Johnny Manziel was a great college football player. As a pro football player? Not so much. And a recent Netflix documentary may have just revealed a big reason why.
This week’s episode of the Netflix documentary Untold took a behind-the-scenes look at “Johnny Football’s” incredible ride from college football stardom and the Heisman Trophy to down and out in Cleveland after only two years and 14 games.
Ironically, it was after he was drafted in the 1st round by Cleveland – when his stock had never been higher – when Manziel felt the most empty inside.
Quarterback Johnny Manziel, #2 of the Cleveland Browns, talks to head coach Mike Pettine during the first half against the Tennessee Titans at FirstEnergy Stadium on September 20, 2015, in Cleveland, Ohio. (Jason Miller/Getty Images)
“Didn’t take me very long to be in Cleveland to find out that I wasn’t going to be happy there,” Manziel said. “I had every single thing that I could have ever wanted. You have money, you have fame, you’re a first-round draft pick battling for a starting quarterback position. And when I got everything that I wanted, I think I was the most empty that I’ve ever felt inside.”
One of the most revealing nuggets revealed during the episode was that Manziel didn’t watch film during his time in Cleveland, like none.
“Their GM’s calling me going, ‘He doesn’t watch tape,’” Manziel’s agent Erik Burkhardt says in the episode. “I’m like, ‘Well he’s gotta watch some tape.’ He’s like, ‘EB, his iPad hours is 0.00.’”
Manziel backed up the Browns’ claim: “Zero.”
Johnny Manziel was given a team iPad where coaches could secretly track the amount of time he spent watching film.
But the problem was that Manziel didn’t watch any film. Literally not a minute.pic.twitter.com/ydbOVnybo0
— Joe Pompliano (@JoePompliano) August 9, 2023
Manziel went into depth on his wild ride from national fame at College Station to NCAA investigation and on into Cleveland.
“I would sit in my condo in Cleveland downtown and just feel like it was the only place that I could get away from everybody and anything,” Manziel said. “And I would look out those windows every day and I just felt empty. I went from one fishbowl city to another, and I wanted nothing to do with football I wanted nothing to do with stepping on that field. And I had bigger issues in my life than being able to go out and play free-spirited, flowing football.
“I had gone from the whirlwind ride of 2012 in College Station, the Heisman Trophy, the Cotton Bowl, the NCAA investigation, straight into another season, into the NFL draft. I just didn’t get a break.”
Manziel went 2-6 as a starter in the NFL. Not shocking in light of the revelations in the Netflix documentary. Manziel will still, however, always be remembered as one of the greatest college football players of all time.