Club Shay Shay welcomes Johnny Manziel for a candid conversation with Shannon Sharpe. In this episode, the Texas legend boldly declares Kyler Murray as the best high school quarterback to ever come out of the state, even placing him above Patrick Mahomes and himself. He shares insights that his decision to not commit to Oregon had nothing to do with Marcus Mariota’s presence, and then reminisces about beating Alabama as a true freshman at Texas A&M. The conversation takes a surprising turn as Manziel reflects on the Manti Te’o catfishing scandal and the historic Heisman race they were apart of, which Johnny Football inevitably won. With self-awareness of the spectacle that followed him in college, Johnny acknowledges the tens of millions of dollars he might have garnered in today’s NIL era and passionately advocates for the NCAA to return Reggie Bush his Heisman Trophy. Johnny answers if the infamous “Drake Curse” is real, and Manziel explains why he couldn’t have played for the Dallas Cowboys. Lastly, Money Manziel apologies to Skip Bayless, Drake and LeBron for not reaching the heights they expected him to during in his NFL career. This episode goes into overtime with the amount of sports anecdotes, reflections, and humorous confessions Johnny offers as signal caller.
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Club Shay Shay is a weekly podcast hosted by Shannon Sharpe – 3x Super Bowl champion, member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame and co-host of First Take on ESPN. Each week Shannon will sit down with athletes, celebrities and influencers to break down, analyze and discuss the latest headlines in sports, pop culture and everything in-between. Get on the VIP list at Club Shay Shay NOW and never miss an episode!
Johnny Manziel On Letting Drake, LeBron, Skip Bayless Down & Says His NIL Money Would’ve Been $10M+ | EP. 110
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There are people saying Johnny Manzel will be bigger than LeBron James in Cleveland I think that person is Skip bis all my life grinding all my life sacrifice hustle P the price want a slice got the roll of dice that’s why all my life been grinding all my life
All my life been grinding all my life sacrifice hustle price want a slice got the roll a dice that’s why all my life I’ve been grinding all my life Hello welcome to another episode of Club sh Shay I am your host Shannon sharp I’m also the proprietor of Club sha and the guy that’s stopping by for conversation today is one of the most polarizing College athletes ever one of the best college football players ever member of
The Texas A&M Hall of Fame he’s the first freshman to ever win the Heisman Trophy a rockstar quarterback a larger than life uh Persona a phenomenon he was must see TV every Saturday former NFL quarterback Texas Legend and the stadium in which he played in in college has
Been called the house that Johnny built Johnny Manzel what up baby bro how you doing thank you for having me long time coming man thank you bro I don’t want to toast I know you don’t drink anymore you don’t drink anymore right right right now I’m in the way don’t want to toast
Of water but nevertheless you baby appr I appreciate the offer I appreciate you stopping by yeah long time long time coming you know a long time coming get in on the action with draftking Sportsbook an official sports betting partner of the NBA new customers who
Deposit $5 or more can get no sweat bet up to $1,000 back in bonus bets download the draftking Sportsbook app now and use code Shannon new customers can get a no sweat bet up to $1,000 if your first bet loses only on draftking sports book with
Code Shannon the crown is you I’m trying to figure out what’s in the Texas water you get Patrick Mahomes Drew Brees Matthew Stafford Andrew Luck Kyler Mur Vince Young Nick fos RG3 Ryan Tan Baker Mayfield jayen Herz what the hell are they feeding them what are they drinking
In Texas to produce these type quarterbacks it’s a way of life from the time you a kid and you can go back even further than just the guys that you name that’s our current you know NL recent guys that you see but you can take it
Back you know there were guys that you see in the NFL let’s let’s give you a great example Andy Dalton right right what that guy did at TCU what he did for the State of Texas and if you’re a Dallas Fort Worth kid you love the frogs
During that time you know so there have been great quarterbacks come through the state of Texas for a long long time and I think it comes down to this that Texas high school football is a way of life you know from the time you’re five six years old you’re the pop warner
The flag football all that stuff that’s going on is a way of life and I played baseball my whole life growing up so football was never it for me until I got to be about 14 or 15 years old right so just look looking around and knowing the
Landscape now it’s only gotten bigger and it’s only growing but there is something in the water there’s a bunch of dogs not just at the quarterback position but all the way throughout I mean you look at Miles Garrett our our defensive player of the year we were talking about like there’s some real
Real cats that come from Houston they come from Dallas they come from San Antonio and they come from Austin right and it’s just a great state for football I mean if in my opinion if you look at it Countrywide you got Cali you got Texas and you have Florida where the
Dogs come from in my opinion do do you remember watching those guys playing High School football when you were growing up and did any of those guys you try to emulate yeah I think RG3 did an amazing job for me and like you know setting a great example of what a dual
Threat quarterback should be I mean I won the heis in 2012 right he won it in 2011 so I got to watch that crazy year of a highflying throw it around the yard kind of offense and a guy that could run that track speed everything that he had complete
Package for what you know in my opinion a college dual threat quarterback should be did you ever see any of those guys play high school football or just watched them from on when the highlights came on television I would say I watched Kyler’s career probably the closest okay
I had a huge hand in getting him to Texas A&M right um 2012 and 13 whenever I was at A&M I saw this kid and i’ had known his dad obviously a legendary quarterback at Texas and his own right but Kyler you know I saw this kid who
Was ingrained and like molded to be exactly where he’s at today in his life and I think that’s what his dad did for him to you know get him to a place of high level success and if you know anything about Texas High School Football I would say his resume and what
He did makes him hands down the best Texas high school football player to ever play player not just quarterback player ever in the state of Texas wow I think he lost I don’t know if he lost maybe one and that would have to be checked but like one and what this kid
Did made circles from not just Dallas not just Houston not just Austin from the top of the tip to the bottom and from east to west right with well what happened why wasn’t Texas A&M able to keep him you know I have my opinion on this
And one that I think is very correct and the fact that that same time we signed two five-star quarterbacks so we had Kyler Murray and Kyle Allen in that same class right um after I left the direction of the program I felt lost a lot of its stability um you know we had
Really good coaches in our organization but we didn’t hone in and detail and work and focus on one guy who was going to be our guy right they played this game a back and forth and not like Kyler Murray right we talking about lost one game his whole career you’re
Not going to go give this guy the keys I don’t care what he’s doing college is a time as a freshman you mold men right you mold these guys into what you want them to be when I went to college my dad shook Mike Sherman shook his hand and
Looked him in the eye and said this is where you take over and molding my son into being the grown-up that he needs to be one day and I think with that coach sumlin lost a little bit of what he was originally there to do right you get a
New contract you go to the SEC you win 12 games you get a Heisman winner you’re talking about new stadium you’re talking about New Deal your focus shifts from what the main thing is to a whole bunch of [ __ ] right in my opinion and they didn’t just hone in and they didn’t give
Him the keys and I think a lot of that’s to be said has to deal with Kyle Allen as well right I think he made it very difficult um behind the scenes for what people didn’t know um to just give Kyler the keys and you know in my opinion
Where our program is now as a football program that is the one step and one thing and mistake that we made that is keeping us from being where we want to be and especially during that time why we didn’t have success because KY was supposed to be that was supposed to be
You he was supposed to be that that transition because of what you started in SEC and we’ll talk about that that Saturday afternoon in Tuscaloosa and what you actually did down there so that was supposed to be the next step okay Johnny built this he has it going guess
What we have somebody to step right in and keep it going boom right there in front of your face I worked my ass off behind the scenes to get Kyler Murray to Texas s him loved him loved what he stood for loved who he was as a kid
Loved that he looked up to me at that point in time I my how times have changed since then but at that point in time the look I got in his eyes when I hosted him around and took care of him was that he looked up to me as something
He wanted to be like me right and I can see that in his eyes as a kid I have a very mixed emotions and strong feelings about that with what happened through it like I said it comes back to I think Kyle did a really good job of playing
Good football he was a very capable quarterback you know he’s still you know behind Josh Allen a little bit right now and working with him and has been right next to him for a long time so had saids something about his character who he was as a football player albeit not all the
Accolades and everything you would expect but a very solid you know fundamental football player but when you watch Kyler transfer and then you see what he did for the University of Oklahoma taking him I think he took to the college football playoff both years uh he wi the Heisman Trophy and ouch and
You’re saying hold on we let that guy walk out the door we hold on and then I I think he’d have been successful and in the offense obviously with with with uh the head coach they had in Oklahoma think yeah USC now uh L Lincoln Riley and I think
Uh CLE was it yo Lincoln Lincoln Riley and you see like well I don’t really care what system it is you see how ker what he can do he can throw the ball he can run run he’s a d he’s a true definition of a dual threat quarterback
No matter how small he is I think a lot of people like kind of discounted him maybe Texas and them didn’t realize what they had because they’re like okay you walk out the door you only five whatever it is you’re not going to be and he catch fire did they not just
Learn it with me did they not watch the 511 guy come and rock the world and put it on fire right they believed in me right and that came from Cliff kingsbery that’s where I got M from that’s where I got my confidence that’s where I got my guy who
Believed in me Jake spavital was our offensive coordinator when Kyler was there and as I was in Cleveland I was talking to him quite a bit figuring out what the vibe was you know I went back to games you know I went and wanted to
See Kyler and the mesh and the feel just like wasn’t there for cohesiveness and you know I remember talking to Jake about it and him just kind of being like I remember him saying this that it’s like kind of out of my hands that it was like above the offensive coordinator
Which only leaves one head coach it’s all it leaves right so whether it was you know I’m speculating but at the end of the day that’s what I was told of what it was what was your relationship like with Kevin sulin my relationship with Kevin summon was great you know
Um he was my dog you know he rode for me hard he went to bat for me he went to war for me and a multitude of different scenarios you know I think where our relationship fell out a little bit is you know how do you have a guy who’s a
Grown man who I look back on this now reflective in this you know how do you have a guy who’s a grown man you know telling me what I should do obviously my coach my guy I’m looking up to my head football coach is telling me to live a
Certain way and put all this party and this behind you but if you know anything about Kevin sumon is what he’s doing behind the scenes oh he partying too so from behind from my eyes so you hyal go we parted together what we’re a 4040
Club in New York oh yeah we in the back room playing pool with Ace of Spades we’re chilling right coach is there this is what he does so now looking back at it is hypocritical to me and our relationship is great and will forever
Be great and no do I do not sit here today as a judge of a man a judge of a person who helped get me to the point of where I want to be in life by no means whatsoever I’m calling a SP a right and I’m just going to be and give
The God’s honest truth as what I know it to be right that Ruffles some feather so be it right it’s the way the world goes are you surprised that he hasn’t got a head coaching job um no I’m not you’re not surprised mm why um I think what made coach suin so
Great is no longer really with him right now where his focus is you know I think life has got gotten um the better of him a little bit and I’m a prime example of I don’t want to sit up here and be a preacher you know I don’t want to sit up
Here and tell anybody they’re living wrong or anything like that because that’s what it used to feel like me back in the day doing that to me so um I don’t see the same spark you know I don’t have much of a relationship anymore with him anymore we’ll reach out
And talk like here and there maybe once a year but not like I have the relationship with my other coaches and you know my gut instinct and is and I know this because of instances that happened when I left um all right I’m leaving to go to the
Draft and I’ll paint a picture for you it’s 2000 the spring of 2014 December 2013 right in there about December January I’m getting ready to make this decision on if I’m going to the NFL draft or I’m going to stay and I found this out five years later for my dad but
My dad went and had a meeting with Kevin Suman and pretty much went to him man to man and was like we’ll take 3 million bucks and we’ll stay for the next two years and my dad says this is true is is today as he did when he told me he left
He did the same thing that he did when Cliff kingsberry asked him to be the highest paid offensive coordinator the year before and Cliff would have stayed with me another year and we would have ran it back and gone for another one right but he comes a summon he asked him
For x amount summon he had this ego about him that what we built we was all him right and then you start that next year okay I leave decide to go to the NFL this deal doesn’t work Kevin suon kind of blows us off we can do this
Without you type of VI okay so the fall comes around 2014 A&M football season Kenny Hill is named our starting quarterback we win our first five games of the year we’re 5 and0 we’re top 10 in the country I ain’t getting no love in the program yeah cuz I’m thinking I
Remember hearing it and they talking about uh Johnny who because he had he I think South Carolina five touchdowns first game of the season okay okay so you you you remember hearing it also so hold on I want to make sure I want I got
A back yeah back it up you said your dad went to Kevin sunle yep and says for $3 million we’re staying for two more now you do realize this is prior to nil I agree this F so this is a a back room deal went on for 30 40 years before it
Was same way that was happening when you was getting recruited back in the day and you guys and you know y Texas andm got money from I mean Texas Ain’t nobody got no money like Texas andm y’all got them big dogs I ring baby y’all got them
Big dogs and so $3 million if he had gone to any other boosters and say you know what done Johnny dad say he’ll stay for an additional two years if we just break him off three Mill just keep it cash stow it somewhere we’ll get it
Later we don’t need it right now right but for my security if something happens for two years down the road right and my dad did this without me knowing and I ain’t mad at him about it for nothing it’s the way the business worked back
Then there was a Bag Man there was a bag man at LSU there was a bag man at Bama there was a bag man at every school around the country if you were competing for a national title it is what it was and it was always that way until we’re
