Downloaded from YTS.MX
[exciting music playing]
Official YIFY movies site: YTS.MX
[music ends]
[indistinct chatter]
[male presenter] Next, we induct one of the most pivotal players
in Texas A&M history.
-[commentators] -Oh, my gracious.
-Yep. -How about that?
[excitedly] A&M did it. They just did it.
[presenter] …won a Heisman Trophy.
-[commentators] -Here comes Johnny Football.
The Heisman Trophy, for the first time, has gone to a freshman quarterback.
He is must-watch TV.
[presenter] He is a living legend, Johnny Manziel.
[audience cheering, applauding]
[Johnny] Let me paint a little picture for you of how I'm able to sit here today
and be on this stage at 29 years old.
When I stepped on campus in 2011, it didn't look like this.
[crowd] Johnny Football!
[commentator] He's taken on Rolling Stones, Beatles status.
This stadium didn't look like this…
[crowd singing team's anthem]
…we didn't have the buzz that we have today.
[man] …brought A&M back to national prominence.
[commentator] In the preseason, hardly anyone knew who Johnny Manziel was.
It'd be very easy to turn your back
on some of the things I was doing in my life,
and I live with a lot of regret.
[woman] New trouble for Johnny Manziel.
-[man] …under investigation for assault. -Manziel has gone into rehab.
The family fears he is spiraling out of control.
[Johnny] But at the same time, I've lived with a lot of pride.
I am beyond thankful for each and every Aggie in this room
that's supported me through the good,
through the bad,
and through times that really just didn't even make sense for me.
From the bottom of my heart, I wanna say thank you very much.
Thanks and Gig 'em.
[audience cheering, applauding]
[man] Ooh, I loved it when you were here.
Through all the shenanigans, I still loved it.
Thank you very much.
-What's up? -[boy] You're why I love A&M.
[Johnny] Thank you, bro.
-What are you doing these days? -Living in Scottsdale, enjoying life.
You got your private airplane yet?
Not yet. I'm working on it.
-We gotta do the money sign. -I got you.
-Thank you. -Good to see you, guys.
-Thanks for everything. -Good to see you.
-[man] Good to see you. -Good to see you.
How are you? Thank you, bro. Good to see you guys.
Good to see you. I appreciate it.
-[indistinct chatter, laughter] -[soft music playing]
[man] Oh, what the fuck?
You do not change bats in the middle of the series, dawg.
-Whoo-hoo. -[echoing] Oh…
[Johnny] There is who you are as a football player,
and then, there is who you are as a human being,
and the two, for me, were just really different.
I almost felt like I had an alter ego.
I wanted to be Johnny Football. Johnny Football never had a bad time.
So, when people asked me, "Do you like the nickname Johnny Football?"
I fucking loved it.
I thought it was awesome.
JFF, Johnny Fucking Football. What's up?
-[pop music playing] -[clapperboard dinging]
["Your Sweet Love" by Lee Hazlewood playing]
♪ Stranger's arms ♪
♪ Reach out to me ♪
♪ 'Cause they know ♪
♪ I'm so lonely ♪
♪ Then my mind goes back ♪
♪ To you ♪
♪ And your sweet love ♪
♪ Sees me through ♪
[music fades]
-[Johnny panting heavily] -[owl hooting]
-[crowd cheering] -[referee blowing whistle]
[Johnny] Football is everything in Texas.
You know, If you don't play football, you're either too big of a pussy to play,
or you're just not any good.
["Cruise" by Florida Georgia Line playing]
♪ Baby, you're a song ♪
♪ You make me wanna roll my windows down And cruise… ♪
[crowd cheering]
[Johnny] Town closes down when it's Friday night and there's game.
The football team was the lifeline.
[presenter] Johnny Football!
First time I met Johnny was in middle school.
We both loved video games, um, we both loved football,
we both loved girls,
so we had all the most important things in life in common.
