback play and play calls and things like that. Which might not entail competitive advantage. The league report will clear all that up.

From the outside, it seems the texts could be summed up this way: Why isn't Johnny Manziel playing?

Owner Jimmy Haslam promised the Browns would address whatever mistakes were made in the texting issue. Still, Kurt Vonnegut weirdly comes to mind. After all, "so it goes" was one of Vonnegut's favorite phrases in "Slaughterhouse-Five."

This latest news comes on the heels of what for this team might be an all-time low in postseason drama.

And for this team that's saying something.

Let's merely consider the quarterback position. The Browns treated Brian Hoyer, the only winning quarterback they've had since 1999, with at worst disdain and at best tepid support.

The team eventually turned to Manziel, which turned into disaster on the field and trauma off it.

Now Manziel is in treatment, a move for which he deserves credit and a move about which the Browns should not be surprised. All they had to do was look at his history -- and his father's statements about how concerned he was about his son.

Now the Browns are reportedly considering trading up for Marcus Mariota, which refines the definition of insanity: Stockpile picks to build a winning team, blow two first-round picks in 2014 on Justin Gilbert and Manziel, and then give up the stockpiled picks to acquire another draft choice and start all over again.

All this, mind you, comes on the heels of an increase in season-ticket prices that for some amounted to 25 or 30 percent.

Go down the list of events that started the day before the season ended:

• Manziel and Gordon did not show for work that day. Manziel was fined, Gordon suspended. Gilbert also was essentially suspended (coach Mike Pettine's words) for missing a meeting at the team hotel.

• Offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan convinced the owner -- with 32 items of complaint, per reports -- to let him out of his contract. He gives up two years of salary to do it.

• The quarterbacks coach is fired because, one would assume, Manziel was not ready to play.

• The wide receivers coach, Mike McDaniel, joined several players and Gordon on the flight to Vegas that led to Gordon's yearlong suspension.

• The wide receivers coach is let go quietly.

• The ticket price increase is announced.

• John DeFilippo, an offensive coordinator who has never called plays in the NFL, is hired. So is a quarterbacks coach, Kevin O'Connell, who has never coached with a team at any level. (These moves can work, mind you, but those are facts.)

• Manziel appears in party shots in Miami Beach, Houston and, with Gordon, Aspen.

• Manziel puts himself into rehab.

• Gordon is suspended for the season.

• Word breaks that the GM is being investigated for violating league rules by texting the assistant coaches during games.

Not six weeks into the offseason, Cleveland talk shows are discussing the draft and all the free agents who would give their left arm to join the Browns.

One can only imagine what's next. And one can only wonder if Farmer's future is tenuous given the texting issues, which are embarrassing. Add on the first round from 2014 and the disintegration of a season that once held promise, and Farmer has had quite a first year.

Maybe when it all shakes out, he'll call it the proverbial "learning experience."

He can then join Browns fans who have learned so much over the years.

Primarily that for pain and suffering or (depending on your point of view) comic impact, there really is nothing quite like a Cleveland Browns offseason.