Next,
we induct one of the most pivotal players
in Texas A&M history.
Oh, my gracious.
- Yep.
- How about that?
A&M did it. They just did it.
...won a Heisman Trophy.
Here comes Johnny Football.
The Heisman Trophy, for the first time,
has gone to a freshman quarterback.
He is must-watch TV.
He is a living legend, Johnny Manziel.
Let me paint a little picture
for you of how I'm able to sit here today
and be on this stage at 29 years old.
When I stepped on campus in 2011,
it didn't look like this.
Johnny Football!
He's taken on
Rolling Stones, Beatles status.
This stadium didn't look like this...
...we didn't have the buzz
that we have today.
...brought A&M
back to national prominence.
In the preseason,
hardly anyone knew who Johnny Manziel was.
It'd be very easy to turn your back
on some of the things
I was doing in my life,
and I live with a lot of regret.
New trouble for Johnny Manziel.
- ...under investigation for as*ault.
- Manziel has gone into rehab.
The family fears he is spiraling
out of control.
But at the same time,
I've lived with a lot of pride.
I am beyond thankful
for each and every Aggie in this room
that's supported me through the good,
through the bad,
and through times that really
just didn't even make sense for me.
From the bottom of my heart,
I wanna say thank you very much.
Thanks and Gig 'em.
Ooh, I loved it when you were here.
Through all the shenanigans,
I still loved it.
Thank you very much.
- What's up?
- You're why I love A&M.
Thank you, bro.
- What are you doing these days?
- Living in Scottsdale, enjoying life.
You got your private airplane yet?
Not yet. I'm working on it.
- We gotta do the money sign.
- I got you.
- Thank you.
- Good to see you, guys.
- Thanks for everything.
- Good to see you.
- Good to see you.
- Good to see you.
How are you? Thank you, bro.
Good to see you guys.
Good to see you. I appreciate it.
Oh, what the f*ck?
You do not change bats
in the middle of the series, dawg.
- Whoo-hoo.
- Oh...
There is who you are
as a football player,
and then, there is
who you are as a human being,
and the two, for me,
were just really different.
I almost felt like I had an alter ego.
I wanted to be Johnny Football.
Johnny Football never had a bad time.
So, when people asked me, "Do you like
the nickname Johnny Football?"
I f*cking loved it.
I thought it was awesome.
JFF, Johnny f*cking Football. What's up?
Stranger's arms
Reach out to me
'Cause they know
I'm so lonely
Then my mind goes back
To you
And your sweet love
Sees me through
Football is everything in Texas.
You know, If you don't play football,
you're either too big of a p*ssy to play,
or you're just not any good.
Baby, you're a song
You make me wanna roll my windows down
And cruise...
Town closes down
when it's Friday night and there's game.
The football team was the lifeline.
Johnny Football!
First time I met Johnny
was in middle school.
We both loved video games, um,
we both loved football,
we both loved girls,
so we had all the most important things
in life in common.
The Johnny I know is a kid
who wanted to be the very best
football player you could possibly be
and, after that,
go drink some beers out on a ranch,
drive a 20-year-old truck over to do it.
Called him Uncle Nate.
He was like my right-hand man.
We were just good old country boys.
If you've seen Friday Night Lights,
you've seen anything like that...
- Clear eyes, full hearts...
- Can't lose!
...that's what Kerrville was.
The intensity, all of it.
The, you know, hard-ass dads.
Johnny was born on my birthday.
Happy birthday, dear Jonathan...
We have the same mannerisms,
the same birthdays.
He's me made over, pretty much.
There he is.
Paul!
Discipline in our family
pretty much came from me.
You just teach 'em
to do the right thing all the time.
We truly are each other's best friends.
End of my 4th-grade year,
we moved to Kerrville,
and it was
a totally different pace of life for us.
Tivy High School was very much
a m*llitary-style football program,
and all of your best friends
are doing it right next to you,
so you're not gonna be the assh*le
that stands out. Just fall in line.
My dad wanted me to be in that program
because of how strict they ran it.
Your first period of the day,
7 a.m., is football.
Different weight room stations
every single day.
Six stations, six coaches,
and then after school, you practice again,
so we had a double dose every single day.
The Kerrville way, the Tivy way,
the "Tivy fight never dies,"
that whole mantra that we had
lasted until the second you walked outta
that school when you were a senior.
In his 10th-grade year,
Johnny got the start.
And I remember sitting in the stands
and people are like,
"Who is this Manziel kid?"
"There's some new kid starting tonight."
I was like, "Oh my gosh, here we go."
Here come the Antlers!
We ran a play called "tin trap",
which is pretty much catch the ball,
they're gonna trap the noseguard,
and you're gonna run
straight up the middle as fast as you can.
It just parted like the Red Sea.
You know, just a perfect alley
right down the middle.
Took off, touchdown.
Touchdown, Tivy.
And there's a yellow flag.
Holding. It's called back.
So now we're on the 10-yard line.
The coach signals in to play "Sky 2".
I look at the wristband.
I look down, I look up,
I look at the sideline,
and this m*therf*cker called
tin trap again.
Snap to Manziel.
Looks like he's gonna
take this one to the house!
Take it from the 10-yard line
all the way to the house
for a 90-yard touchdown.
A 90-yard touchdown
from Johnny Manziel.
It all starts here
and on thousands of football fields
like this all over the country.
It's where the quarterbacks of tomorrow
learn their future skills.
Everybody wants to be
the quarterback.
Nobody's watching the nose tackle except
for the nose tackle's wife and mother.
I think the way that I played quarterback,
it was just a different kind of football.
I always watched Brett Favre growing up,
a guy who'd run around
and make a ton of plays.
Brett Favre, and I like Vince Young.
Vince Young is who I'd like
to have my style known as.
There's a play that I will remember
for the rest of my life.
Vince Young, pump fake...
Great pump fake.
...and the defender jumped.
Say goodbye to Vince Young.
It fit me how I wanted to play football.
It fit me how I naturally played football.
Always try to keep the elbow
at least parallel with the shoulder.
As a quarterback,
square your shoulders up with the line
of scrimmage before delivering the ball.
You wanna see the ball secure,
not flopping around.
Even though I was 5'10",
maybe 5'11" on a good day,
you know, I didn't even
have to think about it.
Manziel. Touchdown, Antlers.
It was just run around
and play backyard football,
and don't let that guy tackle you.
Throw it to the guy that's open.
I remember he straight-up hurdled
a dude that was standing up straight.
He was playing with children,
and he would manhandle them.
He had seven touchdowns
in the first half
last week against Fredericksburg.
You look at his numbers,
and he has not disappointed it.
He picked up
the Associated Press
Player of the Year award.
Johnny Manziel
certainly lives up to the hype.
Touchdown. Touchdown, Johnny Manziel.
Coming into senior season,
check out these numbers. 3,609 yards.
Seventy-five touchdowns?
I thought that was a typo. I thought
that was for his career, not this season!
My senior year,
I started to get recruited a little bit.
Not anything crazy,
but I wanted to play football
at the University of Texas.
But I'd never really gotten anything
other than your basic,
normal recruiting letters.