The Johnny I know is a kid
who wanted to be the very best football player you could possibly be
and, after that, go drink some beers out on a ranch,
drive a 20-year-old truck over to do it.
[Johnny] Called him Uncle Nate. He was like my right-hand man.
We were just good old country boys.
If you've seen Friday Night Lights, you've seen anything like that…
-Clear eyes, full hearts… -Can't lose!
…that's what Kerrville was.
The intensity, all of it. The, you know, hard-ass dads.
Johnny was born on my birthday.
♪ Happy birthday, dear Jonathan… ♪
[Paul] We have the same mannerisms, the same birthdays.
He's me made over, pretty much.
[woman] There he is.
Paul!
Discipline in our family pretty much came from me.
You just teach 'em to do the right thing all the time.
[instrumental music playing]
We truly are each other's best friends.
End of my 4th-grade year, we moved to Kerrville,
and it was a totally different pace of life for us.
[Nate] Tivy High School was very much a military-style football program,
and all of your best friends are doing it right next to you,
so you're not gonna be the asshole that stands out. Just fall in line.
My dad wanted me to be in that program because of how strict they ran it.
Your first period of the day, 7 a.m., is football.
Different weight room stations every single day.
Six stations, six coaches,
and then after school, you practice again, so we had a double dose every single day.
The Kerrville way, the Tivy way,
the "Tivy fight never dies," that whole mantra that we had
lasted until the second you walked outta that school when you were a senior.
[crowd chattering]
[Paul] In his 10th-grade year, Johnny got the start.
[players shouting]
And I remember sitting in the stands and people are like,
"Who is this Manziel kid?" "There's some new kid starting tonight."
I was like, "Oh my gosh, here we go."
[crowd cheering]
[commentator] Here come the Antlers!
We ran a play called "tin trap", which is pretty much catch the ball,
they're gonna trap the noseguard,
and you're gonna run straight up the middle as fast as you can.
[exciting music playing]
It just parted like the Red Sea.
You know, just a perfect alley right down the middle.
Took off, touchdown.
[commentator] Touchdown, Tivy.
And there's a yellow flag. Holding. It's called back.
So now we're on the 10-yard line.
The coach signals in to play "Sky 2".
I look at the wristband.
I look down, I look up, I look at the sideline,
and this motherfucker called tin trap again.
[commentator] Snap to Manziel.
Looks like he's gonna take this one to the house!
[Johnny] Take it from the 10-yard line
all the way to the house for a 90-yard touchdown.
[commentator] A 90-yard touchdown from Johnny Manziel.
-[referee blowing whistle] -[cheerful music playing]
[presenter] It all starts here
and on thousands of football fields like this all over the country.
It's where the quarterbacks of tomorrow learn their future skills.
[man] Everybody wants to be the quarterback.
Nobody's watching the nose tackle except for the nose tackle's wife and mother.
I think the way that I played quarterback, it was just a different kind of football.
[crowd cheering]
I always watched Brett Favre growing up,
a guy who'd run around and make a ton of plays.
Brett Favre, and I like Vince Young.
Vince Young is who I'd like to have my style known as.
There's a play that I will remember for the rest of my life.
Vince Young, pump fake…
[commentator] Great pump fake.
…and the defender jumped.
Say goodbye to Vince Young.
It fit me how I wanted to play football. It fit me how I naturally played football.
Always try to keep the elbow at least parallel with the shoulder.
As a quarterback,
square your shoulders up with the line of scrimmage before delivering the ball.
You wanna see the ball secure, not flopping around.
[Johnny] Even though I was 5'10", maybe 5'11" on a good day,
you know, I didn't even have to think about it.
[commentator] Manziel. Touchdown, Antlers.
It was just run around and play backyard football,
and don't let that guy tackle you. Throw it to the guy that's open.
-[players shouting] -[referee blowing whistle]
[Nate] I remember he straight-up hurdled a dude that was standing up straight.