Into the nil portion of everything now the way it should be if I if I ask y say Johnny who’s your Mount Rushmore High School quarter backs in the state of Texas what foreheads you putting up there Kyler Murray is is for sure um Andrew Luck was really really really good okay
Um who else man who else RG3 is up there for sure you can’t leave RG3 off that list and oh man tough you got Ben young tough oh you can’t you can’t label the four you can’t label to four I played against Baker so uh I didn’t
Get to see him start at quarterback but we played Lake Travis his high school I mean this is an impossible list it probably takes five the best that I got to like be around Andrew Luck was a little bit before me so from what I saw and I remember
Kyler topnotch you know I didn’t get the breeze days Stafford for the Legacy he left at Highland Park and what you would hear about and nobody had an arm in the state of Texas like him ever so Kyler Stafford for sure I think you have to
Throw RG3 in there winning the Heisman I think you have to throw Baker in there for winning the Heisman so you got what three Heisman Trophy winners and Stafford yep pretty good and your gold as Kyler to me to me and he’s younger than me wow
That’s so let me ask you this Johnny your upbringing what was your upbringing like and what type of kid was Johnny Manzel Johnny Manzel was a really good good kid um you know up until the time I probably got my driver’s license 14 15 you know I
Grew up in Tyler Texas small East Texas town about an hour and a half outside of Dallas um my family came over from Lebanon and went straight to East Texas okay so I was like the fourth generation of people that have been here in the states um I was a baseball player I
Wanted to be Derek Jeter I wore number two because of Jeter I loved the Yankees at that point in time in my life and my life was you know until I was 13 14 years old it was baseball tonight every night sports center with the OG’s back
In the day and I sat and I watched every day every baseball I loved it and from the time I was like 8 years old on until the time I was like 14 15 I traveled and played baseball I got in the car with my mom my dad worked at the car dealership
So six days a week he was grinding trying to uh you know make life easy on us and I felt very blessed that I did have the ability to have an easy life you know I think I put out this Persona at the time later that we were well off
And wealthy and this and I think that was just at the time something to say maybe what I even truly believe at that point in time but get back to what I was saying I was a baseball player and travel me and my mom my sister hoop in
The car and we’re going to Louisiana we’re driving all over Texas we’re going everywhere to go play traveling select baseball as a kid I was playing a year up from my age group so I’m like I’m in the deep end and I’m holding my own and like always thought even to this day
That uh baseball was my best sport that I was always meant and destined to be a baseball player and I think because I started so early by the time I got to high school I was just burn burn out of it football started to come in my life
Really what I vividly remember is the 2005 Rose Bowl okay okay and for Christmas day I wake up and my dad has his number 10 Vince Young Texas Jersey I was a Texas Long Horn freak right and I’m going to sit here and get a lot of
Hell for my Aggies but like it is what it is and I remember this Christmas Day might go to the tree see this VCH Young jersey with the Rose Bowl patch on it and after that it was really just like all football from that game that last
Drive that cross into the End Zone by Vince the confetti was the background on my computer for four years with Vince Rose Bowl was the biggest to me when you say you were a good kid good kid by 90% of America or good kid just for Johnny
Man good kid by 100% of 9% of America I was raised the proper way I was raised in a strong sturdy household both mom and dad there and younger sister three years younger than me um you know we were we were were religious you know we were a Christian family we went to
Church on Sundays Sundays were our day for you know our family golf outings where my dad and my sister would play me and my mom and we would go play a scramble every every Sunday we were very family oriented you know my time I spent with my
Grandparents um my aunts my uncles we were a cohesive unit um especially back then and I think you know it’s hard because you look back at what you know me now M and you wouldn’t expect that which is why you asked the question that you
Did cuz I didn’t prove to the world when I got on a world stage what my morals and values and how I raised truly was and I think a lot of that shift started to happen as I was 15 16 years old and I was living and originally grew up
In Tyler okay Earl Campbell the Tyler two Heisman Trophy winners in the in the same town the Tyler Rose baby and when I was about 13 I’m in in between my six sixth grade semester so it’s like January of my sixth grade year my dad comes in he’s like we’re moving doesn’t
Say a word just packs the packs everything up and we drive five and a half hours away to kville Texas and kville Texas is 40 miles west of San Antonio out in the middle of the Hill Country beautiful but it’s very um country you know it’s very little Backwoods kind of place 20,000
People and it’s duly trucks and farms and ranches and everything you would expect a Texas town to be and when I went there life shifted it was like the old Johnny Manzel was there before that move and then there was a completely new person born after that and I think that
Comes from like when I got there and I first got to class at this new school I was nervous you know I didn’t have any of my friends I didn’t know anything it was the most first time in my life I think I was really really uncomfortable
In the situation that I was in and I created and took over a little bit of a different Persona um in the sense of like kind of where I get a little bit more of my attitude a little bit more of this country place where I felt like I had to
You know I stick up for myself not even Flex I stick up for myself you know I’m a new kid on the Block here I ain’t getting bullied around by nobody out here my dad taught me the right way that if somebody wrongs you in a sense right
You can either try and handle it the right way as a man or if somebody takes it too far down the line I give you full permission to do what you need to do to protect yourself and I felt like I was getting bullied around and punked around
A little bit and I started to Stand My Ground and with that became a new like growth as a 15year old 14year old kid in life and I remember that shift um like it was yesterday you said your dad all of a sudden packed the family up and
Left how unexpected was it was there any talk do you remember him he and your mom having a conversation about um you know uh this is not working I think we might need to move I think there’s a better opportunity over here was there ever any conversation that your family there’s a
Possibility that your family might leave Tyler and head to where you ended up going none none came in one day and just that was it we got in the car we went and that was it never heard of never heard a conversation never heard a talk never really got a reason nothing we
Were just doing it and as I know now you know my dad took a better job in a different industry to be able to go do that and do something that gave him more time to be a father okay you know the car business for him was a 6 day a week
6:00 in the morning till 8:00 p.m. grind like I got to see my dad at dinner at night and then on those Sundays that we spoke about so you know get two hours with him at night during the week and then we get that Sunday family time that
We get and hopefully baseball doesn’t overlap so it was very much a family decision to be able to spend more time together and get a fresh start you know my family and Tyler had a reputation about him you know um as being wild and being this
Party family and kind of you know the rumor I guess around East Texas was that you know it was a little bit mafioso kind of vibe to it a little bit is what I hear and what I was hearing as a kid right that’s what I would hear when I
Was in elementary school oh you’re a Manzel like it was always that kind of like we’re judging you before we even know who you are so I think a lot of that had to do with my dad tired of hearing all the chirp about our last
Name when did you or if ever when you were growing up have an appreciation for what your dad was doing you mentioned that he worked 6 days a week that he left at 6: a.m. 6:00 a.m. in the morning and he came home at 8 p.m. and you guys
Had dinner so you basically got the dinner time that was it and then you got Sunday golf outing what did you ever become resentful that you weren’t spending the quality time with your dad and that he wasn’t driving you around to all this these baseball games I wouldn’t
Say it was resentment I would say there was full-blown anger at that point in time back in the day like to the max like I’m watching other kids have their parents be there and stuff and it’s a natural inclination to be able to be like yo what’s wrong with me why is my
My mom is a rock right like my mom was it she never blink she never solid solid woman and now that I look back and I realized what my dad was doing it takes a lot of time and a lot of effort and a lot of
Energy to be able to provide for a family especially when you get away from the nest egg and the grandparents and everything and you go do it on your own so you know for a long time this is where me and my dad around this time just started butting heads and then this
Is where the this is where the sneak you know this is where the sneaking and the drinking and this is where it all kind of like starts to unravel a little bit and this is kind of this point in time 15 16 years old where I start to go down
A path that you later see on a national scale do you believe had your father been around more frequently that the Johnny Manzel that started happening around 1516 and would later cost you a lot of what you had worked so hard for had he been around do you believe this
Would have happened no I I I believe that life goes exactly the way that it’s supposed to go so if he was around it’s a big if right and that’s it’s a hypothetical type of situation hard for me to answer but I know now um all the bad parts of me make me
Exactly who I am right all the failure that I’ve had in life failure what I really fail on I lived my dream by the time I was 22 years old okay that dream that I had when when I’m sitting in that classroom in kville Texas I accomplish
At 22 mhm now my dreams never were to go be in the position that you were in with a Hall of Fame jacket and to be the best NFL player ever I very much felt like when I got drafted and and that I got a
Chance to start in an NFL game like my dreams were completely accomplished almost wow and that’s just the way I truly feel you know so my life The Good The Bad and everything in between it went exactly the way that it was supposed to go to be sitting here with
You today and I learned more through the failures than I ever did through the rise ever you’re growing up you say because you had played baseball started baseball at such an early age by the time you got to about 14 15 you had completely burnt
Out on the game of baseball so now you transition to football was your size ever a problem did did a coach ever tell you say Johnny you you you’re just too small son of course of course I think that’s a big reason why I didn’t go to the University
Of Texas they wouldn’t pull the trigger on me and my size at any position they wanted me to play safety like it safety safety me they ain’t got a lot of white safeties out there Shannon no no no they don’t they don’t so but I’m think I’m thinking like hold
On if he too small to play if he’s 5’11 how much you weigh coming out of high school7 three lb 75 but they they didn’t think you could play quarterback because of that size but they felt you’d be perfect for safety they saw athletic ability okay they saw a special athletic talent and
They didn’t know what it was and to be honest until I met George Whitfield and went and started training with him I didn’t believe in myself that I was a quarterback okay you’re an athlete I was just wanted to play football right I play receiver I played running back in
High school I played anything that I could play to get on the field and be with my dogs I’m looking at you in your high school career you passed over 7600 yards you had 76 total touchdowns in High School parade All America Mr Texas football if you’re the if you’re the Mr
Football in the state of there are certain States now and this is not a knock but if you Mr Football in North Dakota it don’t hold the same weight as Mr Football in Florida Georgia Texas California if you’re from North Dakota baby baby if you’re from North Dakota
You absolutely Ely right but being Mr Football in the state of Texas that mean no matter what your size is Johnny everybody should have been beaten down your door and not looking at you say well he’s only 511 173 if the world was perfect maybe it would have went
That way but we both know that it’s not and that people oversee greatness all the time we do you I mean not necessarily you but in a media type of people Overlook greatness all the time people are still knocking down Brock P’s door right now and all that haters are
Coming through for what Mr Irrelevant to a Super Bowl I mean it’s about identifying greatness in somebody in their soul and in their heart it’s more than just what you can do with your hands and with your arms and with your legs right I’m looking at the schools
Oregon rice Stanford Iowa State Baylor CSU Colorado State Louisiana Tech Tulsa Wyoming and Texas A&M and it said I read that you said that you decommitted from Oregon because they had Marcus Mariota and you didn’t feel confident enough in yourself that you could beat him out or you get an opportunity to
Play I didn’t go to Oregon not anything that had to do with Marcus they had some really nice Unis hey that was the reason I wanted to go 201 I think was 2010 Cam Newton Auburn year they played L Michael James and the Ducks and Fiesta Bowl for the national championship those
Jerseys coming out I’m committed woof like crazy and when I went there they made my family when so when I get into contact with Oregon and Chip Kelly um they didn’t give us you know the roll out the red carpet treatment to go visit they’re like you want to come up here on
Your dime and come to this Camp we’ll let you come in and we’ll evaluate you and as I get there meeting with Chip Kelly and doing the whole deal that you on a recruiting trip I get to the you know we get to the football portion of
It where we’re going out on the field MH and I jog out to where I’m supposed to go and there’s this kid sitting there 64 Hawaiian kid and he’s in line I go yo what’s up bro you playing receiver today and he looks at me and he goes now I’m
Playing quarterback and I remember in my head at that time I’m like I’m so [ __ ] I’m toast this kid so there was that initial reaction and then as we go through the drills it’s just like boom boom boom boom boom boom two Heisman Trophy winners before it ever happens
Just so good that when we got off the field that day we both got offered at the same time at the same day and I committed on the spot there was no doubt that that’s what I wanted to do it had nothing to do they could have had five
Six quarterbacks in that class and they told us they were going to take three because they needed death right so I knew that going into it and I committed anyway oh my so now you what about the you said you wanted to go to Texas but they didn’t feel you
Was big enough to play the position um so was it UT A&M were that were those the only Texas school that you were like considering the frogs TCU TCU I loved them took a visit there and had a buddy from high school that was going to
School there and I went there I was like damn there’s a lot of girls up here and they party too John know they part they part TCU almost every year number one party school in Go progs I mean Dam man was crazy when I was in high school I was
Like this place is heaven on Earth it’s nice it’s clean the girls the football program they’re damn Johnny you don’t men you nice and clean and talk about girls and you ain’t got the football yet at that point in time I wasn’t thinking about football Shannon I’m trying to go
Have a good time in college I wanted to be like this mix entourage on HBO and like Blue Mountain State and all these things I was watching at the time and what I was ingrained in was just like I’m a party boy right I just happened to
Be good at football a little bit at that time you know my grind and focus and determination of the game didn’t come in until I got into trouble before my Heisman year at A&M right J June of 2012 it all kind of came to a halt when I got
Arrested and I got arrested for going out to North Gad and college station and drinking too much and blacking out and waking up in handcuffs and when that instance happened it was this meeting with coach sulin and my mom and my dad and it was like you either figure this out
