Former Browns QB Johnny Manziel express regrets about his NFL career: “It will haunt me for the rest of my life”

Johnny Manziel’s story is unfortunately typical of many young athletes. Manziel was a Heisman-winning quarterback at Texas A&M and was selected in the first round of the 2014 NFL Draft by the Cleveland Browns.

As we know, the Browns have had a quarterback crisis for many years and 2014 was no different. So snagging a talent like Manziel left many fans feeling hopeful. And for Manziel, it was a lot of pressure.

Spoiler alert: his NFL career was brief and mostly unsuccessful due to a lack of discipline and battles with mental health and substance abuse. Years later, Manziel has expressed regrets about how everything went down with his career in the league.

Johnny Manziel’s downfall in the NFL

Manziel won the Heisman Trophy in his freshman year of college - the first player ever to have done so. His talent and charisma earned him the nickname “Johnny Football”, and was drafted by the Browns after just two years playing in college.

But during his time in the NFL, Manziel’s career was plagued by off-field issues including partying and alcohol abuse. It was clear that the transition from college to professional football was unexpected and overwhelming for him. Besides partying and drinking, Manziel was also involved in a domestic violence investigation involving his ex-girlfriend (along with other negative incidents). The Browns released him ahead of the 2016 season.

Manziel has since opened up about his struggles with bipolar disorder and substance abuse, a problem which got him suspended by the NFL for the first half of the 2016 season. His agent dropped him that same year and Manziel’s NFL career ended there. Although he’s since played in other professional leagues (including the CFL, AAF, and FCF), he has never found consistent success.

On Thursday, Manziel appeared on “The Rich Eisen Show” and spoke about his brief but contentious NFL career. He expressed regret about how it all went down.

“I sit here today with just a lot of regret with how I handled a lot of things,” Manziel said. “I think I took a lot of my, like, similar attitude and antics with me. I think I got really comfortable in being in a position in my first year there, being the backup and really not having a lot of responsibilities.”

Manziel said he never truly embraced the city in the same way its fans embraced him. He said that although he felt very supported, he “never fully put my heart around it and gave it a chance”, and that going from being in Texas all his life to living in Cleveland felt like a “shell shock”.

“There was a lot of hope, that I was going to be able to go there and make a difference for a franchise that’s been longing for that,” Manziel said. “But, you know, my efforts and my determination and time, that I could have put in to the quarterback position is something that, for the rest of my life will always haunt me, that I had the ability to do more, and I didnt."

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