[referee blowing whistle]
He was playing with children, and he would manhandle them.
[commentator] He had seven touchdowns
in the first half last week against Fredericksburg.
You look at his numbers, and he has not disappointed it.
[commentator 1] He picked up
the Associated Press Player of the Year award.
[commentator 2] Johnny Manziel certainly lives up to the hype.
[announcer] Touchdown. Touchdown, Johnny Manziel.
[commentator 3] Coming into senior season, check out these numbers. 3,609 yards.
Seventy-five touchdowns?
I thought that was a typo. I thought that was for his career, not this season!
[Johnny] My senior year, I started to get recruited a little bit.
Not anything crazy,
but I wanted to play football at the University of Texas.
But I'd never really gotten anything
other than your basic, normal recruiting letters.
[Paul] He grew up with Longhorn T-shirts, Longhorn hats,
Longhorn this, Longhorn that,
and I really think that he always thought he'd go there,
and it just didn't work out.
[players cheering watchwords]
[Johnny] I remember walking into the office one day,
and my coach goes, "Texas A&M just offered you a full ride."
[narrator] It is not a simple thing, the making of a quarterback.
It is the stuff of which legends are made.
[crowd cheering watchwords]
["Spies in Overalls" instrumental playing]
[man narrating] Texas A&M was all male, all military for a long time.
A&M's always had a reputation as the blue-collar school of the state.
It's the roll-up-your-sleeves, it's the gritty school.
You know, back in the day,
it's where the people from the rural parts of Texas came to college.
It's been interesting, the last 20 years or so,
because college football's changing.
[broadcaster] The Big 12 Conference is about to get smaller.
Texas A&M University gave its notice to the athletic conference,
said it plans to leave the league by next July.
One of the things that we talk about in collegiate athletics,
the athletic department is the front porch to the university.
For more and more universities across the country,
success on the football field now equals a higher profile for the entire school.
[woman narrator] A&M is moving towards a jump to the Southeast Conference
as SEC is home to teams like Florida, Auburn, and LSU.
We're talking about exposure, brand recognition,
billion-dollar decisions here, and more.
Welcome to the SEC.
They were basically saying,
"This is a defining moment in our program's history,"
but there were a lot of people that were wondering,
"Is this the best move?"
[commentator] We're talking about a football program
that's three games over .500 the last nine seasons.
We're not talking about a national superpower here.
At the time, we would've been considered middle of the road in the Big 12,
and there was a national narrative that Texas A&M cannot compete in the SEC.
[commentator] The SEC has five national championships in a row.
They're going into the toughest league in the country. We all know that.
And it's the toughest by a long shot.
[Billy] And then there was a coaching change.
I wanna welcome Kevin Sumlin as new head football coach at Texas A&M.
They hired Kevin Sumlin,
and he had an offensive coordinator by the name of Kliff Kingsbury,
and he had this wide-open, high-flying offense.
[journalist] How does this offense translate going against SEC defense?
Hell, we'll find out. We'll find out.
[Billy] But what no one knew
was they had this kid from Kerrville, Texas,
this quarterback named Johnny Manziel.
One of Texas A&M's potential starting quarterbacks
was arrested early this morning in Northgate.
Patrol officers say they saw two men fighting.
One of the two was Manziel.
Johnny and one of his crappy high school friends were down in College Station,
ends up turning into a fight.
Johnny has a fake ID on him, goes to jail.
You know, I don't have much of a recollection
other than waking up shirtless on a concrete bench in Bryan County Jail,
and they said that wasn't very, um, normal of my character.
I guess looking back now, maybe it is a little bit normal
for my character.
Johnny'd gotten in some trouble, but I remember Kliff Kingsbury telling me,
"You know that's the guy, right? No matter what."
When he got in-line in fall camp, it was like a different human.
It was like, "All right, y'all about to see why."