Today or over the next couple weeks or your ass is out of here gone and then your everything you work for your scholarship everything you figure it out now as my family sits there in the room and someone’s looking at him just like we’re looking at each other right now he’s
Like you guys figure it out and when that happened my family moved to College Station and and they moved in my backyard and I pretty much moved back in with my mom and my dad and that was the moment that was like all right you hear what’s going on you’re smart enough to
Comprehend this you may be [ __ ] around with your boys doing what you think you want to do but the opportunity that’s in front of you you are spoiling and you you need to get it together and that’s when George Whitfield came into my life and I went my mom sent me to San
Diego with all the money they probably had saved up for their little saving stuff and sent me out there to work with this guy and they trusted him and when I came back I left before that trip and getting arrested fourth on the depth chart below the Freshman who came in
Below the two other guys that were above me in the class and in 11 days when I got back and we started training camp I was named starter and handed the keys to the Texas A&M University football team that’s how much of a difference my focus and my
Passion and my energy being put into something turned out to be if that situation you drinking to the point of blacking out do you remember anything about that night other than going to the bar uh with your homies I was taking Xanax back then um and it was a very
Like weird time in my life where I was dealing with anxiety and all these things and emotions that were going on that I didn’t have any you know business being able to handle on my own but from that country kid proud and tough and all these things that I prided myself on I
Wasn’t asking for help right [ __ ] Shannon I didn’t ask for help when I was sitting in Cleveland w why am I going to do it when I’m in college right so I was a lost kid trying to figure out like you know after my first year at A&M when I
Red shirted end of that year I said [ __ ] this I’m done playing football I was finding out how to transfer to TCU to play baseball that’s how bad it was after my red shirt year six and six we’re in the Big 12 I’m going to Ames
Iowa and all these like that ain’t the stadium that I wanted to be playing in right and there no disrespect to them whatsoever the Big 12 is not the SEC right and you you see it now only two of them schools in the big 12 got into the
SEC MH four if you add Missouri and A&M only four that whole thing really got in so there’s a difference in program there’s a difference in stature of dudes any team can beat a team on a given day but consistency of a program and Legacy you know there’s only a couple
Teams that got into the SEC for a reason like that let’s just say Johnny Manzel is a high school senior now and Coach Prime is at CU and Coach Prime comes s come down and talk to and Johnny said look Johnny man with you I see big things for you and the program
And we need you to take us to the heights of where CU football can be would you be interested in playing for Coach Prime without a doubt me and him being Texas guys you know he’s up and prosper we’ve had a great relationship for years and I think think looking back
On our relationship now he knew something special in me to the point of where he you know would interject in my life at times or send me a message or like really show love that he didn’t have to do and if I was a college kid
Looking now I would say Texas A&M is is the best school in the country right that’s a given it but number two I would play for a man for a guy who’s a leader of men um for a guy who carries himself the way that that Prime does
And without a doubt I would sign my life and if sit look at it from a different perspective if I was a father and my son was looking to go to play for a coach I would absolutely without a doubt unequivocally send them to coach BR you
Said you play baseball from a very young age until you about 14 or 15 how good of a baseball player was Johnny Manzel really good what position did you play played Short Stop okay I played middle mfield um and I loved it like it was it
Was it for me I was a good Oppo hitter like I I felt like I fielded the ball all right um you know I had a couple offers out there I don’t remember exactly what they were at the time cuz football was so you know overshadowing
Everything in my life um but if you ask anybody that was around me from the time I was 12 to 16 they would say baseball was like it can play you played you played uh a shortstop because you said Jeter was your favorite player you wore the number two
So is that kind of how you tried to model your game you do realize the that like Jeter was like pristine which game we talking about the one off the field with the baskets and the love notes and everything he had are we are we talking about the we talking about El
Capy he did he did a great job of like you knew what he was doing but you didn’t really know what he was doing but always if you know you know you know you know so you model you get you model you game at at the Jeter so you you like
Okay I’m going to be a short stop I’m going to be beloved because they give me the Pinstripes man I wanted the pinst stripes I wanted Yankee Stadium the whole thing so how good was your college your high school baseball team High School baseball team was pretty good um
We had a kid that was two years older than me by the name of Logan Vic okay and he ended up committing to Baylor he was a All State kind of guy Lefty crazy power when I played and got to Varsity freshman in sophomore year he played
Shortstop okay so they kind of just plugged and played me wherever and if he pitched I took his position but we kind of played off each other and kind of when I was in high school and I saw him how good he was he was better than
Me right and he did things on a baseball field that I saw on the he did that every day and he hit some bombs that took out light p and did the whole thing he was that guy and when I saw him and where I was I always
Thought I ain’t going to be that like I really truly was like he end I’m good but I I’m good but I ain’t that and I’ll sit here today and give you the honest truth to what it is so that was kind of like all right you got to go do all of
This just to get a 50 60% of your scholarship paid for get me on a grit iron right you were I read uh you were selected uh about the Padre’s in the 28th round the 800th and 37th pick of 2014 so why didn’t you just you know you
Have to go but you could have said like hey I signed I mean I’ve been pretty good on the resume like hey Padre’s took your boy sign you know but I I ain’t feel like doing I play football sound like my dad my dad still to this day is like you
Going to go back and maybe go to the Padre’s and play baseball or something I’m like pops come on man pump those braks but but see you look at Kyler Kyler was I what the eight pick in the draft why do you think guys a lot of guys choose football over baseball
Considering the money that baseball players made show ha just got 700 uh uh Aaron judge makes 40 we see what Mike uh Mike Trout what and and it’s guaranteed why do you think guys choose guys that are really good and can play both choose football over baseball
Cuz this ain’t all that runs the world I can do the same with 700 as I can do with 50 that ain’t it for me I’m not motivated by the money like that so for me it’s about the rush for me it’s about the thrill same thrill I got walking
Into a nightclub or partying or this or that I’ve been a guy of Thrills and when you meet me in that a gap or you meet me in the hole somewhere on a draw play and I mix you up so bad you’re in a pretzel like that rush to me people trying to
Come after me and knock my head off and being able to get away and be slippery and do what I did best in college that’s what made me feel alive that’s what made me feel whole you graduated early in high school enrolled in Texas India and why did you
Feel you needed did you feel you needed to do that or you was just trying to get away from from your hometown and like man I got to get up as far as enrolling early yeah saw the greats doing it I saw the good quarterbacks in every class
Were getting on campus early to figure it out so I would say it’s 50/50 on if I just wanted to get away from the fam get my own car and be in my own apartment and I was in a I was in a hurry to grow
Up yeah which is what a lot of people do in life and sitting back now I realize that you should enjoy your time from your 12 to your 16 17 years old and it’s only getting worse with nil and what’s going on in the world people are
Treating 13 14 year old kids like Brands and businesses and you know you see all these kids are social media and they’re trying to make money like the Love of the Game is not about that and now now we’re at the point where in college you’re getting exposure to millions and
Millions of dollars and it’s taking away the passion and the love for what it truly is right if you would have handed me a million dollars in in my freshman year when I got to A&M you’d have seen some [ __ ] and you might not have made your
Sophomore you Johnny I might not I definitely wouldn’t be sitting in New York with trophy I promise you that but you would have seen some [ __ ] for sure when you uh when you had your visit to Texas A&M and you walking around on campus and they normally have
They pull out their best you know the the best ladies to show you around they call them hostesses and they show you around and you walking around on campus and you looking around you like yeah I’m coming early it’s never about the girls for me back then really to the max I’ve always
Been a guy that like rides for my dogs and I enjoy the time with my Bros and just drinking and you know smoking or doing whatever like that was always what it was for me so when I went on my visit Texas saying them they stuck me with two
Of the biggest party boys on the whole team and they showed me the time of my life to the point of where I’m in the back of the Uber and I’m I’m sick like I had too many shots I am lit off my ass and I remember being in this Uber and
Being like man I got to throw up I cannot let these guys see any sign of weakness so I just remember being like all right I’m G see you boys later I’ll see you in the morning and I don’t even make it to my room I don’t even
Make it back to the room you know my family were in these joined rooms at this hotel and College Station to Hilton and they wake up the next day and I’m just outside the door just and that to me I woke up the next day they’re kind of pushing me I’m like
Success I’m alive I’m good and I’m sitting going to meet coach Sherman at this taco place Fuego and I roll in probably 10 minutes late and he looks at me and I’m just white is a ghost and Coach Sherman had been with Brett Favre and Green Bay he knew knew was he knew
What was up he knew what was up and he was so good that he was just like he knew he knew when he put me with them two dudes from San Antonio who I looked up to it was on and he had me I’m in the boat I’m in the
Boat when when you go back and you mention your your freshman year where did you think you you red shirted what was it about that was it not being able to play as much as you thought you would what transpired in Johnny’s mind that kind of led him down the path of where
He was was headed I just remember the first day going out to that first practice in the morning and you get like one rep is that like young kid is’s there early this is spring practice so you know all the guys are getting done with the season then you’re into spring
And I get that one rep and he’s like come back and I’m like seven step drive and I let this ball go Shannon and it might have hit the top of the indoor this thing and I remember coach Sherman had his play sheet and he threw it down
And he goes what the [ __ ] was that I’m nervous these Ball tanah Hill like these balls aired up like yeah rock hard I need that Brady yeah you need little look give me cushion for the pushing what we’re GNA say there sh and that my confidence man I went from Mr Mr
Football of Texas to getting in here and being like I don’t throw it like Jamal showers does right the guy who was behind tanah Hill I don’t throw it like him that ball don’t come out and it don’t come out like that with me so then you start to
See and you’re comparing yourself to other people and as that year went on you know being the bottom of the barrel guy you know being the guy that is getting ragged on by the seniors and this and I’m traveling like I’m quiet I don’t talk much I kind of stay in my
Lane I don’t ask questions I ain’t trying to better myself at that point I’m just losing confidence week by week and just kind of like getting to the point where I’m like lost is football would I really like right and that question was in my life from that point on
Wow so from that point on you always question was it the importance of football or ability AB I about to take is Johnny does he possess the ability to to be what many believe he can be so you had self-doubt I had self-doubt for sure and
I had self-doubt and I didn’t get self assurance of myself and what I was as a football player until Cliff kingsberry walked in my life and a funny story about Cliff kingsberry that I tell to everybody we’ve been locked in like this since the first day I ever met him
Kville Texas is 40 m an hour you know away from San Antonio so Cliff kingsberry is of the University of Houston would coach someone has Case Keenum there obviously another Real Texas high school football legend MH and 7 o’clock our practice starts in kville we ran a very military drill
Style of football program with values and a lot of what we talk about at Texas A&M was how my high school football program was so kingsberry comes out the field that first morning and I’m getting ready to warm up and he comes up me and
He dabs me up and he goes what’s up bro I uh just want to keep it a buck with you I don’t have any scholarships to give you but every single coach that I walk into a building in San Antonio Texas said you need to get your ass in
The car and come down here and watch this kid practice so he goes that’s exactly what I’m doing and I just want to let you know I’m here to watch you ball out for a practice and one day our pass will cross again and I’m nervous this is Cliff kingsberry who played at
Texas Tech this is another Legend in my yeah yeah real guy he wouldn’t know whatever you want to say but he was him at one point in time and I didn’t know the significance of what that talk as a high school kid was going to lead to being on
A stage in New York four years later three years later but he kept it real with me like that I was like yo I can’t take you well I’m here to watch you ball wow and after that me and after the day the workout he just sitting over there
On the side and he just gives me one of these like you crush that if you would have set out your entire season as a freshman do you think you would have learned your lesson ooh um no I think it took me having the biggest fear of my entire
Life failure come to fruition and failure wouldn’t have happened for me if I didn’t get to the success that I got does that make sense yes do you think they would have disciplined you um I think they could have I think what what I was doing in the off season and what I
Was doing in my workouts and who I was as a team leader right coming back with the Heisman Trophy they should have benched me they should have suspended me what I was doing hey you can’t smoke weed B give me the fattest D give me the fattest what you got talking about us
Bought a box of white our white grapes we a even slowing down nothing over here this is what we’re doing and like from that okay so you win the Heisman yeah we come back we play Oklahoma in the Cotton Bowl smashing smack okay after that that night after the game is the infamous
Sparklers in the mouth with the Dom and the Burberry scar yeah right after this is where like it starts and it’s like we just smacked our old rival in the Big 12 and Jerry World in front of 105 right on New Year’s Day this is
Where the ego this is where the you know this is where you shift from you know Johnny Manzel into Johnny Football the little transition and then from there it’s Mr it’s Johnny Football yeah and now there’s no more self-doubt because now there’s no more self-doubt because I
Know what I’m doing in practice I know what I’m doing when I see cover two and I’m F whole shot I’m toying with them in practice they’re mad they I mean the only thing they have on me in practice and the setting that I’m seeing the live
Rep bullets fire is they can’t tell when a sack happens in practice because we ain’t sacking people right and you know in a game you know practice I’m running I give somebody a little move and I’m just looking at him like ain’t no way you making that tackle on the field