He grew up
with Longhorn T-shirts, Longhorn hats,
Longhorn this, Longhorn that,
and I really think
that he always thought he'd go there,
and it just didn't work out.
I remember walking
into the office one day,
and my coach goes,
"Texas A&M just offered you a full ride."
It is not a simple thing,
the making of a quarterback.
It is the stuff of which legends are made.
Texas A&M was all male,
all m*llitary for a long time.
A&M's always had a reputation
as the blue-collar school of the state.
It's the roll-up-your-sleeves,
it's the gritty school.
You know, back in the day,
it's where the people from the rural parts
of Texas came to college.
It's been interesting,
the last 20 years or so,
because college football's changing.
The Big 12 Conference
is about to get smaller.
Texas A&M University gave its notice
to the athletic conference,
said it plans to leave the league
by next July.
One of the things that we talk about
in collegiate athletics,
the athletic department is the front porch
to the university.
For more and more universities
across the country,
success on the football field now equals
a higher profile for the entire school.
A&M is moving towards
a jump to the Southeast Conference
as SEC is home to teams
like Florida, Auburn, and LSU.
We're talking about exposure,
brand recognition,
billion-dollar decisions here, and more.
Welcome to the SEC.
They were basically saying,
"This is a defining moment
in our program's history,"
but there were a lot of people
that were wondering,
"Is this the best move?"
We're talking about a football program
that's three games over .500
the last nine seasons.
We're not talking about
a national superpower here.
At the time, we would've been considered
middle of the road in the Big 12,
and there was a national narrative
that Texas A&M cannot compete in the SEC.
The SEC has
five national championships in a row.
They're going into the toughest league
in the country. We all know that.
And it's the toughest by a long sh*t.
And then
there was a coaching change.
I wanna welcome Kevin Sumlin
as new head football coach at Texas A&M.
They hired Kevin Sumlin,
and he had an offensive coordinator
by the name of Kliff Kingsbury,
and he had this wide-open,
high-flying offense.
How does this offense
translate going against SEC defense?
Hell, we'll find out. We'll find out.
But what no one knew
was they had this kid
from Kerrville, Texas,
this quarterback named Johnny Manziel.
One of Texas A&M's
potential starting quarterbacks
was arrested early this morning
in Northgate.
Patrol officers say
they saw two men fighting.
One of the two was Manziel.
Johnny and one of his crappy high school
friends were down in College Station,
ends up turning into a fight.
Johnny has a fake ID on him, goes to jail.
You know,
I don't have much of a recollection
other than waking up shirtless
on a concrete bench in Bryan County Jail,
and they said that wasn't very,
um, normal of my character.
I guess looking back now,
maybe it is a little bit normal
for my character.
Johnny'd gotten in some trouble,
but I remember Kliff Kingsbury telling me,
"You know that's the guy, right?
No matter what."
When he got in-line in fall camp,
it was like a different human.
It was like,
"All right, y'all about to see why."
Our first game was at home at Kyle Field
against the University of Florida,
and Johnny Manziel's
making his first start.
Steps it outside, nothing doing.
Manziel just couldn't b*at 'em
with his arm.
Rough, rough sledding.
We end up losing 21-17,
something like that.
I'm walking home, get to the end
of the street right in front of the house,
and there are so many
"for sale" signs in my yard,
and I just remember looking at 'em
being like, "Welcome to the f*cking SEC."
But then, our second game
was a road game at SMU.
Now, I remember Kliff telling me
after that first game,
"I should've just let him do his thing."
And from that point and on,
I think he did that.
And then Johnny happened.
First down and ten,
Manziel pumps once.
Now he is forced out of the pocket.
He's running, and some of those guys
back there don't know.
Oh, broken tackle. 20.
Cutting back to his left.
He's gonna get in. That's a touchdown.
It just all happened,
so free and so natural,
and was just everything aligning
right with the universe,
the way that it should be.
He got away from that guy.
Now he's gonna throw under duress.
And he made a catch!
Manziel is a magician today.
It's unbelievable.
We're watching him grow up here.
At A&M, we had a saying.
It was "Win or lose, we booze."
And it was real tr... real true.
Here's Manziel,
breaks a tackle.
In the end zone! Yeah!
70 to 14. A&M improves to two and one.
People think of athletes as being
these super disciplined, on a diet,
just being absolutely committed
to their craft.
Manziel going deep.
It's caught. This may be 80 yards.
I never saw him look at a playbook
ever. I've never seen it happen.
After football,
he didn't talk about football.
So it was as if he was just
doing this thing on the side,
and the reason wasn't to be badass
and win and do
all these unbelievable feats,
it was for what happens after you win.
He's got the first down.
He's got the end zone. Touchdown!
I've never seen the A&M fan base,
the power brokers,
and everybody as confident as they were,
because it was lightning in a bottle.
And A&M fans could say, "That's my guy."
"He's one of us."
As everything's blowing up,
I think he just rolled with it.
So we're going
to Mississippi State on Friday,
Friday morning we see these pictures...
...and he's in a Scooby-Doo outfit,
and you can tell
he's obviously had a couple of cocktails.
I remember opening my eyes
and seeing our grad assistant saying,
"Kliff send me over here
to come and grab you,"
gave him a little sh*t about it,
and he's like,
"Listen, bud, we're in the thick of
an SEC race right now,
so we gotta have you on the field."
And he rolls out there hungover,
goes through the walk-through,
he's pouring sweat.
And I just looked at him and said,
"You better f*cking play good."
Rolling right.
He's wide open.
He is gonna get another first down.
He's after the, a...
He's cutting back to his right.
He just scored!
I don't know how he did it.
He plays one of the best games
he's ever played,
and for the rest of the season,
I always put the ball in his hands.
And the legend of No 2
continues to build.
I don't think many people had kinda seen
someone play that way and live that way.
It's funny too. Johnny coming in,
bringing that renegade element to it.
It was interesting to see A&M,
the old heads, sit back and go,
"You know what? We're gonna go with this."
At that point, it was like,
"This has been fun."
You know, "The little white kid
running around making plays has been fun,
but... but welcome to reality.
Here comes Alabama."
The Cotton Bowl is dominated by Alabama.
The Crimson Tide of Alabama is
on the flood this New Year's Day.
Alabama wins the inaugural
Southeastern Conference Championship.
Crimson Tide wins
the National Championship.
Alabama. They win the BCS Championship.
Fourteen national championships.
Man, that's pretty much all you gotta say.
What is it
about the Crimson Tide this year,
last year, that's made them
so good under Nick Saban?
You mean the last four years?
Nick Saban is the most dominant
head coach in the college football
and maybe all of American sports.
I remember before the Alabama game,
somebody said, "Good luck."
Does A&M have a chance to win this game?
A&M has as much chance
of b*ating Alabama
as I do to hit the lottery.
Kliff saying, "We don't need it.
We got Johnny."
A hundred and one thousand
will fill this place
by the time we kick it off.
Whoo!
Day of the game,
I watch the movie 300,
and I tweet this out
before we walk into the stadium,
And that felt like the perfect spot
that we could be in.
We have zero expectations
to win this game.