[shouting watchwords]
Our first game was at home at Kyle Field against the University of Florida,
and Johnny Manziel's making his first start.
[commentator] Steps it outside, nothing doing.
Manziel just couldn't beat 'em with his arm.
Rough, rough sledding.
We end up losing 21-17, something like that.
I'm walking home, get to the end of the street right in front of the house,
and there are so many "for sale" signs in my yard,
and I just remember looking at 'em being like, "Welcome to the fucking SEC."
But then, our second game was a road game at SMU.
[Billy] Now, I remember Kliff telling me after that first game,
"I should've just let him do his thing."
And from that point and on, I think he did that.
And then Johnny happened.
[commentator] First down and ten, Manziel pumps once.
Now he is forced out of the pocket.
He's running, and some of those guys back there don't know.
Oh, broken tackle. 20. Cutting back to his left.
He's gonna get in. That's a touchdown.
It just all happened, so free and so natural,
and was just everything aligning right with the universe,
the way that it should be.
[commentator] He got away from that guy. Now he's gonna throw under duress.
And he made a catch! Manziel is a magician today.
It's unbelievable. We're watching him grow up here.
At A&M, we had a saying. It was "Win or lose, we booze."
And it was real tr… real true.
-[slurping] -[exciting music playing]
[commentator] Here's Manziel, breaks a tackle.
-In the end zone! Yeah! -[crowd cheering]
70 to 14. A&M improves to two and one.
People think of athletes as being these super disciplined, on a diet,
just being absolutely committed to their craft.
[commentator] Manziel going deep. It's caught. This may be 80 yards.
[Nate] I never saw him look at a playbook ever. I've never seen it happen.
After football, he didn't talk about football.
So it was as if he was just doing this thing on the side,
and the reason wasn't to be badass
and win and do all these unbelievable feats,
it was for what happens after you win.
[commentator] He's got the first down. He's got the end zone. Touchdown!
[Billy] I've never seen the A&M fan base, the power brokers,
and everybody as confident as they were, because it was lightning in a bottle.
And A&M fans could say, "That's my guy."
"He's one of us."
[Kliff] As everything's blowing up, I think he just rolled with it.
So we're going to Mississippi State on Friday,
Friday morning we see these pictures… [laughs]
…and he's in a Scooby-Doo outfit,
and you can tell he's obviously had a couple of cocktails.
[Johnny] I remember opening my eyes and seeing our grad assistant saying,
"Kliff send me over here to come and grab you,"
gave him a little shit about it, and he's like,
"Listen, bud, we're in the thick of an SEC race right now,
so we gotta have you on the field."
And he rolls out there hungover,
goes through the walk-through, he's pouring sweat.
And I just looked at him and said, "You better fucking play good."
[commentator] Rolling right. He's wide open.
He is gonna get another first down.
He's after the, a-- He's cutting back to his right.
He just scored! I don't know how he did it.
[Kliff] He plays one of the best games he's ever played,
and for the rest of the season, I always put the ball in his hands.
[commentator] And the legend of No 2 continues to build.
I don't think many people had kinda seen someone play that way and live that way.
It's funny too. Johnny coming in, bringing that renegade element to it.
It was interesting to see A&M, the old heads, sit back and go,
"You know what? We're gonna go with this."
At that point, it was like, "This has been fun."
You know, "The little white kid running around making plays has been fun,
but… but welcome to reality. Here comes Alabama."
[suspenseful music escalates]
-[different commentators] -The Cotton Bowl is dominated by Alabama.
The Crimson Tide of Alabama is on the flood this New Year's Day.
Alabama wins the inaugural Southeastern Conference Championship.
Crimson Tide wins the National Championship.
Alabama. They win the BCS Championship.
Fourteen national championships. Man, that's pretty much all you gotta say.
[Billy] What is it about the Crimson Tide this year,
last year, that's made them so good under Nick Saban?
You mean the last four years?
[narrator] Nick Saban is the most dominant head coach in the college football
and maybe all of American sports.