Buddy you can hop and hoop around and do your whole defensive thing all you want and you know out there under them lights no that ain’t going to happen brother it ain’t it’s not going to happen right and that’s not me speaking out of my ass I I
Got film you know I got I got stuff to show you that like I wasn’t want I was more than what you thought I was especially as a running quarterback I let the SEC wow 1400 yards rushing in my freshman year W it’s documented the first freshman in NCA
History to pass for 3,000 yards and car and rush for a th000 yards in the same season the first player to pass for 300 yards and rush for 100 yards in the same gamees three times broke Archie Manning’s 43 old record for 52 yards of
SE of a total offense with 576 owns all these freshman record 11-2 ranked number five since 1956 beat Oklahoma 4113 in the Cotton Bowl produced 516 yards of offense for touchdowns with a record 229 yards rushing when you look when you do you understand at the time what you’re actually
Doing um when the ESPN Heisman list came out about week 8 n is when I started to kind of see like whoa because this is you know my life growing up with my boys was NCAA football the video game The Road to Glory the road to the Heisman
Creating a player and being able to go do these things pick your school go to the you know do all of that and now I’m living it right so the focus doesn’t shift to like getting the Heisman it just focuses on like taking this team to Heights that we haven’t been before and
When you walk into Tuscaloosa Alabama and do what happened that day something that leaves a legacy what 2012 it’s 12 years later where I walk down the street every day of my life and somebody comes up and DBS me up and goes 15 and a half Point underdogs Alabama I’ll never
Forget that day for the rest of my life that’s what kind of impact that day had on college football and I hear it every day see it every day you see Alabama on the schedule uh and you’re on the high on watch list you mention your 15p point underdogs and you understand what
Alabama is that’s coach Sabin you know the the dogs that he has on that roster you know the dogs that he sends to the NFL every year multiple what’s going through your mind do you ever think man if I can go to alab if I can go to
Tuscaloosa and beat Bama oh they got to to take notice can’t think like that can’t think like that and be successful because you’re putting pressure on yourself that’s unneeded okay I got 95% of the country to saying Alabama’s going to beat us what do we have to lose right I
Remember being on the bus on the way of the game and putting on the movie 300 this part comes on where it’s give to them nothing but take from them every single thing everything and that was my mindset going into the game that like everybody in this Stadium expects you to
Lose everybody in this state is rooting against you we got maybe 20 30,000 loyal agies scattered through about in the stands we already lost two games that year right what’s the third going to do you know we’re out of the SEC title we’re out of you know the national
Championship conversation let’s just try and go ball and Cliff Kingsbury put together an unbelievable game plan for us offensively that highlighted our strengths that kept us from being too vulnerable in a defense like that and for the first half of that game they don’t know what the [ __ ] is going on
We’re running option with go routes and all we are just unleashing the cliff kingsberry like creativeness of a football playbook for an air raid you know this wasn’t old Mike Leech air raid this wasn’t anything that Lincoln was doing wherever this was just its own subtle thing or own you
Know particular thing right that was tailored to me being able to run the ball the way that I could as well as having an unbelievable like offensive line to be able to handle what they were throwing at us Luke Joko Jake Matthews Cedric [ __ ] these are all first round
Picks in the NFL and some really really solid players right wow I forgot you guys had that kind of offensive line so that’s why they were able to hold up Joko was the number two pick in the draft I think Jake Matthews was a top 10
Pick in the draft you guys were loaded Mike Evans swoops was very underrated Mike Evans and that’s somebody that man what a brother to me man like it makes me even emotional even think about it we got to come in at the same time in red shirt and that red shirt year we
Were tearing their ass up on the scout team so much that I went to my locker one day later in the year and they took my red jersey so they couldn’t hit me and they put a black Jersey on me to be able to smack me in practice because me and Mike were
Doing our thing we were doing our we were starting that recipe of that pot and we were starting to cook and then as that year goes on that red shirt freshman year that we play together you start to see a kid who’s like a man amongst boys
Out there and like really 65 with that frame like he was always what he was but that confidence that started to grow growing him me and him had this telepathy same way you probably had with a quarterback back in the day where it’s just like that was a route
Right quick easy he knew everything and me and him had that relationship that was like special special wow and it’ll never be taken from us you know I can sit here and talk to him and still do the same signals this 12 years later I
Can throw a peace sign he’s going to go to the crib is what that means every time so you to have a special bond with somebody like that that kid that guy that man means means the [ __ ] world to me when Alabama started to come back you looked at reporting you said f
Alabama F sa and that you would go in the score why were you so confident why because Al the crowd the crowd had gotten back in it they’re going haywire defense just freshman why were you so confident that you was going to get this football and
You were going to go down the field and score yeah well the first you know half of that game you know first quarter we’re up 20 to nothing so that Stadium you could hear a pin drop yeah and Tuscaloosa doesn’t get like that very
Much if ever um I mean you can count on both your hands how many times they’ve lost since 2010 for the most part yes um so confidence in what we were doing you know our we lost our first game of the year to Florida cool first game of the
Year whatever then we get up on LSU and we end up blowing that game where I feel like we really should have won that was our turning point in the season after that we started to get together and come together that we didn’t want to be you
Know the weak link of this team we needed that offense and who we had to be the Catalyst to be the center point of that team and we needed our defense just to kind of hold on so as much as the Tuscaloosa in the Alabama game is about
Me and the offense it’s not the way I look at it our defense got multiple stops got a pick late on like the last Drive is they’re on the eight yd line to go in and take the lead that changes things we get a pick we get the ball out
And then there’s 50 seconds left in the game we are on like third and seven Sabin has a timeout we run a run play we get like four we’re backed up on our own 20 so it’s punt time now we’re going to punt it to who I mean could have been it
Could have been Amari Cooper whoever they had back there was a menace and we had put this play in all week of a special teams punt scenario where we go on the hard count it’s third and four we go hard count they jump we touch them first down Mike drop so you
Have your offense what we did in the first half we scored 20 in the first quarter right we only scored nine the rest of the game we’re hanging on for dear life MH you know the plays that we made on that one score drive you know
The six points we scored in the second half was off a turnover wheel route down the sideline dime Corner route next play dime two plays touchdown like very opportunistic and going with the flow of the game and then you seal the game with the special teams play so you got
Offense defense special teams we walk into the locker room in Tuscaloosa and we burn that thing down total team win total completely without a doubt total team win if they have the college football playoff in 2011 you guys have and A&M gets it do you believe y’all win the national
Championship we got to play Bama again probably so that’s another like knock it out I I think we have a very good chance I think we got better and even from the Tuscaloosa game the Alabama game up until the cotton ball the cotton bow was our best showing of the entire year yeah
Oh yeah y’all put it together man and we did and that’s just where our like that was the Pinnacle of what our team was that year and we showed it at the last game on the biggest stage you shouldn’t have to the word when you buy tickets to
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Code Shay for $20 off download game time today last minute tickets lowest price guaranteed obviously you won the Heisman but you go to New York for the Heisman Ceremony and uh you’re up against Manti tail um and did and you know what transpired with all all that situation
Uh um being catfish did you guys did you guys talk to anything about that so how how was he during that time amazing and his parents and family the way they were with my family you know you’ll see my dad and my mom in the videos that Heisman Ceremony with lays around their
Neck so it was a very um you know we were close throughout that week right I thought he his family was amazing I thought manai was amazing you know I didn’t know anything about whatever anything else was until later um from the dock and you know during
Those times we even played against each other when I was in Cleveland and he was in San Diego I think so we always had a good relationship you know I always respected him for you know what he stood for and who he was as a person and and
Who his family was right I’m going back and I’m looking at guys that have won the Heisman from the SEC you look at Joe burrow Cam Newton Tim TBO Kyler Murray Baker Mayfield you the first freshman to ever win it and you accumulated SEC record then 4600 yards of total offense
Where would you put yourself if if we’re having if we’re having a a a college and I not go to the NFL because obviously the guys with the prototypical size but where would you think Johnny Manzel SE Heisman Trophy season would rank among those guys behind
Burs behind burrow but in front of cams no what about uh I would say for me in my opinion Joe Burrows is probably the best Heisman season to ever happen and that’s just like look at the numbers like it’s not even a comparison for and
The Swagger and what he did it with and I I think it’s I think it’s a no-brainer I think yeah agree him and Barry somewhere up there at the top stand alone type of thing cam for me is of cultural importance and you know coming in from blind junior college and going
To Auburn I remember that and then they played the team Oregon that I was committed to at the time so it leaves an impact in the memory on me and I love cam newon right to the max love what he stands for love what he what he’s
About love him to death and always have he knows that and so I think you go Joe burrow I think you go Cam and then I’m right below that and I respect Bakers and and kylers and you can nitpick all this all you want because at the end of
The day it’s all about getting to that stage in New York and getting that trophy now you’re splitting hairs on who’s greater than who and all collectively as a whole we’re [ __ ] badass right you win the highman as a freshman you come back your sophomore year and
You have some issues we start the season off with well it’s reported that Johnny Manzel signed five 4,000 items and this and that allegedly allegedly allegedly Johnny signed 4,000 items for free so how John here you you got you why put yourself in that situation ation where it could be
Allegedly I got a hat on my shoulders man I’m smart enough to know what’s going around me I’m seeing the money fly around me right not like I’m not walking through that same bookstore watching those number two jerseys fly off the shelf break me off where I cut it’s everywhere else for everybody
Else yes I got $700 a month coming in on St that ain’t enough for me to do what you need seven bands a month coming in h i need 70 bands 70 bands come on seven 70 how the hell I’m going travel to Miami with seven bands what we doing with seven bands
Here I need Sav D wow let me ask you this let’s just say for the sake of argument when Johnny Manzel his hman trophy season and the season after the nil is an existence how much Johnny how much Johnny Football get probably 10 million a
Year I could have done five on my own with the Instagram I could have done 5 million a year on my own just through the people and connections I had on my phone right that’s what a lot of people don’t understand is during this time and
During this rise and a lot of where my downfall probably came from is you know I get on my phone and get on Twitter and be like yo Shannon sharp just followed me come on James Harden Drake Lebron and you partying with him I’m in a I’m a DM
Away from being Rocket’s Courtside I’ll be there in an hour and a half my access that I had to the world and people that I wanted to be around was Limitless with just my cell phone in a in a house in College Station had Johnny Manzel been a little bit more
Discreet you probably still could have got that 10 but because IG and you posed it you at Le and you all all these places with the star they’re like man ain’t no way hell no College athlete have that kind of access unless he getting broke off my family’s rich yeah
And so is that and see you play to it because you could use that you know Johnny doing that man Johnny wouldn’t take no money his family Rich well little did they know Johnny ain’t worth $50 million like being reported correct so I wasn’t discreet at that point in my
Life I wasn’t calculated I wasn’t precise in how I was moving I was 19 years old right I a I don’t know nothing about the real way of the world right I don’t know nothing about what happens in Miami right I’m a young naive kid out
Here trying to get a bag on my own right I don’t know nothing and I can’t tell my parents I can’t tell my coaches I don’t got nobody to bounce this information off of you know I and I’m this is the point where I start like reusing to
Myself and like big problem in my life Shannon has been I wake up every day for the last 10 12 years and do exactly as I please and exactly as I want every single day and as I’m moving forward in my life right now I believe that as a
Man in life to humble yourself and to be able to get to where you want to go you have to do things that don’t you don’t want to do right you have to do things that make you uncomfortable you can’t just wake up and go down this path of L
Dah I’mma do everything as I please in that moment of time that’s going to make you soft that’s going to make you you got all these things that come with that in my opinion if you go out and put yourself in uncomfortable situations if you go out and work hard for what you
Want which isn’t the most glorified way all the time you know it’s not fun to go work hard and put your time and your effort into something especially something you may not really love truly deep down to your core so you know what I’ve learned in life is you know make
Yourself uncomfortable do things that you don’t want to do to help others you know be selfless find a way to give back more than just thinking about yourself and I’m sitting here today saying at 19 years old I was only about self you know that first year as a as a
My Heisman year there was a lot less of that I had my camaraderie with the team and I was a leader I was there for my dogs and then as that shifts I became a bad teammate I became a bad role model I became a bad example for what a Texas
A&M University football player should be and an ambassador for my school at that point in time and I still to this day hold a lot of Shame about things that I did from 19 to 27 28 years old shame Shannon to where I couldn’t sleep at
Night to where I went into the LA and the Hollywood Hills and I hid hid from everybody except the TMZ cameras in the middle of the night and that for me is taken a decade to come to terms with what happened in my life and what I did
To myself because at the end of the day I don’t have anybody to blame of myself my mom and dad didn’t rais me to be that and coach suon or coach kingsberry or any of those guys at Texas A&M didn’t raise me to be that way my teammate sure
As hell didn’t push me down that path of being there so why did it happen you know those are the questions have taking me a decade to find out what makes me who I am and coming to terms and accepting Who I Am the good okay great that’s awesome that’s unequivocally me
The bad okay let’s find out and identify what that is and be better bit by bit day by day to ensure that what happened in the past ain’t going to happen again moving forward if Johnny Football Persona had never been created do you still go down that