Win, win, win...
And when you have that
"What the f*ck? Does it really matter?"
attitude, you play better.
Manziel takes off again.
Uh-oh. Stiff arm.
We came out and scored
on our first three drives of the game.
Four-man Alabama rush. Got him.
Oh no, they didn't.
- Oh, my gracious.
- Yep.
How about that?
Boom, score, 14-nothing.
Get a stop. Boom, 20-nothing.
A&M has been unstoppable.
It was the fastest
we've ever started.
Johnny was on fire, running, throwing,
and that place got quiet really quickly.
Alabama fans are going,
"I've never seen anything like this
in my life."
But then, day turns to night.
'Bama comes back.
Touchdown, Alabama.
This is a stacked,
stacked Alabama offense.
Lacy left side. Lacy leaning.
Lacy's in!
'Bama had all the momentum,
and it was looking
like you were gonna let one get away.
And Manziel knows it.
Alabama is still alive.
Johnny walks over where I am
with some national media people,
and he said,
"f*ck Nick Saban.
f*ck Alabama. That's it."
"We're scoring a touchdown
right here. Watch."
Next play is a fake wheel
around the sideline,
and I probably throw the best pass
I've ever thrown in my life.
- He's got Swope.
- My gosh, what a pass!
Swope never broke stride.
Get to the 20, see man coverage.
I do our check.
Malcome Kennedy runs a corner.
Wobbly ball, and we score.
Ball wobbles, it's caught!
Touchdown!
Malcome Kennedy.
Comes running off the sideline,
and he's saying, "I f*cking told you."
And the national media guy looks at me
and goes, "Dude's a witch."
Let's get this over with.
Right now! Right now!
Those two plays,
you know, changed Johnny's life.
Finally, at the very end,
50 seconds left,
you go and you take a knee in Tuscaloosa,
and you win the game.
A&M did it.
They just did it.
Lightning in a bottle in Tuscaloosa.
And did Johnny Football put himself
in position to be a Heisman Trophy winner?
You walk off the field like a f*cking G.
The feeling walking
into that locker room after
was such a joy and a rush
for you and your boys.
To do the undoable,
to b*at the unbeatable,
and to...
...really change the course
of our history for... forever.
And I didn't know
how serious it was
until I walked outta the locker room.
I would always go find my parents.
I couldn't find 'em.
By the time we got to Johnny,
it is a mob.
I gave 'em, like,
a two-second hug
and immediately wanted to get on the bus.
He looked at me, and he had this fear
in his eye that I've never seen before.
When I got on the bus,
I was like, "Holy f*ck."
"What is this?"
I think that's really where my role in...
in this begins, for sure.
I mean, I always had a role as a friend,
but it becomes a little more defined
when he has trouble
getting around publicly.
Johnny Manziel is the talk
of the sports world.
It was just pure chaos, 24/7,
if you stepped out of the house.
Look at this T-shirt right here.
Supporting Johnny. Look.
Texas A&M is looking to profit
from the success of their quarterback.
The team store is selling his jersey
for the first time this season.
And one thing that came with it
was people seeking autographs.
And so, Nate turned into,
like, a manager for me.
Everything went through Nate.
The resources that should've been there
for Johnny definitely weren't.
Had they been,
I wouldn't have been part of this picture.
We didn't have the support.
We didn't know what to do.
He couldn't go to class
because people would just mob him.
They had to put him in online classes,
which, for Johnny Football,
is not a good idea.
What makes this story
so amazing is that, in the preseason,
hardly anyone knew who Johnny Manziel was.
A young man they call Johnny Football.
- Johnny Football?
- Yeah, Johnny Football, Johnny Manziel.
I was dealing with a lot of media requests
for Johnny on a national scale,
but at the time,
Coach Sumlin had a policy:
"Freshmen do not talk to the media."
It played a huge role
in the intrigue
and the mystery of what he was
'cause he never spoke.
So it was like, "Who is this masked man?"
- Here comes Johnny Football.
- There goes Johnny Football.
- Can you say "magic"?
- He's magic.
And then, you throw on,
you know, first year in the SEC,
he's unbelievably talented,
he's definitely
kind of this bad-boy figure.
My phone was ringing.
He was j... It was... It was unbelievable.
Adidas has actually run out of
the blank maroon No 2 jerseys.
Manziel's legend grows just as fast.
He transcended certainly college football,
but also sports.
Sent home from school
with a Johnny Manziel carved
into the back of his head.
You know, it just keeps growing,
and then, he's a household name.
Welcome into Johnny Manziel
and Jim Muncy's world of fantasy football.
Johnny Football
You're an angel to us
We had one week
before the Heisman ballots were due,
and Johnny did
a press conference on campus.
All right,
ladies and gentlemen,
thank you for coming today.
It's my honor and privilege
to introduce a young man
that's about to turn 20 on December 6th,
Texas A&M quarterback, Johnny Manziel.
We'll start over here to the right.
Johnny,
Pedro Gomez from ESPN.
There's so much talk about a freshman
possibly winning the Heisman...
You're a legend in Kerrville.
What advice can you give
to all high-school...
You're the favorite for Heisman.
People are talking about even two.
Does that scare you?
What is the craziest thing
a fan's done for you?
I did see people in Scooby-Doo costumes
at the game the other day.
I'm gonna put that up there at the top.
The winner of this year's Heisman Trophy
will be announced Saturday
right here in New York.
Manziel is considered the favorite.
He'd be the first freshman ever
to win the trophy.
The Heisman Trophy will be awarded
just a few hours from now,
and we are honored
to be joined by the finalists.
This was for all three of you. We got
a couple of seniors here and a freshman.
Does any of that matter anymore
when determining the Heisman?
I'd like to hear from all of you on that.
I don't think so. Um, I think...
Good evening, everyone. I'm Jim Nantz.
We're at the home of the Heisman Trophy,
the most prestigious prize
in all of college sports.
You know, I'd watched
every Heisman ceremony since I was a kid.
I remember the Reggie year,
the Matt Leinart year,
I remember Cam's, RG3's,
and one thing that I did know is
that a freshman wasn't gonna win
the Heisman,
and there was a huge,
huge stigma around that,
that it was almost taboo.
Might this be the year
the final class barrier is broken down
by the voters, a first-ever freshman
to win the Heisman Trophy?
There were three people
that were in Heisman contention.
It was really Collin Klein,
Manti Te'o, and myself.
And to the winner,
your name will forever be associated
with the legacy of being
a Heisman Trophy winner.
I was so unbelievably nervous.
I looked down a lot
because I felt like my suit jacket
was gonna be jumping like this
'cause I felt like my heart
was b*ating outta my chest.
The 2012 winner
of the Heisman Memorial Trophy is...
...Johnny Manziel
And when my name was called,
I felt pride, just the most joy
I've ever felt in my life.
I was just praying
they called his name, and, um...
just what a great sound.
It was a great sound.
A lot of emotions in there,
and, um, you know,
a long road of raising him.
To Mom, Dad, Meri,
you mean the world to me.
I just wanna thank you
for the encouragement,
the love, and the patience over the years.