I remember before the Alabama game, somebody said, "Good luck."
Does A&M have a chance to win this game?
[man] A&M has as much chance of beating Alabama
-as I do to hit the lottery. -[laughing]
Kliff saying, "We don't need it. We got Johnny."
[commentator] A hundred and one thousand will fill this place
by the time we kick it off.
[crowd] Whoo!
[Johnny] Day of the game, I watch the movie 300,
and I tweet this out before we walk into the stadium,
And that felt like the perfect spot that we could be in.
[crowd booing, whistling]
[Johnny] We have zero expectations to win this game.
[players shouting watchwords] Win, win, win…
[Johnny] And when you have that "What the fuck? Does it really matter?"
attitude, you play better.
[commentator] Manziel takes off again.
[crowd cheering]
[commentator] Uh-oh. Stiff arm.
[Johnny] We came out and scored on our first three drives of the game.
[commentator] Four-man Alabama rush. Got him.
Oh no, they didn't.
-Oh, my gracious. -[commentator 1] Yep.
[commentator] How about that?
Boom, score, 14-nothing. Get a stop. Boom, 20-nothing.
[commentator] A&M has been unstoppable.
[Kliff] It was the fastest we've ever started.
Johnny was on fire, running, throwing, and that place got quiet really quickly.
[commentator] Alabama fans are going,
"I've never seen anything like this in my life."
But then, day turns to night. 'Bama comes back.
[commentator] Touchdown, Alabama.
This is a stacked, stacked Alabama offense.
[commentator] Lacy left side. Lacy leaning.
Lacy's in!
'Bama had all the momentum,
and it was looking like you were gonna let one get away.
[commentator] And Manziel knows it. Alabama is still alive.
[Billy] Johnny walks over where I am
with some national media people, and he said,
"Fuck Nick Saban. Fuck Alabama. That's it."
"We're scoring a touchdown right here. Watch."
[Johnny] Next play is a fake wheel around the sideline,
and I probably throw the best pass I've ever thrown in my life.
-[commentator] He's got Swope. -My gosh, what a pass!
Swope never broke stride.
Get to the 20, see man coverage.
I do our check. Malcome Kennedy runs a corner.
Wobbly ball, and we score.
[commentator] Ball wobbles, it's caught!
Touchdown!
Malcome Kennedy.
Comes running off the sideline, and he's saying, "I fucking told you."
And the national media guy looks at me and goes, "Dude's a witch."
[shouting] Let's get this over with. Right now! Right now!
[Billy] Those two plays,
you know, changed Johnny's life.
[Johnny] Finally, at the very end, 50 seconds left,
you go and you take a knee in Tuscaloosa, and you win the game.
[commentator] A&M did it. They just did it.
Lightning in a bottle in Tuscaloosa.
[commentator 1] And did Johnny Football put himself
in position to be a Heisman Trophy winner?
You walk off the field like a fucking G.
-[clock ticking] -[low tempo music playing]
[Johnny] The feeling walking into that locker room after
was such a joy and a rush for you and your boys.
To do the undoable, to beat the unbeatable,
and to… [inhales deeply]
…really change the course of our history for… forever.
[crowd cheering]
[Johnny] And I didn't know
how serious it was until I walked outta the locker room.
I would always go find my parents.
I couldn't find 'em.
[air horn honking]
By the time we got to Johnny,
it is a mob.
[Johnny] I gave 'em, like, a two-second hug
and immediately wanted to get on the bus.
He looked at me, and he had this fear in his eye that I've never seen before.
[Johnny] When I got on the bus, I was like, "Holy fuck."
"What is this?"
I think that's really where my role in… in this begins, for sure.
I mean, I always had a role as a friend, but it becomes a little more defined
when he has trouble getting around publicly.
[commentator] Johnny Manziel is the talk of the sports world.
[Johnny] It was just pure chaos, 24/7, if you stepped out of the house.