Path yeah I do without a doubt from that day in kville you know from getting to there and being that guy and like getting a rise out of it and getting notoriety and people coming around you it’s uh Fame is a it’s a drug it’s addictive oh it’s a high you chase the
Dragon of Fame man you chase the dragon of clout and um it is very very addictive and it is a problem that I dealt with in my life and if you would to asked me in 2014 or 15 I’d have been like nah right CU for a long time I
Didn’t see myself as the true level of Fame of what I really was who diamed you out for those those uh uh that autograph signing somebody diamed you out somebody got stuck with a lot of merch a lot of stuff that they couldn’t sell and then from there they got stuck with maybe
Like $20,000 worth of product and the compliance Department was cracking down on Indie autographs that were on eBay and this and that so they lost their Avenue of how to get rid of their product right and they got stuck and the guy went to the University of Texas was
In Houston he blew the whistle and then it all started to crumble down and it happened quick if You’ have had somebody behind the scenes working because Texas A&M is those boosters they they want what you gave them you gave them a hman trophy you almost let him to a national you
Know a national championship if You’ had somebody working behind the scenes said look let’s keep this kid happy this is all it’s going to take because you mentioned your dad you said ke told Kevin suing you didn’t know anything about this for three Mill that’s a drop
In the bucket considering that you could have made 10 so I say like for 5 million he’ll stay won’t ever say a word about this and you say Kevin some looked at him like bro we gonna keep this train rolling without I Johnny I needed Cliff I needed kingsberry for that
Situation to go in a perfect way so you needed Cliff to be your offensive coordinator because he he left I needed Cliff to be my offensive coordinator and I needed Cliff to be that role model on my life of when I got to out of whack
Cuz that first year of my freshman red shirt my Heisman year I was skirting the Lin a little bit but every time I started to get here he went pull you back every time focus and I looked him from that day he came on that High
School field to come look at me and tell me he couldn’t offer me I had a trust with him and a bomb with him that I still have to this day and when he left [ __ ] sucked I’m looking at this they say they sold 45 million number two Texas A&M adidas
Jersey maybe 45 million in Revenue 45 million a lot of jerseys Texas well okay 45 and so if they didn’t gave you say here Johnny uh we gonna give you 5% I’ll take 10 damn John 5% is more better than what you get you’re right you’re right you’re right okay
Fine fine but when you see when you see Tex Stadium making 45 million in Jersey sales and Johnny Manzel is getting 700 M $700 in a stiping that doesn’t sit right with you does it didn’t so you start concocting a way how you can get how you can get some of that pie
Exactly I got my pie but you knew you knew that it was wrong you knew that you could get yourself in trouble and potentially the university but at that point in time what yes um I knew that it was against the rules I know that I’m putting myself in a position that may
Not work out well for me or my University but at that time once again going back to selfish Johnny Manzel I’m thinking about how to get that I’m trying how I get that stip and bumped up type like I’m thinking about the money at this point like I don’t
Expect myself even after winning the Heisman Trophy to be able to go get drafted I didn’t know if that was a sure thing to go to the NFL draft or be able to make any money so I know what I needed then I needed more money and you
Know with that money that I got as well you know I I took care of my dogs in the locker room you know in a big college locker room there’s dudes in there that sending half their stiping or all their stiping back home and they’re taking six
To go boxes out of the Athletic Facility go into the apartment and there’s no lights on you see and this is what I see people come from all different walks of life that walk into these locker rooms they don’t come from cville Texas from the suburbs all the time yeah they come
From the trenches yes and I bond with people that come from nothing me and Mike Evans like this he’s from galeston Texas born on the island it is no joke down there where he’s from is a different way of life and like I’ve seen because of the sport that I played how
All these people come in from different walks of life and it’s not as peachy as you think it may be it’s it’s not all rainbows and butterflies out there for some of these kids that come in and it’s tough and I took care of my dogs right
All this money didn’t just go to me a lot of it did but if my boys needed something they got it and if I wasn’t there that club that tab at the club was picked up always did your parents know you was getting this money oh yeah cuz you
Breaking them off too M you a hold on you how you Ain break Mom and Dad off mom and dad are doing fine mom and dad are living at the biggest golf course in town dad’s got his best job he’s ever had right what you want did you help him
Get the job no my dad is independent on his own to be able to go do that I’m sure my name and what was going on of course might have helped it but you know I was finding out and it was like hard to just be like what do you do with
This cash you know what I can’t how you book a flight how you going to go somewhere like what do you do how you check into a hotel how you do this so it was like you a have any credit cards you ain’t get no credit card Johnny I a know
Nothing about a credit card till I got to Cleveland Ohio I don’t know nothing I would go buy uh American Express gift cards for a th000 bucks in cash and then have that then I got to keep track of how much is on every balance and stuff
I’m going through AMX gift cards like it’s going out of style right so I didn’t know anything about a credit card I didn’t know anything about credit nothing Let’s uh Reggie Reggie Bush similar situation I guess his parents took uh took some money over there were
Living in a house and he ended up having his Heisman Trophy taken from him do you believe Reggie should get his Heisman Trophy back without a doubt it’s legal now what Reggie did then is legal now that somebody could do right it wouldn’t make him ineligible
Now even though it did at the time and in the grand scheme of things I probably did way worse than Reggie and everybody’s going to sit here and be like why does he still have his Heisman but Reggie doesn’t I can tell you the exact reason why I explained this on
Twitter and people didn’t really understand it but the way I was told because the last 3 four years I’ve been walking back into the Heisman I’ve been rallying the boy talking with the guys there’s chatter there’s chirp going around that nobody in this crew and this Heisman fraternity it sits right with us
The Reggie ain’t up there with us every year it makes every one of us sitting there Choice myth all these guys that I sit next to on he deserves to be on that stage with us every year unequivocally without a doubt without a question one of the best college football players to
Ever lace him up and a very very good argument to to be the best ever in college football do you believe he’ll get his trophy back what I’ve been told is that Reggie can’t get his Heisman Trophy back until the NCAA um makes his records and his
Accolades on the field for that year reinstated okay as we know what the NCAA is now what do you think the chances are that they’re going to do the right thing not looking likely not looking likely and it’s sad um and from the top down from the NCAA they’ve been so wrong
With so many things that you would hope that one day they would do the right thing and do this um I’m going to continue to do everything that I can in my power whatever that may be I’m just the little guy I’m just the old first
Freshman to win it I don’t have no I ain’t got the clout like I used to to be able to really make that happen but for what I can in my part I will always stand on this table right here for Reggie Bush and do anything that I can
In my power to make sure that it’s possible for him to even get his trophy back what’s your best guess as to why coach sain walked away from the game still coaching at the highest level I think the nil has changed everything for what but he’s known you know I think
It’s made it so much more handson and continually having to stay on these guys because of how many people are in their ear it’s not it’s not the firm handshake anymore it’s not the old school ways of the world where your word is your bond and this and that it is a very
Wishy-washy where’s the money today right and if it’s today somebody can out bid you where’s your loyalty just 16 17 year old kids we’re talking about here right so in my opinion Sabin doesn’t want to deal with that anymore in what better way than to
Go out the way that he did you know from what I’ve seen and what I saw in the media he’s still very involved in the program I mean he retires and then goes back into the office at work the next day so Nick Sabin is it he’s him he is
Exactly what you expect him to be and when I met him um you know in New York that second year 2013 when I went back I remember him walking into the room AJ McCarron was a finalist I think think and I don’t think I’m I think AJ was a
Finalist and he walks into the room and it’s just like I remember like this Cloud huge Aura of a person walking in you know he’s not that big but like the way he carries himself and the aura that he has around him is like nobody you’re
Ever going to come in contact with and I remember him walking in the room and shaking his hand and talking to him for a second and then that conversation kind of Fades and we go about the night and for the rest of my life I’ll never forget that moment of him walking in
That guy is it a situation now with the nil no matter how great a coach is you see in basketball coach K walks away Roy Williams walks away some of the pantheon greats has like so now it’s really a Level Playing Field because Alabama you
Like okay we gonna put you in the NFL but now somebody say well they going to put you in the NFL but we going to give you $2 million so now now it has it leveled the playing field or has it created an unequal playing field there was already
An unequal playing field I feel like so if anything it’s given the little guys a chance like gives the Colorado right yeah get a guy like Prime take your program from here to here you’re getting a little bit more level you got the transfer portal you know Colorado can
Now take people from Alabama or Georgia that don’t want to go there just based off the transfer portal so I think it’s brought it up and made it a little even you know college football goes in those waves of like you got your Florida Dynasty you got your USC one you have
Texas with a little run in there you know you got your Ohio State you got your Bas Bama Georgia you have your runs of like I didn’t want to go on this whole SEC tangent be all biased what it is what it is it is what it is so I mean
There has always been teams every year throughout the year that are a little bit above and below the others you can always have the little guy that comes up and has that magical run but for the most most part you know it is a little lopsided it is hard for those acons or
Bowling like it is harder for those D1 lower schools to ever really get in the conversation and in my opinion I think this is a better way or only way that they can really ever even recruit um on the same level as anybody else and that’ll mostly be through the transfer
Portal yeah but do do you see these teams now you see probably Alabama and Ohio State and Michigan and all these team they’re like they’re probably going to their boosters or they going to College said look man we got to have a fund we got to have $25 $30 million in
Order to get these kids it’s and now you see look uh and talking to coach Prime he’s like you know you see guys going into the portal because these guys have already been in college and so you kind of know okay they understand the college
They got to go to class they got to go to study hall they’ve already uh uh played college ball and played at a high level so it’s a little easier for you to break a guy off that’s come that’s in the portal because you know look at he wins the
Bitov and he changes school that’s unheard of you would have never got a guy that wins a bucket or win an award do you a award like that the gersi or whatever the case may be the Thorp and transfer schools Johnny what if I told you that after Cliff kingsbery left and
I won the Heisman that I thought about maybe going somewhere else too How would how much it was going to take for them to break you off for you to even for you to even consider it I don’t know at that point in time you know I was thinking about about like you
Know I loved A&M and I but this way that like could you feel the shift could I feel the shift I don’t know I could see that I was getting used a little bit into what they needed me to do to have their master plan right A&M had their
Vision of what they needed with this hype and this success to get the program as a whole where they needed to be unfortunately where they needed to go and where I needed to go and grow as a human being and as a football player weren’t always step in Step they weren’t
Always aligned right do I have hard feelings about it or do I feel any kind of way about it right now absolutely not I love my school I love what happened I love walking back into that stadium and feeling like I had a piece of putting
One of these bricks in the walls outside and I can carry myself and say that I don’t think I don’t think it’s the house that Johnny bu that’s what they call it they can call it what they want you got you got to like that like yeah that’s respectful to Mike Evans that’s
Disrespectful to Jake Matthews well Mike Evans they didn’t call Mike Evans a Mike football they call you Johnny Football they didn’t call uh Jake Matthews the Luke Joker okay so I get the I get the praise for what we do as a team because my play is special on the field let me
Ask you a question when you’re a little kid they’re like all right who want to play o line raise your hand who want to play DB raise your hand who want to play quarterback exactly they chose the position that they want positional thing you’re giving the quarterback the the
Rightful piece of the pie uh now which one of those guys was flying private probably just me okay who’s buying jewelry cars probably just me yeah well who was hanging with Drake and James slitting cour side of James Harden definitely just yes he man the house
That Johnny Bill okay so you put it that way I mean you ain’t never going to get me to admit to it but help me understand this John I’m trying to figure out how you get suspended for half a game I mean that’s like I’mma suspend you from
School but you don’t have to come to first second and third but you get to come fourth fifth and sixth you know what I asked I I asked if I could be suspended for the second half cuz we’d be up so much in the first half right they said
No I mean so what was it like knowing that you’re not going to play the first half and then you got to come in you I mean you come in cold the second half nerve-wracking really really the the height of any nerves that I’ve ever had other than that Bengals game that I
Started my first game in the NFL um crazy nervous so much the first play that we drew up this beautiful bunch formation with the outside motion coming in and we knew we were going to get him in the trail and we knew it split right we knew we’d do the scissor off in
Quarters he’s going to take that corner for sure and we’re going to bust right down the middle I catch the ball I take three steps and I’m seeing red at this point I drop back and the Line opens up and I just see this one linebacker and
I’m just looking at him down in the eyes and like I’m not even seeing nothing back here right me and you me and you come on that was how I started my games in college and we started with so many running plays CU When I got hit the first time
And I got a pop it settled me down to the point of where I could go on about our offensive scheme for the first day so going into that game you know suspended the first half coming back out the first play of the second half we drw off this beautiful touchdown and it
Works but I’m just like so laser focused and locked in on getting hit so I can kind of settle down and go and um you know that half went fine I I don’t think we played very good football because it’s hard to get that you know flow going when you’re not playing in
The first half coming in the second but really really the almost the Pinnacle of my nerves of of college football in that setting but Johnny you kept s you kept signing autographs you kept partying did you feel those things helped you I mean did you feel that you could that you