It was awesome
to see how emotional my dad was
and just how proud of me he was.
It's been a long time
since I've seen him like that,
uh, so the impact that's had on me
has been tremendous.
Whoo-hoo!
As you raise your child,
you wanna give him
every opportunity to get
to where he wants to be,
and, um, he achieved that tonight,
and, um, we're not done yet,
but, um, he's definitely on his way.
It all changed after the Heisman.
It becomes a little bit larger
than football at that point.
Congratulations, Johnny, what are you
gonna do with your prize money?
Did they give you money?
- I wish.
- Yeah.
And then, after the Heisman,
people started talking about money.
What a year it has been.
Namely, Texas A&M's first year in the SEC.
And not only did Texas A&M compete,
we excelled.
The nation knows him as Johnny Football,
your 2012 Heisman Trophy winner,
Johnny Manziel.
Johnny Football, hey, whoo!
I don't know if there's been a more
impactful athlete for a university
than Johnny Football and Texas A&M,
and everybody was along
for the ride and... and benefiting.
And that's just a fact.
Whether it's Kevin Sumlin and...
and his mega-contract he signed,
Kliff Kingsbury and where his career went,
even our business, like,
something that covers Texas A&M.
It certainly is bringing
more visitors
and... and more Aggies and more SEC visitors
to come in to see our community.
We sold out all of the hotels
in all of Bryan-College Station.
There was nobody
that was looking sideways
once we started winning
and having the run we had.
I mean, everybody knew
that they were gonna profit off this run.
According to one estimate,
Manziel's Heisman
has been worth $37 million
in free publicity for Texas A&M.
If you don't think it's easier
to recruit professors
after they see Johnny Manziel,
then you don't know much
about public relations.
The people that benefited
were the school. Hugely.
The Texas A&M Foundation
raised more than $740 million,
$300 million more
than any other one-year period
in the university's history.
The donations just skyrocketed.
You know the saying,
"Strike while the iron's hot."
The iron was never hotter.
Because of Johnny's success,
people have a belief
that Texas A&M can compete in the SEC.
So we need to upgrade.
A makeover of Texas-sized proportions.
A&M proposed a renovation plan
that could fit
more than 100,000 people in Kyle Field.
There were two times
throughout the season
where I had to sign
hundreds and hundreds of autographs.
We had 'em all lined out
for all of our donors.
This is where, I guess,
I see a little bit behind the scenes,
kind of what they were doing
through that year
for donations and building a new stadium.
I was tired of not having any money,
and I sure as hell saw "45 million
No 2 A&M Adidas jerseys sold."
It didn't make any sense, and...
...I had a bone to pick.
Football is an industry that makes
billions of dollars every year
at both the pro and collegiate levels.
And while professional players
can count on fat paychecks,
college athletes can't make a dime.
I have a deep hatred against the NCAA.
Athletes argue the organization
continues to profit off student-athletes
without giving them a fair cut.
In 2012, the NCAA was basically,
um, set up to make sure
there was a level playing field
in college football.
The NCAA president testified
that any effort to pay players
would destroy a framework that has been
in place for more than a century.
We provide students
with access to education,
and there's not even a salary to debate.
They're not employees. They're students.
You're allowed to have a full scholarship,
you're allowed to get meals,
have your books paid for,
classes, housing,
and that was basically it.
The idea of athletes being paid,
do you think that will ever happen
at the NCAA level?
Not while I'm president of the NCAA.
There was no marketing deals,
there's no advertising deals.
You... You couldn't make money
off your likeness or image, none of that.
He knew everybody
was making a ton of money
out of Johnny Football mania, so,
"Hey! I'm gonna try to get mine."
It all started
at a national championship game
in my freshman year.
Me and Nate flew down to Miami.
I'm sitting there waiting on our bags,
and this guy comes out to me,
and he's like,
"I've got some money
for you if you wanna sign,"
and I just kinda blew the guy off
a little bit, and he's like,
"Yo, I've got $3,000 for you to sign."
And I remember taking my headphones off
and turning around
looking at this guy like...
"Where are we going?"
They've got liquor.
They've got everything to make it fun.
As we're kinda hours into this whole deal,
one of the guys is like,
"This guy's f*cking you over,"
and slid me a number.
He's like, "Trust me, like,
the king of all autographs is downstairs
and you guys are getting hosed
totally on the count, the money."
"It's all... It's all screwed.
You gotta go downstairs."
There was like
a black Rolls-Royce Dawn out front.
He's like, "Hey, hold up,"
and I look up on the thing,
and it was Alex Rodriguez calling.
He's like, "Tell this dude I'm good,"
and I remember him just like,
"100%, he's good."
I'm like, "Can't argue with that."
"Here's what we're gonna do.
I'm gonna get a room
at the Fontainebleau."
"I'm gonna set everything up in there."
"When you get done, sh**t me a picture,
and I'll give you the code to the safe."
"Thirty grand."
And once that happened for the first time,
it was, like, game on.
Constructing the business
was really just logic.
And I hate to even call it a business
because it wasn't really a business.
It was just, um...
Well, it was a business.
We were going back once in February,
once in March, once in April, once in May.
Business is booming.
For a 19-year-old kid to have about
100 grand in cash stuffed under your bed,
it was awesome.
You have to also understand,
we weren't just signing autographs.
Cabo. California.
Not looking good for the Padres.
All over the place.
Throwing a dart on a map.
Finish our drinks,
go straight to the airport.
Wake up and we're like,
"What are we doing in Washington, DC?"
How does a college kid get
courtside seats? They are expensive seats.
We went to LIV Nightclub,
which was big at the time.
The next thing I know, Rick Ross
is just passing us these purple bottles.
Please welcome Johnny Manziel!
He's one of your boys, clearly.
Johnny's like one of the best guys,
and I feel like our friendship
will last for... for a very long time.
We went to the Super Bowl,
first row, 50-yard line.
We went to Maxim Magazine party
and had drinks with Jamie Foxx,
with Andy Roddick.
Met up with Wale, Justin Timberlake,
and Jessica Biel that night.
None of them could believe he was there.
I'm going in my head
'cause I'm 20 years old,
I'm so badass.
And I remember...
...I got this silk Versace shirt,
Gucci sunglasses.
And I still, to this day,
have the first Gucci wallet
that I ever, ever bought.
There's still the price tag there.
So I thought this was, like,
the coolest thing in the world.
We make this list of
what do we wanna accomplish in our life,
you know, what do we wanna do?
He's like, "I don't know.
You write yours, and I'll write mine."
You know,
"Make a million dollars,
go see this, go see that."
All those stupid things you do as a kid,
you know, we did together.
He's in my ear the whole time
telling me we're the baddest thing
that ever existed, and "Let's roll."
"This is what life is like forever."
And I thought that it was at the time.
This train was going
full speed ahead...
...and it didn't really stop
until the NCAA got involved.
Texas A&M star quarterback,
Johnny Manziel,
has come under scrutiny this week.
Accused of signing
sports memorabilia for money.
I go to my dad, and I was like,
"Oh sh*t," like, "I... I really f*cked up."
Johnny calls me, he says, "Hey,
I'm being investigated. What do I do?"