Look at this T-shirt right here. Supporting Johnny. Look.
[presenter] Texas A&M is looking to profit from the success of their quarterback.
The team store is selling his jersey for the first time this season.
[Johnny] And one thing that came with it was people seeking autographs.
And so, Nate turned into, like, a manager for me.
Everything went through Nate.
The resources that should've been there for Johnny definitely weren't.
Had they been, I wouldn't have been part of this picture.
[Kliff] We didn't have the support. We didn't know what to do.
He couldn't go to class because people would just mob him.
They had to put him in online classes,
which, for Johnny Football, is not a good idea.
[presenter] What makes this story so amazing is that, in the preseason,
hardly anyone knew who Johnny Manziel was.
[female presenter] A young man they call Johnny Football.
-Johnny Football? -Yeah, Johnny Football, Johnny Manziel.
I was dealing with a lot of media requests for Johnny on a national scale,
but at the time, Coach Sumlin had a policy:
"Freshmen do not talk to the media."
[Kliff] It played a huge role in the intrigue
and the mystery of what he was
'cause he never spoke.
So it was like, "Who is this masked man?"
-[commentator] Here comes Johnny Football. -There goes Johnny Football.
-[commentator 2] Can you say "magic"? -He's magic.
And then, you throw on, you know, first year in the SEC,
he's unbelievably talented,
he's definitely kind of this bad-boy figure.
My phone was ringing.
He was j-- It was… It was unbelievable.
[presenter] Adidas has actually run out of the blank maroon No 2 jerseys.
[presenter 1] Manziel's legend grows just as fast.
[car honking]
He transcended certainly college football, but also sports.
[presenter] Sent home from school
with a Johnny Manziel carved into the back of his head.
You know, it just keeps growing, and then, he's a household name.
Welcome into Johnny Manziel and Jim Muncy's world of fantasy football.
♪ Johnny Football ♪
♪ You're an angel to us ♪
[indistinct chatter]
[Cannon] We had one week before the Heisman ballots were due,
and Johnny did a press conference on campus.
[presenter] All right, ladies and gentlemen,
thank you for coming today. It's my honor and privilege
to introduce a young man that's about to turn 20 on December 6th,
Texas A&M quarterback, Johnny Manziel.
-We'll start over here to the right. -[shutters clicking]
[journalist] Johnny, Pedro Gomez from ESPN.
There's so much talk about a freshman possibly winning the Heisman--
[journalist 1] You're a legend in Kerrville.
What advice can you give to all high-school--
[journalist 2] You're the favorite for Heisman.
People are talking about even two. Does that scare you?
[woman] What is the craziest thing a fan's done for you?
I did see people in Scooby-Doo costumes at the game the other day.
-I'm gonna put that up there at the top. -[journalists laughing]
The winner of this year's Heisman Trophy
will be announced Saturday right here in New York.
[female presenter] Manziel is considered the favorite.
He'd be the first freshman ever to win the trophy.
[presenter] The Heisman Trophy will be awarded
just a few hours from now,
and we are honored to be joined by the finalists.
This was for all three of you. We got a couple of seniors here and a freshman.
Does any of that matter anymore when determining the Heisman?
I'd like to hear from all of you on that.
I don't think so. Um, I think--
Good evening, everyone. I'm Jim Nantz. We're at the home of the Heisman Trophy,
the most prestigious prize in all of college sports.
[Johnny] You know, I'd watched every Heisman ceremony since I was a kid.
I remember the Reggie year, the Matt Leinart year,
I remember Cam's, RG3's,
and one thing that I did know is
that a freshman wasn't gonna win the Heisman,
and there was a huge, huge stigma around that,
that it was almost taboo.
[presenter] Might this be the year the final class barrier is broken down
by the voters, a first-ever freshman to win the Heisman Trophy?
There were three people that were in Heisman contention.
It was really Collin Klein, Manti Te'o, and myself.