Functioned and you played better while doing those things okay that’s a great question that’s a really good question cuz at that point in time in my life I felt like the harder I partied the better that I played how my freshman year Tuesdays and Thursdays were Tuesdays were beer with the baseball
Boys at the house playing games and Thursdays were hitting North Kate going to the town drunk as you can get with all the dogs Friday was the walkth through I go to walk through at 10:00 a.m. in the morning d ding smelling like a liquor steel like a liquor
Store and then I would go through that walk through and you can ask anybody that was on that team and I hit those Walk doughs Hard right hand in the fake I’m taking off down the sideline for 20 30 yards running back I’m sweating it
Out you try to sweat it out oh yeah then we get on the plane right get to the hotel meetings this is the system and we’re winning right now we’re 11 and two we’d beat Bama and this whole whole year it’s Tuesday Thursday Bang Bang all week
Every time like clockwork every game of the season that year and I’m getting better as it goes on I ain’t losing a step until that first off season in 2013 that’s when I’m starting to smoke more weed that’s when I’m partying a lot more and then from there I’m not taking
Care of myself in the way that I did the year before to go be special and my number is my second year totally well better were better that’s what I needed to do at that point in time I needed to get you guys or whoever it was on first take or
This and that talking in the right direction that this is these are my you know this guy went back and did better than he year he did the year before so therefore what is the next step the next step is the league the show the big
Thing and that’s where I was at in my life I felt like I did enough from it okay I was living my life at that point in time to appease what other people expected from me or wanted from me I wasn’t living really in the right way I mean obviously
I wasn’t but like I was there to like tell people what they wanted to hear and like had these people around me this is how you need to carry yourself and in that I lost who I was and when you lose who you are you resort to other things
In your life to numb that pain or to find yourself and in that I found smoking weed in that I found partying and that kind of took over from there 2013 on uh you know there’s no reason there’s no reason other than exactly what my behavior was
2013 on why 2014 and 15 in Cleveland didn’t work out there no secret that I was doing the same thing on a Thursday night in Cleveland that I had been doing for the Thursday night in College Station number one because I’m the backup I just got handed all this money
And I’m not taking it seriously enough CU I don’t know how to be a professional I have no idea now I get thrown into this organization with a head coach that wants nothing to do with me from the day that I get there with the defensive staff that our first day of offensive
Install day one they’re running six DBS on the field in practice I can’t even point a [ __ ] mic I ain’t never taken a snap under Center but Jimmy O’Neal or whatever and Mike petton are going to come out to the field and throw [ __ ] eight DBS on the
Field the first day of an install talk about your confidence getting busted quick now I feel like I can’t do what I was great at in Cleveland and I’m partying and doing what I thought made me great so you see how all these things are compounding together to equal a huge
Disaster you didn’t feel you can do in Cleveland what you had had been great at at Texas not at all I no confidence I hear you mention you said on Tuesday night we had this with the bo the baseball team Thursday night we did this with the other boys I ain’t hear nothing
About no school I was a good student how how what you parted the whole my dad when I was in high school and middle school growing up if I didn’t have A’s or B’s on my report card and that first little six week grad imp period or comes out or the
3-we Mark if I got a see on that on that thing I’m grounded until I can get a a and b on that next report card right that was my rules forever so if I got a C you’re ground it you ain’t going nowhere you’re doing chores around the
House I’m going show you what your education is going to mean to you so when I got to A&M I went from a business major sports management and then when I went to Heisman I go to a leadership and development that’s a little bit different than the maze business school
Yeah yeah yeah so now I can do my classes online I can do there like yeah that was the school was never the the problem for me right if I applied myself in the slightest bit I was smart enough to be able to go in and do college I
Wasn’t ever I wasn’t one of those guys that needed the study hall or the this and that and I had a lady that was in our athletic department named Lee Hood MH and Miss Hood saved my life academically just keeping me focused on what it was and not getting too far and
She was like a true mother to me in that football program and she is the reason that I was able to even leave Texas A&M and have an opportunity to go to the NFL and the thing is Johnny though what I’ve learned is that most good athletes great athletes can compartmentalize and it
Seems like you were really gred compartmentalizing okay party I’m a party get school get school party party got practice practice play play you were able to do in each instance be at your absolute best or as you said on Thursdays and Friday at your absolute
Worst worst yep I think I was able to do that with the people that I had around me you know with the leeh hood with these coaches and like with the right people that Texas A&M did have around right if they weren’t there I wouldn’t wouldn’t have had a Fighting Chance at
All but because of how special some of the people were in that building it gave me an opportunity to flourish in in the smallest of amounts when it comes to that stuff start setting yourself up for financial success Now by starting to build credit history today with Chim
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Results May Vary Early Access to direct deposit funds depend on payer spot me eligibility requirements and overdraft limits apply I’m looking at I read this it’s like the rumor was you came from oil money did you have allil money my uh great grandpa when they came over to
From Lebanon they founded found you know oil in East Texas and it very much was you know my family um was very very big so my grandpa he had like six brothers and sisters they hit this huge oil well so when I’m growing up I don’t even realize
That we have a farm in Tyler with a Runway and a hanger in the back and all this stuff I didn’t even really know what it was my uh my grandpa because of what my great grandpa had done they had the opportunity to be boys boys right take the planes they were big
Into boxing so like Jack Dempsey was a huge like family friend of theirs you know they tell me stories about going on these hunts with Mickey Manel and Joe demaggio and all these guys and I’ve seen the pictures like it’s as real as it gets so you have this like what you
Saw for me in the lifestyle that I was living I think was like minorly ingrained to me for what I saw as a kid and what they were doing in the 50s 60s 7s so it wasn’t a far reach for you to like to have what you have because your
Family did have money so it wasn’t a stretch for you to be flying private and doing all that stuff because your family came for money so you could pass it off on my dad gave me this or my family gave me this and so the wouldn’t even bad I how could they prove
It they couldn’t because you you you had I just hold on your dad says well in 2013 it said it’s not g books money but it’s a lot of money and I don’t even know the full detail of it right like I got you know from 18 years old I’m thrust onto the
Spotlight now I have my own life that like I’m living that’s like separate from that like family stuff it’s not as cohesive anymore right the fame and everything that comes with with what happened to me will break a family apart very very quick who we going to the game
With who gets these tickets it’s all about the clout and on all this stuff so we as a family were tested and tried throughout this rise as well it wasn’t just a me thing and that’s what I didn’t realize until I got cut in Cleveland and
I and I was couple years removed from that and I remember thinking and hearing from my mom like you don’t know how hard it is for us to walk into a restaurant in East Texas we’re dealing with the ramifications of your actions that are going on every day
So when you’re going out here acting like an [ __ ] I got to walk into my grocery store and get treated like one and why is that fair to your father and night and it hit me like a ton of bricks is that where the change came because because you saw the toll not
Only with I mean I don’t know maybe the you’re the last person to see the toll that is taken on you but when you hear your mom tell you the tell the toll that is taking on them because of your actions and they shouldn’t have to suffer for what you’re doing to yourself
The start that was the start of it it definitely wasn’t definitely wasn’t the like final thing that got me to the point of what I’m being able to do and sit here with you today I think that’s a complete uh understanding and self-awareness of oneself okay so I without a doubt
Wholeheartedly know myself and what I’ve done good what I’ve done bad I’m the only one that knows the truth that I’ve seen through my eyes about everything so when I got to the point where I’m completely detailed and honest about every situation and what went into it
Why I may have done that that’s a continuous like evolution of a person that takes longer than five years you know and I don’t think I’m a finished product right now I just think I’m on to something mentally that is clicking with me allowing me to be the person I think
I should have been is this all you or was therapy involved a lot of self therapy I mean a lot of times and I mean 2014 after my first season I went and spent 3 months in rehab in Reading Pennsylvania and I didn’t have a normal offseason I didn’t
Get to like I needed to work on myself and at this time like I learned a lot through that and it continuously learned as I went on and this is a you know collection of 10 years of not therapy every day not therapy every week but a
Lot of a lot of is it with yourself you have to know who you are you know who you are you know what you do good you know what you do bad you know what you need your team for over here to help you with to make you the best version of
Yourself and for a long time I’ve been independent in the sense that I feel like I can do it all by myself when in reality I need family need a te I need friends I need my team of people who want nothing from me who want nothing
But the best in love for me and people that I can trust because a lot of time in the past I didn’t have people around me that I could trust really genuinely truly looking out for my best interest Johnny you mentioned that you partied you like to drink alcohol was there
Heavier drugs involved other than alcohol and marijuana oh yeah 100% in college no once you got to the league yes that’s when the real like hiding and reusing started and man I’ve give I’ve given Cleveland a really really hard time and I think it’s all more situation than it is really the city
Itself being in a fishbowl City like College Station ate me up because I couldn’t move I couldn’t Park My Car the wrong way I couldn’t do anything I was always Spotlight yeah and then I go to Cleveland I sign with LeBron and MAV and them and now LeBron comes back and I’m
Under LeBron’s wing so now this lamp heat lamp’s even hotter on me I’m not playing I Don’t Got Confidence on the field and now I’m taking out my anger on my dayto day like interaction my team I’m struggling but not letting anybody know right so like my whole like grive
With Cleveland is not really anything is what I’ve made it to be and I think that’s just a bitterness of like how things went and me not realizing that I did it to myself for a long point in time do you remember the first time you
Tried hard drugs oh yeah yeah for sure what what what what was it about it that made you try it did you think because I’m Johnny Football I can handle this I can do something that no one else has been able to do do a hard drug and be
Able to still function and do everything I need to do even though I tried this okay that Persona that I had on the football field of being able to have that confidence translated over into the party scene as well I’m the guy right just like I am on the field in the club
In the streets so it’s all in front of you if you want to and you’re hanging around the wrong circles it ain’t hard to find at all right so you know you get around people who you think you look up to or this or that and then it just goes
And then it kind of goes and it snowballs and it keeps getting worse and you go from cocaine to oxycotton to perco setes to mushroom I mean to I look at the mushrooms as a different thing now that’s not a good thing to say but like the harder drugs the drugs that
Like tear you down I never did anything with needles never did anything like that but the Coke and the oxies and the perco set were very very tumultuous in my life and like pop their head especially the days of wandering around the Hollywood Hills and it makes sense why you see me
So sporadic and like I was 210 lbs when I left Cleveland I was 170 lbs sitting in Vegas that August that September October whatever it was later in that year how you lose 40 pounds you’re on a strict diet of blow oh I was about to
Say only you don’t want either one of them I mean you lose 40 pounds in that length of time you going crack or zic so that’s the new thing now tou tou you right about that bro you at that point in time man I would look
In a mirror and I didn’t see myself any different than when I was in Cleveland really until I stepped on a scale at the Cosmopolitan hotel in Las Vegas I didn’t realize I lost 40 lbs wow at all and people were hitting me up like this and
I remember these pictures came out and I was like damn what am I doing ah whatever we’ll figure that out later let’s go again let’s go again so as an athlete you’re very competitive when you when you when you do drugs do you still have that competitive nature like when you with
Your boys you like sh man I ain’t going to let you one up me you can’t I’m a tank when it comes to the party I mean I could party we hang with the best of them I ain’t saying that to it’s not something to really sit and
Glorify but it’s true you put somebody in my in your that you think in your life can really go that distance with the Henny or with the with the drugs or whatever you want I’mma go I’m g go 12 rounds with you I mean Johnny you a small man
Bro I’m a little thick I [Laughter] guess so you Drake does a song um um draft day what was it like to hear Drake mention uh mention you in a song and what was it like hanging out with Drake he’s the big one of the biggest salams
In the world and here’s a college kid a young college kid that’s hanging out with him yeah I remember when I went to Toronto for the first time and my mom called me and I could hear the worry in her V in her voice where are you Toronto
Canada you even have a passport yeah I took it from the safe last week when I came by the house so like my relationship ship with Drake is one that changed my life for the better forever still to this day MH um you know a pillar
Of my life and from the first day I met him the first day we talked our relationship has been pretty constant and he rides for me as hard as anybody ever has in my life and I’m thankful for him I appreciate him and you know I try
To let him know whenever I’m with him how much his relationship means to me how much our friendship means and like it’s the coolest thing in the world to me from that kid in kville Texas to be able to sit there and walk out on the draft Radio City Music Hall and there
Ain’t no song playing that you like it’s my song about the day that’s happening now chills right but what do you think when people say man Drake curs you because you know there’s this thing that say that Drake has a curse that anybody that’s doing well if Drake all of a
Sudden likes him they’re going to lose who believes in curses like that that guy’s the most positive energy great aura maybe he picks wrong sometimes in the people teams or whatever it is or his bets but that’s it’s life right there is no curse right that’s to each
His own you know if I handle my business in the proper way I make him proud right right our relationship changes like so like that’s there’s a lot of people that I let down and I truly feel like him and LeBron at a point in time were people
That I really really let down you mentioned that you um that LeBron and MB you signed with LeBron and MB and there are people saying Johnny Manzel will be bigger than LeBron James in Cleveland I think that person is Skip [Laughter] bis he definitely believed in you he
