Johnny Manziel’s NFL career could not have been further alike from his college career, and we now have a pretty good reason why that was the case.
Manziel earned the nickname Johnny Football in high school before turning into one of the most famous, and infamous, college athletes in history at Texas A&M.
He certainly lived up to that nickname when he became the first, and is still the only, true freshman to win the Heisman Trophy in 2012. But his draft stock fell amid constant headlines of partying and running into trouble on and off the field.
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Nonetheless, the Cleveland Browns traded up to the 22nd pick in 2014 to select him, but little did they know it would be a huge mistake.
In the most recent edition of Netflix’s “Untold” documentary series, which highlighted Manziel’s career, he admitted he did not watch any film in the NFL.
Manziel’s former agent, Erik Burkhardt, said he received calls from the Browns saying Manziel’s “iPad hours is 0.00.”
Manziel confirmed that was the case, saying he watched “zero” tape.
The 30-year-old made it quite clear in the documentary that he had zero interest of being in Cleveland, or the NFL as a whole.
“Didn’t take me very long to be in Cleveland to find out that I wasn’t going to be happy there,” Manziel said in the doc, via CBS Sports. “I had every single thing that I could have ever wanted. You have money, you have fame, you’re a first-round draft pick battling for a starting quarterback position. And when I got everything that I wanted, I think I was the most empty that I’ve ever felt inside.”
“I would sit in my condo in Cleveland downtown and just feel like it was the only place that I could get away from everybody and anything,” Manziel continued. “And I would look out those windows every day and I just felt empty. I went from one fishbowl city to another, and I wanted nothing to do with football. I wanted nothing to do with stepping on that field. And I had bigger issues in my life than being able to go out and play free-spirited, flowing football.”
Manziel said the intense publicity he received following Texas A&M’s upset over Alabama in Tuscaloosa in 2012, which never let up, pretty much hit him like a train.
“I had gone from the whirlwind ride of 2012 in College Station, the Heisman Trophy, the Cotton Bowl, the NCAA investigation, straight into another season, into the NFL draft. I just didn’t get a break.”
Manziel was eventually released by the team after failing to show up to their final game of the 2015 season, as he spent the night partying in Las Vegas and missed all return flights. He’s since spent time in the Canadian Football League, the now-defunct American Alliance of Football, and the Fan Controlled Football League.