[female presenter] And to the winner, your name will forever be associated
with the legacy of being a Heisman Trophy winner.
[Johnny] I was so unbelievably nervous.
I looked down a lot
because I felt like my suit jacket was gonna be jumping like this
'cause I felt like my heart was beating outta my chest.
[female presenter] The 2012 winner of the Heisman Memorial Trophy is…
[soft music playing]
…Johnny Manziel
[audience cheering, applauding]
And when my name was called,
I felt pride, just the most joy I've ever felt in my life.
[Paul] I was just praying they called his name, and, um…
just what a great sound.
It was a great sound. A lot of emotions in there,
and, um, you know, a long road of raising him.
To Mom, Dad, Meri, you mean the world to me.
I just wanna thank you for the encouragement,
the love, and the patience over the years.
[Johnny] It was awesome to see how emotional my dad was
and just how proud of me he was.
It's been a long time since I've seen him like that,
uh, so the impact that's had on me has been tremendous.
[all cheering loudly] Whoo-hoo!
[Paul] As you raise your child, you wanna give him
every opportunity to get to where he wants to be,
and, um, he achieved that tonight,
and, um, we're not done yet, but, um, he's definitely on his way.
[Meri] It all changed after the Heisman.
It becomes a little bit larger than football at that point.
Congratulations, Johnny, what are you gonna do with your prize money?
Did they give you money?
-I wish. -Yeah.
And then, after the Heisman, people started talking about money.
[crowd chanting]
What a year it has been.
[crowd whooing]
Namely, Texas A&M's first year in the SEC.
And not only did Texas A&M compete, we excelled.
The nation knows him as Johnny Football,
your 2012 Heisman Trophy winner, Johnny Manziel.
[crowd cheering, applauding]
[all together] Johnny Football, hey, whoo!
I don't know if there's been a more impactful athlete for a university
than Johnny Football and Texas A&M,
and everybody was along for the ride and… and benefiting.
And that's just a fact.
Whether it's Kevin Sumlin and… and his mega-contract he signed,
Kliff Kingsbury and where his career went,
even our business, like, something that covers Texas A&M.
[woman] It certainly is bringing more visitors
and… and more Aggies and more SEC visitors to come in to see our community.
We sold out all of the hotels in all of Bryan-College Station.
[Kliff] There was nobody that was looking sideways
once we started winning and having the run we had.
I mean, everybody knew that they were gonna profit off this run.
[Presenter] According to one estimate,
Manziel's Heisman has been worth $37 million
in free publicity for Texas A&M.
If you don't think it's easier to recruit professors
after they see Johnny Manziel,
then you don't know much about public relations.
The people that benefited were the school. Hugely.
The Texas A&M Foundation raised more than $740 million,
$300 million more than any other one-year period
in the university's history.
-The donations just skyrocketed. -[rock music playing]
You know the saying, "Strike while the iron's hot."
The iron was never hotter.
Because of Johnny's success,
people have a belief that Texas A&M can compete in the SEC.
So we need to upgrade.
[presenter] A makeover of Texas-sized proportions.
A&M proposed a renovation plan
that could fit more than 100,000 people in Kyle Field.
[Johnny] There were two times throughout the season
where I had to sign hundreds and hundreds of autographs.
We had 'em all lined out for all of our donors.
This is where, I guess, I see a little bit behind the scenes,
kind of what they were doing
through that year for donations and building a new stadium.
I was tired of not having any money,
and I sure as hell saw "45 million No 2 A&M Adidas jerseys sold."
It didn't make any sense, and…
[rock music cuts off sharply]
…I had a bone to pick. [sighs]
Football is an industry that makes billions of dollars every year
at both the pro and collegiate levels.
And while professional players can count on fat paychecks,
college athletes can't make a dime.
I have a deep hatred against the NCAA.
Athletes argue the organization continues to profit off student-athletes
without giving them a fair cut.