Does he he believed in you and his thing to his credit when he believes in a guy yourself Tim TBO Baker Baker yeah skip I love you bro I hope you know that uh it was always love and I I honestly feel like I let him down right right I
Remember watching First Take religiously and being able to see him come on there and ride for me when everything was going on remember seeing the passion in his voice and the way he was animated when he would talk about me um so when I sign I go to Cleveland and this you know
Johnny Manzel will be bigger than LeBron like okay you got your clickbait you got your headlines for that week type of thing and it was never ever going to be a reality um but because of me signing with LeBron and MAV I had the opportunity to even be great in my own
Right right they gave me the best fighting chance and built a team around me and the thing that I realize now is the reason why they’re probably still pissed at me to this day they don’t lose they don’t they don’t bet on anything that’s not a sure thing and what I did
And the way way I carried myself and the way that I was in my time during Cleveland was pure and blatant disrespect to them for giving me everything that I could have ever needed to be successful so something that’s still to this day I think now that we’re
Talking about it I haven’t completely truly got over yet you know how I let them down um and I remember this is how bad off I was whenever I was in Cleveland you know LeBron would text me every week to come over to the house and
Watch a game or play poker with the boys and just tried to be there and I was so depressed for the first time in my life that even my biggest role model and inspiration in my life couldn’t get me out of bed to come and hang out with them wow you know
When I went to the Cavs games I went I was in I was out I didn’t really grasp and latch on um to him in a way that I should have and he tries to take me under his wing right and I’m just kind of nudging it away because of where my
Mental is and being just fully depressed in where I was in my life life is that an excuse absolutely not because at the end of the day the respect that I should have for them giving me everything should Trump all else I see you got a lot of ink do you
Remember your first what made you what do you remember your first tattoo and how old were you when you got it and what made you say you know what I won’t eat all right so my mom as a kid if you get any tattoos I’m going to disown you
They went really hard down that route and when I got to a little bit higher place in life I’m kind of like let me test and see is she still gonna love me after this so I went that first semester in uh College Station I went and got a tattoo
It said Against All Odds on the inside of my arms and I got a Proverbs thing on my on my chest John Bones Jones has this Philippians 4:13 and I got a Proverbs 35-6 um TR trust trust not trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on
Your own understanding and all your ways submit to him and he will make your pass straight um and I got that and I remember going to the lake house 6 months later and my mom’s like why are you jumping in the lake with your shirt on it’s not it’s nothing it’s nothing
Finally she like take your shirt off and I’m like all right moment of truth she took it pretty good for what I expected to be honest she kind of just went back in the house and like now we’re at the point where my dad’s starting to get some tattoos and like oh
They you influenced him I think I had a little bit of an input in that like I think I’ve had an input in his mind shift just to see that like you know for if I can go through what I’ve been through and still be sitting here today
With the attitude and the outlook on life that I have I truly feel that anybody can and my dad’s had his flaws in life my mom as well and we all do as human beings but like it’s about never giving up and it’s about keep going is
The is the Mantra and mindset that I use keep going you know God only gives the toughest test in life to people that can truly handle it solders soldiers so like yeah a lot of mine was self-inflicted but I feel to a point today that I’m here for a better purpose
For a bigger purpose maybe being a Hall of Fame NFL football player was not what I was meant to be in life and I’m okay with that right right I’m okay with continuing to grow as a man and figure out exactly what makes me tick what my
New passions are in life and what my new like goals are and where I want to go is it true that you were about to fake a flunky drug test at D combine and your dad fak the medical emergency I don’t remember the medical emergency but I remember having the greatest um training
Camp leading up to the NFL combine and five six days before the combine I drove from San Diego to the Beverly Hills Hotel and I wanted wanted to go to Greystone Manor in in West Hollywood I got with some NFL boys and I went to Hermosa Beach and I got drunk
And then I went to the club and I remember as this whole day progressed on I was a little too lit at the club that night about 1 and I remember as I’m kind of like in and out of it somebody handed me a blunt and me really being not all
There and composed and I remember the blunt coming up right in front of my face and I remember my immediate is like but I couldn’t tell my agent or anybody the next day if I actually did smoke this or not so now it’s like full crisis mode we’re taking tests and we’re doing
This and like now the next six days are like flush flush the system you fail a drug test you go from being maybe the potential first pick in the draft to we’ll see you in the third round and that’s a fiveyear deal turned to a four turn to guarantee money into nothing
Like everything is riding on this so I did go into Indie with a very very Qui question mark on if I was going to pass my drug test for smoking weed and so so you pass you I guess I didn’t smoke it wow okay so wow he said yeah cuz
Considering the way you’ve been partying bro I just remember that that going to grab it yeah I remember that and I remember for some reason just still locked in even if I was out of it there’s when you were coming out there was a comparison because of the
Your ability to do a threat to run and throw the football you got compared to a little bit of RG3 a little bit of Russell Wilson did you like those comparisons I like the Brett Favre comparisons the most I think because Brett sh like shaped the way of what I
Wanted to be as a quarterback you know I didn’t know at the time back then really until I got out of Cleveland of what Brett’s story was in Atlanta right you know I had this Brett VRE Atlanta Falcons jersey that I wore religiously when I was in college station and I
Didn’t know that he was there and like what happened and him getting to Green Bay and what a like huge turning point and pivot it was for him in his life but that’s um you know that’s the one that I like the most and that I appreciated the
Most because he was the man did you really text a Browns coach during the draft and say hey let’s wreck the league so me and D Loggins who is my quarterback coach um we had a good relationship and he was texting me throughout the draft like be patient bro
Be patient we’re coming to get you and this was a very personal conversation between me and him that he told to a friend that then got spun into what it is today okay so there was no you know I’m still walking across the stage doing all this I’m doing my thing like I’m
More excited to go to Avenue in New York and party with Drake and the boys after to celebrate than I am really thinking about football at this time everything to me was like getting drafted in the first and going to this party afterwards and like it’s what was the cherry on top
Of the whole thing was was what it was for me so you know that was a very personal text that I sent that was internally supposed to motivate us to be and get to where we wanted to go that then was then spun as to me being this cocky full-head you know egotistical
Little [ __ ] that doesn’t know anything about the NFL and I don’t think that’s necessarily how I was now you can ask Andrew Hawkins or Joe Thomas or Joe Hayden or you know the Legends in the building that we had with us and they would probably tell you that I was
Carrying myself like that from my perspective of things that was never my intention um nor did I want to carry myself like that I was against everything that I was raised and ingrained to be did you want to go to Cleveland where did you want to get
Drafted where did I want to get drafted prob Dallas better I love Jerry I love getting a chance to go to sporting events in that stadium and cross in circles with him I love getting the opportunity as a college Texas A&M kid to walk into that box and like rub
Shoulders with the honcho yeah the guy yeah so like I love that and 16th pick of that draft was Dallas and I remember the anticipation in Radio City when that pick was coming up and I had my fingers crossed under that table the entire time
Please let me go put that star on my helmet looking back now thank God that it didn’t happen because I wouldn’t be sitting here today you’re saying that you wanted to go to Dallas you hoping Dallas draft you but you said you’re glad you didn’t go to Dallas
Because I think knowing what I was doing in Cleveland how hard it was for me to party and move and do these kind of things if you would have put me in a landscape of that was my backyard that I knew you know I had been driving from
College Station up to Dallas when was nothing going on in College Station right so it was something I was familiar with I know who I was hanging around at that point in my life and I think it would have been just an absolute disaster to the point
Of it wouldn’t have been suicide that that would have been the issue it would have been drinking and driving it would have been taking a bag from somebody you shouldn’t take it from and just boom could have been over in an instant so I think I know myself well enough to be
Able to say that it would have been bad and its own right and thankfully you know it didn’t happen even though at that time it’s what I wanted what were your study habits like in Cleveland how often did you study did you watch tape did you study the game uh when you’re in
Meetings did you were you attentive what was Johnny’s study habits practice Habits Like I would say um you know Kyle Shanahan was the most detailed person that I had ever seen in my life and I thought Cliff kingsberry was really really good but Shanahan took it to a
Different level he could coach 11 12 positions on the offense um detail hat placement hand placement every single thing so our meetings and things were incredibly detailed my quarterback room was not a home for me because of Brian Hoyer Brian Hoyer had been waiting on opportunity to be able to go really
Provide for his family get an opportunity and he saw how much of an upper hand he had on me and he didn’t hold back when it came to that so there was instances in the quarterback room early on where I would ask the same question a couple times and he’d be at
The head of the table and go again we’re doing this again wow keep him out of it right let’s just cut that off and I don’t have a bad word to say about Brian Hoyer that is just fact of what happened in that room so when that
Happened so if we were to ask another quarterback that’s in that room go ask Shaw go ask Conor Shaw who played at South Carolina and was with us in Cleveland go ask him how Brian Hoyer was in that room go ask D Loggins how he was
In that room and it’s okay but at that point in time of where I was and I’m the franchise guy I could have used a little help especially when they knew what I was doing and I’ve said this before in the past and people have said why don’t
You take self-accountability for what it was and you not putting in the work I didn’t know what work like that was I didn’t know what the grind was because I was great at Texas A&M without it so a sense of entitlement comes in that I can do it the same way because I
Don’t know any better so when you have that going on in the quarterback room then I just do this I ain’t speaking if I question something I’m not asking I’m embarrassed right I’m getting dogged by a guy who’s supposed to be my teammate when I don’t know I’m trying to figure
It out I don’t know what cover three is you know what we did in A&M if that linebacker’s tucked in and swopes faster than him bang I’m throwing the bubble and he’s down the sideline I wasn’t looking at safeties I’m not looking at one high two high rotation my mind
Didn’t work that way from a football player perspective and then when I’m going into my safe space quarterback room I’m getting so I’m not saying a word now I’m struggling now I’m getting behind now I don’t know the detail of the plays because I’m not going home and dialing
It in even more in the building I studied film okay I wanted to watch these Rex Gman clips of Washington the Shanahan I wanted to watch RG3 2012 season I wanted to see how you do this stuff and I watched it did I grind it the way that pton Manning does
Absolutely not I didn’t even know that was a thing until Josh Macau got in the building the next year and when Josh Macau came in the shift in that room went through through the roof of positivity when I got there he comes up
To me and he goes you want to be a great quarterback I go yeah he goes tie a string to the end of my backpack and you can follow me around wherever you want and I’ll show you what it takes to really be a quarterback in the NFL now
When that goes to the practice field and we’re out there and we’re dialing in these bang eights we’re throwing the comeback macallen sitting there like you can [ __ ] do this I can’t make that throw but you can’t what do you think that does for a second year players
Confidence through the roof through the roof now our team as a whole is not the same our organization in a sense inside the building is still incredibly dysfunctional but for those first like you know 10 12 weeks of the season 2015 we’re not winning you know we only
Win two games that year but like me as a football player I’m growing John de filipo who’s our off a coordinator like we’re growing together his energy in the room and what it is is like positive and it’s me Josh maau and Connor Shaw again and there is a huge shift in that
Quarterback room that next year and I start to get confidence and I start to do this um and then life happens to me again to where I’m not taking care of myself right and I’m frustrated in the building and I’ll never forget probably about week 13 or 14 of the
Season I’m walking out of Coach paton’s office or I’m upstairs in the uh where the coach’s offices are in Cleveland and I walk by Jimmy O’Neil’s office and he’s like hey Johnny come in here for a sec I’m like oh it’s our defensive coordinator I’m like What’s Up coach and
I’m chill with everybody like I’m a be that’s just how I am and he’s like he’s sitting back at his desk kind of got his foot up and he goes you know we’d be a really good football player if you got your head out of your ass
And I’m like so caught off guard now this confidence that I’m building is immediately just I don’t know if he meant it in a way or just like you know you’re two and two and 12 and your team is struggling and you’re like you know looking to ways
The vent or whatever it was but this happened and when I left that that office and I went back down to the quarterback room I was white as a ghost so white that Josh mcau looked at me just like you are and was like what happened and I’m like stuttering through
This story and Josh mcau gets up out of his seat and walks straight up to that to that [ __ ] office now what was said I don’t exactly know what it is but when he came back in that room he was pissed he said you don’t do that in this league
With the young guy and somebody like you just don’t build him up you can’t break his confidence break me in half and from there I was broken I didn’t give a [ __ ] I didn’t care about that team I didn’t care about that what my role was and
There’s no excuse all of these things L up to be the perfect failure and at the end of the day it’s on my shoulders but when you’re starting to get a little momentum and you get broken like that that’s when the running to Vegas happened and me missing the last game of
The season that’s when the wig story comes out and when I’m really like running two three weeks after this when this happened I go straight home I go straight to my basement I get the biggest bottle of Hennessy out of the bottom of the of the drawer and now
I’m sitting in the basement I’m listening to Future every second every day I’m partying by myself just to try and like get out of this reality of a situation that I’m living in with a head coach that wants nothing to do with me with a DC who’s saying if I get my head
