College football legend Johnny Manziel says he could have played 8-10 years in NFL if it wasn’t for this 

Making the jump from college to the NFL isn’t easy. There are a long list of rookies who are about to find that out as they take part in their first training camp over the next few weeks. One of the most tragic cases a college star’s light fading in the pros was Johnny Manziel.

A Texas football legend

“Johnny Football” was one of the most electric players college football had ever seen. He took the nation by storm in his two years at Texas A&M. In today’s world of NIL and transfer portals, Manziel would have been a millionaire before even entering his name in the NFL Draft, but unfortunately for him, he was a little too early to reap the rewards of the NCAA sanctioned contracts that the college kids are getting now.

After redshirting his first year in, it took just a few weeks to garner the attention of the national media, and took less than a year to earn the nickname Johnny Football. He was a sensation as a redshirt freshman, leading the Aggies to an 11-2 record an a Cotton Bowl win but it wasn’t just the record or the Bowl win, it was the way he did it. The undersized QB from Tyler, Texas was like one of those QBs you see in the movies. Not from the underdog high school team. He was the QB of the big bad team that meets the underdogs in the state championship.

His spectacular scrambles, and rocket for an arm made him a living, breathing highlight reel. He was cocky. He was brash. He knew he was the big man on campus. That attitude an early success played a huge role in his downfall once he decided to enter the NFL following his second season as the Texas A&M quarterback.

The rise and the fall of Johnny Football

Manziel was taken by the Cleveland Browns with the 22nd pick in the 2014 Draft. There were already tales of his off the field lifestyle that scared some teams away. That, mixed with his atypical body frame made NFL franchises shy away from the 2012 Heisman Trophy winner. The Browns were in need of a spark, so they took a chance on Johnny Football. The gamble didn’t pay off. Manziel lasted two seasons in the NFL.

On Jake Paul’s Impaulsive podcast, Manziel was asked if he could have been one of the all-time greats “I don’t know about one of the all time greats, but I definitely could have been a person that played in the NFL for 8-10 years… I had a lot of talent, a lot of ability that I know was special,” said Manziel. He continued by taking accountability for his short lived career. “I guess there is regrets because that first year I was partying in college, and playing well and ended up winning the Heisman, that almost gave me a superpower type of feeling, when it was all just not sustainable.”

Manziel checked into a treatment program just a month after his first year in the NFL, and the problems would only amplify after that. A run in with the cops during his second year proceeded him being named the starter in Cleveland only to lose the job after videos of surfaced of him partying in Texas over the Browns bye week. By the end of the season NFL Insider Peter King claimed the Browns were “so done” with Manziel. Johnny Football didn’t play another down in the NFL after that. He played 15 games, started eight, went 2-6, threw 7 TDs and 7 INTs. His career faded as quickly as it ignited, and now we are left with the thought of what could have been had Manziel dedicated himself to the sport he loved, and the sport that loved him.