I said, "Don't say a word.
Don't do nothing."
Here we go again.
There may be two other questionable
autograph-signing sessions.
There's growing concern
Johnny Manziel may not even be in uniform...
The NCAA had an entire division
that was dedicated
to finding athletes breaking the rules.
That is no joke.
Johnny Football could lose
part of his eligibility, if not all.
Is this the end for Manziel?
But we had already formed
an immaculate defense.
We talked,
and I devised a plan that was brilliant.
I started with, "How does he get caught?"
He gets caught because somebody takes
a picture during a paid autograph session.
You can sign autographs all you want.
The part you have to conceal
is money being paid.
You have all this cash,
can't go buy a flight,
so I remember calling
my grandpa one day and asking him,
"Hey, is there any way
that I can, you know, give you some cash,
and then you're able to give me a check,
so I'm able to put some money
into the bank account?"
And my grandpa's a f*cking G.
You know, Nate was very okay
with being the fall guy.
And with that,
me and Nate split everything 80-20.
The next step is,
how are you gonna explain
why you are wearing Rolexes
and driving new cars
and flying in private jets?
As a freshman, you weren't allowed
to talk to the media,
but they were allowed to talk to me.
And so the biggest spin
that still exists today,
I invented a narrative
that his family was vastly wealthy.
I've been blessed
with family members
that have had these opportunities,
and I've always been able to do this.
We sold a little bit of a dream
that my family had more money,
um, than they actually did.
What's interesting is here's a kid
who doesn't need money.
He comes from oil money.
A kid who came from oil money.
We're not doing anything criminal.
We're just not abiding by the NCAA bylaws
on which you're not allowed to make money.
Well, Johnny Football suspended
for half a game.
The NCAA says there is no evidence
that Manziel took money,
but he still violated the rules
by signing certain photographs.
They, um, penalized him half a game
for failure to prevent
the commercialization of his name.
And we went right back
to signing autographs.
The last time the reigning Heisman Trophy
winner returned to play in the SEC
was Tim Tebow back in 2007.
Now, it's this man's turn.
The one person that everybody
had their eyes on earlier this morning
was Johnny Football.
Once he won the Heisman,
I saw a different side of him.
It was like there was nothing stopping him
from doing what he wanted to do.
What was going on with the NCAA,
for years and years and years,
was just wrong,
and I went into that suspension pissed,
but also with the biggest smirk
on my face ever.
And then, from then on out,
everything I really did
just got absolutely nitpicked
and torn apart.
People saying,
"He's traveling around the world,
he's done Jay Leno,
he hasn't been at practice very much."
f*ck your practice.
I'm the best player in the country.
Manziel caught a lot of heat
from the media
after leaving the Manning Passing Academy.
Some reports say Manziel was hungover
and missed camp.
What happened on the weekend?
Um, nothing...
nothing more than I overslept.
I was a shark in a fish t*nk,
and I didn't really feel
like I had any way to move.
Early Sunday morning,
Manziel posted a quote,
Manziel was reportedly quickly
and harshly removed from a frat party.
I like to have fun in my life.
I like to live my life to the fullest,
and if that upsets some people, I'm sorry.
What Johnny needed
was to be held accountable.
When you turn your son over
to a coach and to a program,
they're supposed to not only teach him
how to play football,
they're responsible to turn him
into a good young man.
I always felt
you had to be careful
on trying to tell Johnny
how to live his life.
Wasn't ideal I think, for us as coaches,
but it was kinda like, that's
the dark side he needed to play good,
and as long as
he wasn't getting in trouble, um,
do your deal.
Um, nobody's really ever been
in this situation.
We've been very clear with Johnny
and his family about the dos and don'ts,
but, um, there's not a perfect person
in this room.
For the school,
how do you take him out
and waste a season?
How do you do that,
financially or anything else?
Y... You don't.
So the suspension
that many around college football
felt was just a joke is now history,
and Johnny Manziel
is a college football player again.
Johnny! Johnny!
Johnny! Johnny!
In for his first snap of 2013.
And Manziel takes off.
There goes Johnny Football!
That's why they love him
here in College Station.
Here's his other standard move
after a touchdown.
All this money thing
that he started doing,
I didn't like it,
but people begged for that.
Show me the money, baby!
This season started
with enormous expectations
for Johnny Manziel.
Perhaps his second Heisman Trophy,
SEC National Championship.
Third of the half for Johnny Football.
Following the touchdown,
unsportsmanlike conduct,
No 2 of the offense, 15-yard penalty...
There were people trying
to put discipline on me.
That's not okay,
and obviously, I addressed that
on the sideline right after the play.
But at the same time,
nobody knew how to handle
everything that was going on.
There is a code of conduct
for the reigning Heisman winner,
and he violated it once again.
He's hanging out with Drake and LeBron,
and he's coming home...
You think he cared
what came out of me and Paul's mouth?
At that point, you were like...
Didn't matter.
This guy's been partying since
he stepped into College Station,
so I think he's just being himself.
Can college football
take three more years of Johnny Football?
Say whatever you want
about Johnny Manziel,
if you can watch one player
in college football, you wanna watch him.
I'm getting approached by agents
knowing if I come back out this year,
and I recreate even a smidgen
of that success,
I'm gonna have millions of dollars
and be the first quarterback
taken in the draft.
Biggest question involving
the former Heisman winner
is whether he should head to the pros
while his draft stock
is looking so bright.
I bitched out on workouts
and felt like I didn't have to do
what everybody else was doing,
and that whole idea and mantra
I had in my head from Kerrville of,
"You're gonna dress the same way,
do the same thing as the guy next to you,"
was completely eliminated
in six months' time.
Got a feeling
Johnny Manziel's a little frustrated.
I think all of the expectation,
the partying, the NCAA stuff,
all the A&M, all the pressure,
I think it changed him.
There's a reaction
on the sidelines
from A&M's leader, Johnny Manziel.
The thing that makes him
who he is,
is his passion and emotion.
It's our challenge
to try to keep that energy positive.
Johnny Manziel just can't help himself.
You draw the line in the sand,
he steps over that line.
Let's remember this.
This problem did not happen last year.
Turn the f*ck up!
Last week was one
of his most disappointing games
since he's been at Texas A&M.
And the ovation
for Johnny Manziel
along with these seniors
as they close the door on Kyle Field.
There's no reason the team we had
should be eight and four that year.
We were better than that.
But it didn't matter
'cause you're looking at mock drafts
and you're looking forward and...
whether people like to say it or not,
I was bigger than College Station.
So it was just kinda time to move on
and go do the next thing.
Johnny Manziel made it official today,
no surprise,
announcing he's gonna leave college
to enter the NFL draft.
The big question,
"Where will Manziel go in the draft?"
I think I was considered
a very risky person, um, for him
'cause I knew everything.
And so I think that the counsel
he was receiving at the time
was probably sound advice, which is like,
"Hey, you're no longer doing
this half-ass, 20-year-old management."
I... I just knew I was super loyal,
and that I contributed everything,
mind, body, soul, spirit, to help him,
erm, and an image needed to change
from being best friend
to it needed to be a big firm.