Out of my ass will’ll have a chance just this whole Perfect Storm of just like [ __ ] this and when that happened I was done what was your relationship like with Josh Gordon you had a guy and we know he’s had his issues his struggles very similar to
What you what you’re sharing with us right now what was your relationship with Josh great I saw a side of Josh that the rest of the world didn’t get to see I saw a guy that was from that trap that from that bad neighborhood growing
Up who would beat the odds to be able to get there one of the most physically talented specimens that you’ll ever see on a football field um he struggled with a lot of the same things that I struggle with and I tried my best throughout those times be a
Better um influence around Josh than a lot of other people were because a lot of his boys didn’t give a [ __ ] at that point in time and you know should I have done things differently in our relationship to not you know sway him certain ways because I think I
Definitely had the juice we didn’t do drugs together you didn’t do drugs we didn’t do drugs together he would uh he loved the weed man he loved it and when he would come over to my apartment all he ever wanted to to do was roll it and
Put it on the counter he just wanted to be included on the whole thing which is the way his mind kind of worked but he never smoked around me he never mean we went on trips together we went to Aspen we went everywhere like JG was my dog to
To the core and funny you ask I just spoke to him yesterday and he sounds like he’s in the best place that I’ve seen him in years and it takes time and getting away from it and for me and him we’re talking about golf now and golf is
Kind of like an Avenue that I never thought me and me and JG would be able to like talk about golf go play and like golf has really shifted my mindset and being able to still continuously give me competition but as as much as it is against other people when you’re playing
Golf is always about yourself and battling yourself six inches between your ears and then you know getting in a good head space to go up and hit a good shot John I want to get you out on here you you mentioned that once you left Cleveland that you contemplated suicide
And you spent all your money clearly that’s the lowest point of your life was it a culmination of I’m not where I thought I would be as far as in the NFL you’re in the NFL but you’re not playing and you’re not you feel you’re not getting the support that
You need or deserves in order for Johnny to be Johnny because you just sometimes you need somebody just a little support you need somebody to say Johnny hey bro you can do this Pat you on the back instead of kick in the butt all the time it’s when did you know so what
Happened when you you’re contemplating taking your own life it’s different it’s um it’s not that I don’t have the support it’s not that I don’t have the team because at that point in time I had every single person you could ever think trying to reach out and I’m just
Blocking people at every single turn and I think for me it was a something I didn’t find out until I went to play in Canada again I remember having this feeling in Cleveland that I didn’t love football okay but it was a feeling and when I didn’t play for a while and I’m
Out of the league and I’m trying to get back in um I end up going to Canada and when I walked into that locker room for the first time and walked out on a practice football field every single feeling that IID felt in that Cleveland locker room came back to me in that
Canadian locker room and I knew right then and there that I didn’t truly truly love this game to the point of where I need to do what I need to do to be successful mhm so the suicide thing comes in when you look at life and you
Say I [ __ ] up the biggest golden opportunity that you could ever imagin and this is where I think whenever you said what you said about the fan control Football League it is sad Shannon what you said on that day is exactly right it is sad to watch a guy who had all the
Potential in the world all the opportunity all the resources and team around him and he still goes [ __ ] that but what if I told you today that that I don’t think that I loved what I was doing enough to ever get into the mix of doing it the right way I went through
That period with Josh Macau where we did it but like it never was like over the top and I’m not in the gym I’m not grinding I’m not doing the things that I did back in the day that made me great so now I realize that I didn’t love the
Game of football like that I just happened to be a ly talented at it I I happen to have great teammates around me great coaches great Perfect Storm to be able to get me to walk across that Hall at Radio City Music Hall walk across that stage so that feeling came back in
Canada I realize I don’t love the game and then when the game’s gone from you there’s a huge transition and every guy will tell you what the transition is to figuring out your identity and who you are as a person and I truly feel like from
2017 on that’s 7 years that that’s what I’ve been doing and my mission has been to try and stay away get a little bit of this hype off me and and just live and find out about life to be a great uncle to be a great brother to be a great son
To be a great role model for Texas A&M to be a great alumni you know a leader to be a great like resource for my guys who play at Texas A&M and these are all things that I’m trying to do moving forward that I’ve completely neglected in the past if I could say
Johnny you could go back what would probably be one of the two things that you wish you could do over if I could go back to a certain point in time I would drop myself right after that in the locker room of the Oklahoma game in the
Cotton ball knowing what I know now um I would have known how to handle myself I would have known how important and imperative it is to be a better teammate than just numbers on a field on Saturday there’s something to be said about how your guys ride for you when you’re doing
The right things in the building and that 2013 year for us at Texas A&M a lot of internal problems were happening because their leader is distracted their horse that makes this whole Carriage go is [ __ ] up and the shame that I have for letting guys down like Cedric AB boy
And like Jake Matthews and Mike Evans is the same shame that I carry with me to this day about letting down Joe Thomas as a guy who’s in the end of his Hall of Fame career and is looking for somebody to come in and Lead this team and then you getting
Me it’s tough you know it’s embarrassing it’s embarrassing to have been the guy that have let down some overall really great athletes of my time and of my generation something I carry hopefully with my head high right now but at the same time internally I know it eats me
Alive um because they did more for me than I gave and return to them and what a shallow kind of selfish way of life that I was living at that point in time and I have a lot of regret like I regret wasting a couple of Joe Thomas’ last
Year in Cleveland I regret disrespecting LeBron and and not making situation making sure what it meant to me showing him that I give a [ __ ] enough to just do what’s right to listen to MB and listen to the team they built around me you
Know it [ __ ] me up that I messed up our second year at Texas A&M and we went seven and four or whatever because that was our chance to win a National Title had a monster game against Duke had a cool game against Duke one that was like
A legendary kind of tail on it but like I almost wish to this day that we lost that game cuz I would have came back right so us having that Legendary Run against a bowl game that’s kind of like kind of wish we would have lost cuz
Then I would have came back with a vengeance and I probably wouldn’t have got drafted because I would have got in trouble right but it doesn’t sit right with me certain things and those are three things how I wasted my 2013 season how I treated The Legends in that
Building in Cleveland and how I treated LeBron and meth and you know from there I can even take it a step further and say in 2016 I don’t think I treated Drake the way that I should have with representing the clothes that I was wearing and his OVO brand and his label
And everything you know at that point in time I was so selfish that I was dragging everybody that was tied to me through the mud now it’s regret I’m not harboring on this in this in any kind of way I’m just calling it exactly what it
What it is in the way that I feel about it and you know I owe those people apology and hopefully one day down the line I’ll be able to have the opportunity as a man to be able to look him in the eye and be able to do that I
Understand this is my last question for you I understand what that winning Tuscaloosa did for your career but it seems to me it was that win against Oklahoma and the Cotton Bowl that really changed it for you you know they’re coming down from Norman we’re coming up from College
Station it’s a clash in the biggest stadium in the state of Texas the spectacle for us in Texas this this is the granddaddy of them all not what goes on out in the rosebowl out west for a Texas kid for a Kyler Murray for these guys we were talking about to play in
That stadium and do what we did that day was like you can’t tell me [ __ ] from there on out and what a shallow mindset to have what a selfish mindset to have um but being a Texas kid is almost feeling like one of those real big dreams and
Pillars of your life has been accomplished and I didn’t treat people the right way after that and it’s unfortunate as we sit here today how is Johnny Menzel doing probably the happiest I’ve ever been in my life and I think I went through a period of time
After the documentary came out where I maybe acted a little bit like I did in the past and it’s easy to let ego and fame and stuff kind of creep back in and what I’ve done now since really you know December is you know it’s new 3 months
But I’ve insulated myself in a way with a team that I can trust people that I love that are doing nothing but looking out for my best wishes best regards they know me they’re not letting me cheat they’re holding me accountable and it’s not going to happen overnight it is
Going to be a slow gradual process to get to who I want to be as a man but in my opinion sitting here today with you and joining the hell out of this conversation SL I feel like I’m on the right path to where I need to go and as
Johnny Manzel not as Johnny Football you were once married and this is the last one you were once married could you see yourself being married again or is there someone in Johnny Manzel’s life that’s keeping Johnny grounded nope it is uh it is my friends right now my family you
Know it is my two nieces with a third one on the way that I talk to every single day on FaceTime that are really my reason why I’m still here right um and a huge reason of My Success is based off my sister and my mother and my
Father and my true core friends and my team I have around me so the love will come when it comes but for right now I’m focused on getting a bag taking care of my money getting back to where I need to be being the best brother being the best
Uncle and being there for my family and my University and a way I need to be um to make people proud that I want to make proud I don’t want to continuously keep letting people down when I feel like I’m destined for bigger greater things than
That in life I am so proud that you’re sitting here today and you found your reason to live Johnny Manzel ladies and gentlemen all my life grinding all my life sacrifice hustle pay the price want a slice got the roll of dice that’s why all my life been grinding all my life
All my life been grinding all my life sacrifice P the price want a slice got the roll a dice this why all my life been grinding all my Life
42 Comments
Classic pure football conversation/interview 🔥🫡🫡
😵💫 I’m a lil thick I guess 😅🤣😂🤣🤣🥳🥳🤣😂😂😂
😂😂😂 boy if Shannon can get Tom Brady in club shay shay SKIP will definitely kills himself 😂
Shannon gotta have some common sense and put the booze away for a guest going through sobriety
Johnny Football or Tim Teabag?? 90% would be John Man!
This is my My Favorite Interview from club Shay Shay so far!
One of my biggest influences playing in high school , man made Texas a&m my dream school
Netflix did an entire “Untold” episode on Johnny Football that can’t hold a candle to this.
Texas Longhorns need to listen to this.
Great interview Mr. Sharpe.
Johnny a real human 💪🏾
Great interview
What a great interview Unk Shay! I follow both of your shows and tuned into Undisputed becus of you hence I don’t tune in anymore! I appreciate watching your growth as an interviewer! Very very motivating Unk! Much love and gratitude
Outstanding conversation! Sad that many before like Manziel never got a voice or at least give their side of the story. Fame and glory isn't for everyone, honestly think it ruins more people than lifts them. I believe that these young athletes in college need a solid mentor not a babysitter. We all have had our ups and down, sports figures have their lives magnified on every aspect.
He actually seems like a cool dude!
Phenomenal interview. Kyler Murray never lost a HS game, he was 42-0. Just for the record.
Can't believe he didn't have VY on his TX QB Rushmore. Everybody wanted to be VY back then
Get to the point! Over done on the early years. Jeez, how many ways can you analyze a younger career?!
Dude is well spoken, never has a bad thing to say about anyone and loves his boys. Tf is so bad about that? He takes accountability but doesn’t apologize and I don’t blame him, oh man what a ride that must of been. Keep doin u Johnny, u got a lifelong fan in me no matter what u do! It ur life, enjoy it!
✝️
Interview got me wantn to watch the documentary rivht after. Another great 1 by shannon
Few podcast get a full listen. This is one
This was a good interview ❤
Shout out Johnny
Shittiest name ever for a great podcast
Shay Shay redirected the conversation real quick when they were talking about doing behind the scene deals when the Nil wasn’t even thing yet. I wondered if anybody else catch that because it was starting to get really interesting then he switched it up
Lmao first thing Shannon does is offer a recovering alcoholic a drink
Wow! The interview we didn’t know we needed!
A conversation the length of a movie and I was left wanting more. Absolutely phenomenal discussion! Need a part two in the future.
Yeah, I think Shannon didn’t want to do any incriminating stuff but I will be want to say I was very interested to see what Johnny Manziel had to say about all that type of stuff because he was saying all the colleges were doing it back then which is definitely illegal. So that transition Shannon to get on another topic was very good. Saying they can do something about it now, but you never know they have strip people of their Heisman trophies for something they did five years prior. But yeah, just an observation I noticed, and I see you noticed it as well💯
Dude literally had everything he could ever want and squandered it. He paid the price in pubic so we can learn in private.
Texas missed on Manziel, RG3, and Jameis Winston. All wanted to goto Texas and play QB
zzzzzz
What was that song they played called?
Manziel is so well spoken and is able to articulate himself extremely well. A great story teller and conversationalist. He 100% should be on tv as a sports analyst, or possibly his own podcast.
at 13:20 into the interview, Johnny admitted his dad tried to "NIL" Sumlin for 3M before NIL was a thing… Then acted like Sumlin's response was ridiculous…. it was illegal then and actually it's still illegal now..
Wow, I am shocked at how good that was. My very first time watching leshannon's show. that was awesome.
johnny might of had the talent and opportunity but he also had a lot of mental hurdles as he mentioned from being ill to his ego and lack of true passion to be a professional. that’s not the best hand we’ve seen dealt. I hope he dives into the Lord more bc he will get him on the path he’s seeking. God bless to all
I like Johnny so much more now. I feel like I understand him better. I hope he continues working on himself. You can do it bud!
Not a college football fan at all but his play at A&M actually had me at that time even as a steeler fan wanted him to succeed just not in CLE kinda like baker but glad he’s not letting the story dictate who he is today through all the highs/lows seems he found himself & to share it with the world sure it will help many
Similar to Ronaldinho. He would party all night and still go training/play full games. Part of it is the desire to play your game due to the love for it.
This interview gives me a new appreciation for Johnny and his honesty about his live and the decisions he made. That sense of ownership and responsibility for his own accomplishments and mistakes is something you dont see from alot of people. Massive respect to Johnny, I'm very happy to see him healthy, happy, sober, and doing well. Many blessings to him. 👍
Another fantastic episode from Unc, even if the numbers dont reach the Katt Williams interview.