We'd originally told him
that there wasn't gonna be a guy
with me in the day-to-day,
and when we told him
that wasn't gonna happen,
I kinda think, like, he felt his role
and the whole role was diminished,
and kinda pulled away.
And I don't think
we've spoken again since then.
You know, for me,
this is what we'd talked about
flying on those planes to South Beach.
You know, this is what we talked about
at the Fontainebleau sitting by the pool.
So, you know, I felt terrible about it,
but at the same time,
because of what my track record was,
they weren't gonna allow me to do that.
And Nate being away
was probably a safeguard for a while.
I didn't care
about the business side of it.
Truly, I didn't.
The only thing I was hurting about
was that I loved Johnny.
He was my best friend.
I was, um... unbelievably loyal to my guys.
U... Until you really can't be anymore.
Yeah, I'm Erik Burkhardt.
Um, I was Johnny's sports agent
for way too many years.
So it's such a big deal,
especially for a quarterback,
if they can go in the first round,
because if he goes top five,
we're talking 20 to 25 million.
And every pick in the first round,
the money starts falloff
about a million dollars.
So many people
had been making millions of dollars
on the back of Johnny and his teammates,
largely after that Heisman year.
He earned this contract,
which was still gonna be peanuts
compared to what so many other people
had made on his back the whole time.
I was real. I didn't come in
saying, "You're gonna go top ten."
I came and I go,
"You're not going in the first round."
He does not belong in the top 25.
He may get a bump to second round.
He's not getting in the first round.
The big questions on Johnny were gonna be,
"Do you really wanna be a quarterback,
or do you wanna be famous?"
'Cause he was super famous already.
There's things Johnny's gotta answer
moving forward
to be a quarterback and be a leader.
We can leave no doubt.
For somebody to take
your f*cked-up ass in the first round,
here's what this strategy
needs to look like.
I'm going straight to San Diego
and I'm getting
right into this pre-draft training.
Come right back.
So, number one: We're doing no PR.
The only thing coming outta your socials
is you sweating and working your ass off.
You need to gain some weight,
learn the game, no drinking,
and when you show up
at the NFL Combine in two months,
now they're really
gonna start considering you.
You know, 6:30, 7:00 in the morning
until seven, eight o'clock at night,
and you just do it on repeat
over and over and over again.
We're gonna go crazy
and do a record-setting
Nike deal through LeBron's team,
but we're gonna do those in silence.
I was drug testing him every other week
'cause I know that's gonna come up,
and I wanna be able to go,
"Here's 25 drug tests.
I've been testing him."
"'Cause when I signed him,
I didn't know what I was dealing with,
but I wanted you to have peace of mind."
You need to own who you were
and what you've done.
I was like, "We're gonna embrace
who you were
and say, 'Okay, but now it's time
to go be a pro, and I'm gonna grow up.'"
And that was my expectation
that he actually would.
I was really, really good until the week
before the combine in Indy,
and I finally just broke.
He calls me, and he's like,
"EB, I f*cked up."
Like, "How bad?"
I didn't remember much of the night.
I woke up in a hotel room,
and didn't know how I got there.
"Dude, I went to a party
last night in the Hills."
He's like, "Man, everyone was there.
Man, all the rappers, all the actresses."
I mean, I didn't know, going into Indy,
if I was really gonna be able
to pass a drug test.
He's clean the whole time before that.
The only thing I've ever been told was,
"Fail a drug test at the combine,
and you're gonna go from first-round pick
to maybe undrafted."
They're gonna drug test you day two here.
He's like,
"EB, I've been watching the NFL combine."
"I'm coming to the combine."
I say, "No, you're not." There...
We're not risking this, so we compromise.
I call Paul and Michelle. I'm like, "Okay,
you are checking yourself in the hospital,
Paul, with, like, f*cking heavy heart,
so that Johnny can divert
and come to the combine for 12 hours,
so that it doesn't look weird,
and put him on a plane down to see Dad
who's in the hospital."
"I'm so sorry, but we'll reschedule
these interviews."
That was my strategy, and Paul's like,
"Okay, Michelle, you're going,"
and, like, she's crying,
"I knew he would do this."
I'm like, "f*ck."
He's like, "I don't even get there
till tomorrow, bro."
"I'm gonna chug a gallon of f*cking water.
"I'll piss this sh*t out. Trust me."
He goes, "I... I've been passing these tests
at A&M for a while,"
which I come to find out on my own
it was their, like,
fourth-string backup quarterback
that was pissing for him at A&M.
- So how's the day been?
- It's been really good.
A little early morning, but we're kinda
in the mood now, in the swing of things.
I get, like, three gallons of water,
a bunch of Pedialyte,
and four drug tests.
There's, like, six hotels at the combine.
So every team's, like, staying
at these same hotels.
We get on the elevator, and up... Comes on.
Two general managers and a college
scouting director get on the elevator.
I'm holding the drug tests,
like, trying to hide them.
We go to my room.
We're, like, holding his piss up
in the bathroom of my hotel room,
and it's, like... it's a little ambiguous.
Johnny's just crushing liquids.
We take our second one.
It's a little lighter.
So he's like,
"Ha ha ha! We got this sh*t."
I was like, "Keep drinking."
What was that process like?
It was really cool to see... to see a bunch
of these coaches I've seen on TV and...
By the way, he of course
crushed his interviews.
In fact, rave reviews out of the combine
on how great he did.
And that was a very,
very, um, scary thing,
one that I think
snapped me out of it for a little bit,
and then once
I got through that unscathed, um...
you know, kinda let loose
a little bit more.
It was a pro day
done the Johnny Manziel way.
The next step is pro day
where he's gonna do the on-the-field.
I go to multiple pro days every year,
there will never be another like this.
A huge crowd
at College Station.
George and Barbara Bush even showing up.
Manziel's performance
receiving universal praise.
Our strategy's working.
The buzz is like, "He could go."
Most experts agree
he's gonna be a top-ten pick.
He'll be a top-ten pick.
At that point, our strategy was just
throw his ass in a cave, lock him up.
After I got through my pro day, I felt
like a majority of the work had been done.
Will the Houston Texans
pick Johnny Manziel first?
Houston, number-one pick.
The buzz is building in the city.
All around Houston,
billboards are up
to bring Johnny Football back to Texas.
He got involved
with a big charity foundation event.
The owner was gonna be there
with his wife.
Johnny ends up, like, donating
his own money to the cause.
It goes phenomenal.
The next day, I get a call.
"He was golfing today
at River Oaks Country Club,"
and it got back to the owner's family,
basically, that Johnny, by hole five,
had taken his shirt off,
"looked intoxicated,"
and broke multiple clubs over his knee
and threw 'em in the pond.
There goes Houston.
It's Weekend at Bernie's. It's just like,
how can we get him to the finish line?
The wheels are coming off.
I'm talking to him every day.
"Stay accountable. You've worked
your whole life. We got one month to go."
People are talking first pick overall
or a top ten.
The story that just sums up
the whole thing,
the night before his private workout
with the Browns...
They all fly in.
They're gonna do dinner
with him in College Station
with a private workout the next morning.
Dinner goes awesome.
So we go up to our rooms...
I miss about five calls from him.
I go over there, and it's a sh*t show.
Bottles of 1942 everywhere.
He's drinking
straight outta the wine bottles.
So the next day,
one of the receivers is missing.
This other receiver's drunk, can't get up.
So the Browns walk in the facility,
he's warming up,
they look over, they're like,
"Where's the receivers?"
And Johnny goes, "Ah, we're good."
You know who catches passes for him?
His lawyer,
his agent...
The first route, it's like,
"Okay, let's run a slant." I'm like...
Like I'm in high school, bros.
This is ridiculous.
I call him, like, "How'd it go?"
He said, "I f*cking k*lled it."
Welcome indeed
to New York City, to Radio City Music Hall
where, tonight, we find out
where Johnny Manziel will be playing...
There's cameras in our face
around our table the entire time.
From the minute we walk in,
it's like the Johnny Manziel Show.
"Where's he going?" And we have no idea.
With the first pick in the 2014 NFL draft,
the Houston Texans
select Jadeveon Clowney.
Then you had
the Jacksonville Jaguars at three.
I had on good authority. They were ready
to take a franchise quarterback.
The Jacksonville Jaguars
select Blake Bortles.
The first quarterback
of this draft selected
is not Johnny Manziel.
Bortles goes three, and Johnny's like,
"f*ck, yes! I'm going to Dallas."
What happens
when Jerry Jones gets the chance
to take Johnny Football?
I really thought the floor
would probably be Dallas at 16.
They wait the whole clock.
If they take Johnny Manziel
right now, this place is gonna explode.
The Dallas Cowboys select
Zack Martin, guard, Notre Dame.
We're sitting at the draft table,
and he's just going down the draft.
A lot of teams did their homework.
Snubbed by team
after team after team after team.
I was nervous about it.
You can see it on my face on draft night.
I think you can see it
in a lot of people around me.
Like, if I don't get picked
in the first round, I'll probably
disappear, run off the face of the earth.
And I remember being horrified.
Like, my career's
on the line right now too.
So at that point, I'm, like,
texting Cleveland,
"Come back in, bro. Trust me."
- Browns at 26 just moved up to 22.
- Johnny!
And you can hear the chant
in the Radio City Music Hall for Johnny.
Ha ha ha!
With the 22nd pick,
the Cleveland Browns select
Johnny Manziel,
quarterback, Texas A&M.
My goodness.
That moment was unbelievable.
Right there,
is the hope for the city of Cleveland.
As down as it felt... It felt like
we were in there for three days.
He walks across that stage,
and does the Money Manziel.
Holy sh*t.
He went in the first round.
It all works out.
The Browns finally get
the face of their franchise.
I was like, "We're gonna make it."
"He's gonna be the savior.
They're gonna build statues of this guy."
And then, I'll never forget,
we leave the draft,
we're at this light and the sunroof's open
and Johnny's like,
crushing sh*ts of whatever
in this limo with his family and friends,
and we look up
and it was the first Nike ad on the side
of this building in New York,
and I was like, "Wow."
"Let's go."
Well, the news is
Johnny Manziel is having
a ripple effect across Browns Nation.
- Johnny!
- Whoa!
You know, the people around me
that I had, um,
were genuinely very, very excited.
You know, they thought this was
a great opportunity for me to come in
and to revitalize a franchise
that had been struggling for a long time.
You know, every day that passes,
every week that goes by is...
is only a positive thing for me.
There was so much pressure
on him and expectations,
and you could tell he was struggling.
Didn't take me very long
to be in Cleveland
to find out
that I wasn't gonna be happy there.
I had every single thing
that I could've 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.
You know,
I'd always had a great time
in the locker room with my guys
and the practice and the camaraderie
and everything that comes along with it,
but I never felt that way in the NFL.
What it takes to be the face of franchise
each and every day,
that's just not who he is,
and he never put that much into it.
If he wanted to do it, his skill set
and how good he is as a player,
he could've done it.
He never worked at it.
I started seeing signs
pretty early on in Cleveland.
The one thing for me
was he always loved the game,
and he'd call me after practice, like,
"I don't... Man, it's not fun anymore."
Their GM's calling me going,
"He doesn't watch tape."
I'm like, "Well,
he's gotta watch some tape."
He's like, "EB, his iPad hours is 0.00."
Zero.
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.
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.
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.
It's been life for so long now.
I can't really think back
to the days of how it was
when I didn't have people tweeting
or taking pictures of wherever I was.
I truly almost see those times
in black and white.
And I didn't know
why I couldn't see sunny days.
...Manziel,
and Manziel is buried.
And there's your first cash sign.
This thing of the, you know,
show me the money.
Every time they sack him,
the defensemen do that right in his face.
He had a terrible start in the NFL.
It was horrific...
Nothing like
the Johnny Football we saw at Texas A&M.
I'm supposed to be the savior.
You know, I'm just looking for a good day.
In the back of my head all the time,
I was telling myself,
"You do not wanna f*ckin' be here."
And "Do what you need to do to get out."
Stories surfaced about him
being late for team meetings.
He was demoted
to third-string quarterback.
A high-price, first-round draft pick
heading in the wrong direction.
Yeah, I...
You know, I made the decision
to go out on Friday night.
I think I was trying
to suppress how I felt,
and get out of being Johnny Football.
When he turned pro,
the partying became more public.
- I can't hear.
- He can't hear you.
There's too much money... in my... hand.
Nothing that I'm doing
on the weekends is affecting my job.
Nothing on the weekends that I'm doing,
um, is hopefully hurting
any of my teammates in my locker room.
So he kinda just said, "f*ck it.
I just got $8.5 million,
so I'll just go do what I want."
People around me always told me, like,
"You're doing this on purpose."
Now, in my conscious mind,
that didn't make sense to me.
He just keeps putting himself
in situations
where he's getting himself in trouble.
That guy knows
that he represents more than himself
and has issues off the field.
It's... It is frustrating.
I wanted to get him help.
We all knew he was self-destructing.
It was like he stopped caring.
And I was like, "Okay, we gotta do rehab."
Johnny Football,
the big bust of a rookie last year,
entered a treatment program on Wednesday.
It was hard the first couple days,
obviously being a guy
that's on every single TV.
He's been somewhat of a legend,
and perhaps to his own peril here.
I did have people
trying to figure out
which treatment center I was at,
and I remember
walking down the hill one day
and seeing this rental car drive
right past us,
and it was Jeremy Fowler
from ESPN, and I just...
It threw me for a loop
whenever that happened.
When he returned
to the team after ten weeks of rehab,
he looked and sounded like a changed man.
I'm gonna say "Loser in life."
Can't get out of it.
The hype and everything is
a little bit tempered and a little down,
and that, for me, is a good thing.
Got out of rehab.
He was doing awesome. He was focused.
He started playing,
and you could just gradually see,
once he started being around
other influences, here we go again.
When you take one step
onto a slippery slope,
you know, it goes pretty quick.
Remember, he went to rehab,
not supposed to drink.
Drank, got into a fight
with his girlfriend.
Both Manziel and the woman
told police they had been drinking.
No charges were filed.
And after that, it started to spiral
a little bit more and more and more.
I thought I would go to Vegas
on a Saturday afternoon
and I would turn around and come back
and be in time for the game the next day.
It sounded a little cuckoo,
but he had the wig on,
there was a fake mustache involved.
I sit down at a blackjack table,
and I can start to see people,
you know, looking at me a little bit.
This is when the Twitter shitstorm
absolutely hits the fan.
I don't know anything
about getting a plane to leave Vegas
to go back to Cleveland.
I'm looking at commercial flights.
I missed the last one at 10:30,
and at this point, I'm like,
"Well, let's f*cking rip it tonight."
I completely detached from all of it.
Johnny Football is now looking
for another team this morning.
The Cleveland Browns cutting ties
with Johnny Manziel
and his bad-boy behavior.
There is no future
for Johnny Manziel
with the Cleveland Browns,
certainly not anymore,
as the Browns have finally realized.
Manziel is not reachable.
It was just...
It was disastrous.
It was... It was the fall.
One of the biggest busts
in NFL history.
"Tiny," "selfish," "undisciplined,"
"immature," "sort of a brat."
Johnny Manziel arrived
as the future of Cleveland football,
and now he will soon leave
as an embarrassment.
When I got cut from the Browns,
I felt like the biggest weight
lifted off my shoulders ever.
But that didn't translate
into what I experienced
and what I...
...would deal with in my everyday life.
Dallas police say
they are examining
hotel surveillance video
showing an encounter between Manziel
and his ex-girlfriend, Colleen Crowley.
Crowley said Manziel
led her down a back stairway,
and that she told the valet,
"Please don't let him take me.
I'm scared for my life."
Throughout that relationship,
I was unfaithful
and, you know,
we get into a heated, heated argument.
You know, she's trying
to jump out of the car, and, um...
Colleen Crowley has obtained
a protective order from a judge in Texas
that will keep Johnny Manziel
away from her for two years.
It was so out of control,
but he couldn't hear it.
His mind was so gone. I mean, he was just...
Did you apologize for what happened?
What about rehab, Johnny?
Gonna go to rehab?
We tried to get him in another rehab.
Took him, you... you know.
He escapes.
Friends and family are concerned.
Everything going well?
My friends and family are all right.
They're with me.
My relationship
with Johnny was very strained.
"I've done everything I can for ya.
You're not listening."
"You're self-destructing.
You're disrespectful."
Pretty much "Go f*ck yourself. Go...
You know more than I do, so go ahead."
His dad says Manziel
refused rehab twice in the past week.
I said, "If you miss
one counseling session,
I will have to literally terminate you,"
which doesn't happen in agent business,
much less to Johnny Football.
Even his agent,
Erik Burkhardt, is dumping Manziel.
I got released
as a client of my uncle,
who was doing my attorney work.
My dad withdrew his name from my company,
and the people around me, closest to me,
were in the mindset of,
"We have to let him go."
And, you know, when that happened,
it was full-blown "I'm gonna rub
this whole thing in your f*cking face."
"You think you've seen something now?
You haven't seen sh*t yet."
You know,
the first point in my life
where I really ramped up my drug use
to a constant, daily thing.
- Johnny, got anything you wanna say?
- Johnny Football. How's it going?
I was mostly doing a lot of coke
and taking Oxys.
I went from 215 pounds in January
to 175 pounds by September.
The wires in my head seemed very twisted.
I got diagnosed as bipolar,
and I felt like it was the same as being
called an alcoholic or a drug addict.
The money and the fame
and the criticism and the social media
it is eating him alive.
I think I was just
running from problems.
Probably a f... five-million-dollar bender.
Direct self-sabotage,
trying to burn this thing down.
I had planned
to do everything that I wanted to do
at that point in my life.
Spend as much money as I possibly could,
and then my plan was to take my life.
You know, I... Months prior,
went and bought a g*n
that I knew I was gonna use.
I wanted it to get
as bad as humanly possible
to where it made sense,
and it made it seem like
an excuse and an out for me.
Still, to this day,
I don't know what happened,
but the g*n just clicked on me.
I couldn't fix what I'd done
with Colleen, with the NFL,
with A&M, everything.
You know, at that point in time,
I didn't have much
of a relationship with my family.
The ride was over.
I left LA not knowing
where I was gonna go, um,
not knowing what was gonna happen,
and I went back to Texas,
and, you know, I didn't really say
a whole lot to my dad,
just kinda showed up at the front door
and pretty much saying,
"I don't have anywhere else to turn, man."
Come on.
Come here.
Come here.
I took him yesterday and he was runnin',
runnin' wild on the golf course.
- I'll send you a video.
- You should take him every day.
He doesn't wanna stay
in the house, I know that.
It's been a long,
long road, and it's been...
I don't know if it's been great
or if it's been bad.
That's kinda still up for debate.
Come up the hill.
All right.
I'll drive down the first one.
But we're blessed,
and he's still with us.
Yeah.
And we can mend
all the fences still.
Hey, you hit
one good out of three.
But I think Johnny's got
a lot better days coming
than what he's had.
A lot of people wonder, you know,
why isn't he doing anything?
He's not in a place mentally
to go out and do something right now.
I know how much good
he can do in this world,
but I know the struggle he goes through
every single day of his life.
And it's never gonna go away.
I think people do maybe worry
about me sometimes,
but, I mean, that... that's natural.
You know, I've given them
reason to do that.
I didn't go into Texas A&M
thinking I was gonna play two years
and end up in the NFL draft.
You know, I thought if I ever
got to play football in college,
that would be
an unbelievable accomplishment for me.
And I tell people all the time,
it wouldn't have mattered
where I was at, um, what team.
Wherever it was,
at that point in time in my life,
I was incapable
of being a good NFL quarterback.
You know,
when you get to that point,
you're supposed to f*ckin' know better.
Supposed to know what to do,
behave like a pro.
You're supposed to push
your career forward,
your athleticism forward, you know,
your strive for being a great athlete.
But when it came down to it,
you know, I was a frat boy,
and it's just my frat
was the football team.
I loved what I did. I loved the freedom.
I loved being the guy
that got to go do all these amazing things
on and off the field.
You know, but at some point in time,
you have to look back
and think, "f*ck, was enough ever enough?"
You know, are you ever gonna be satisfied,
or you're just gonna continue
living that frat-boy life
for year after year after year
until you finally look up,
and you're still living it,
and it's been detrimental
to where you wanted to go in life
and what you wanted to do.
You know, it's hard for me to sit back
and look at these days.
It feels like a distant memory
for the most part.
But, you know, I'm very much
on the pursuit of happiness
in a way more simplistic form
than I was years ago.
I don't really see myself
as the... as the Johnny-Football-craze
that's kinda...
thatt's kinda swept Aggielands.
That swept around the nation a little bit.
Um, I see myself as Johnny Manziel.
I'm a guy from Kerrville, Texas,
who just tried to be a laid-back guy
who likes to hang out with my friends
and be a normal college student
just like anybody else.
Untold: Johnny Football (2023)
Moderator: Maskath3