In 2012, the NCAA was basically, um, set up to make sure
there was a level playing field in college football.
[presenter] The NCAA president testified that any effort to pay players
would destroy a framework that has been in place for more than a century.
We provide students with access to education,
and there's not even a salary to debate. They're not employees. They're students.
You're allowed to have a full scholarship, you're allowed to get meals,
have your books paid for, classes, housing,
and that was basically it.
The idea of athletes being paid,
do you think that will ever happen at the NCAA level?
Not while I'm president of the NCAA.
There was no marketing deals, there's no advertising deals.
You… You couldn't make money off your likeness or image, none of that.
He knew everybody was making a ton of money
out of Johnny Football mania, so, "Hey! I'm gonna try to get mine."
[Johnny] It all started
at a national championship game in my freshman year.
Me and Nate flew down to Miami. I'm sitting there waiting on our bags,
and this guy comes out to me, and he's like,
"I've got some money for you if you wanna sign,"
and I just kinda blew the guy off a little bit, and he's like,
"Yo, I've got $3,000 for you to sign."
And I remember taking my headphones off
and turning around looking at this guy like…
[inhales] "Where are we going?"
They've got liquor. They've got everything to make it fun.
As we're kinda hours into this whole deal, one of the guys is like,
"This guy's fucking you over," and slid me a number.
He's like, "Trust me, like, the king of all autographs is downstairs
and you guys are getting hosed totally on the count, the money."
"It's all… It's all screwed. You gotta go downstairs."
There was like a black Rolls-Royce Dawn out front.
He's like, "Hey, hold up," and I look up on the thing,
and it was Alex Rodriguez calling.
He's like, "Tell this dude I'm good,"
and I remember him just like, "100%, he's good."
I'm like, "Can't argue with that."
[Johnny] "Here's what we're gonna do.
I'm gonna get a room at the Fontainebleau."
"I'm gonna set everything up in there."
"When you get done, shoot me a picture, and I'll give you the code to the safe."
"Thirty grand."
And once that happened for the first time, it was, like, game on.
Constructing the business was really just logic.
And I hate to even call it a business
because it wasn't really a business. It was just, um…
Well, it was a business.
[rap music playing]
We were going back once in February, once in March, once in April, once in May.
Business is booming.
For a 19-year-old kid to have about 100 grand in cash stuffed under your bed,
it was awesome.
You have to also understand, we weren't just signing autographs.
[Johnny] Cabo. California.
Not looking good for the Padres.
[Nate] All over the place. Throwing a dart on a map.
Finish our drinks, go straight to the airport.
Wake up and we're like, "What are we doing in Washington, DC?"
[commentator] How does a college kid get courtside seats? They are expensive seats.
[Nate] We went to LIV Nightclub, which was big at the time.
The next thing I know, Rick Ross is just passing us these purple bottles.
[rap music continues]
[announcer] Please welcome Johnny Manziel!
-[crowd cheering] -[woman] He's one of your boys, clearly.
Johnny's like one of the best guys,
and I feel like our friendship will last for… for a very long time.
[Nate] We went to the Super Bowl, first row, 50-yard line.
We went to Maxim Magazine party
and had drinks with Jamie Foxx, with Andy Roddick.
Met up with Wale, Justin Timberlake, and Jessica Biel that night.
None of them could believe he was there.
[upbeat music playing]
I'm going in my head 'cause I'm 20 years old,
I'm so badass.
And I remember… [laughs]
…I got this silk Versace shirt,
Gucci sunglasses.
And I still, to this day,
have the first Gucci wallet that I ever, ever bought.
There's still the price tag there.
So I thought this was, like, the coolest thing in the world.
We make this list of what do we wanna accomplish in our life,
you know, what do we wanna do?
[Nate] He's like, "I don't know. You write yours, and I'll write mine."
[Johnny] You know,
"Make a million dollars, go see this, go see that."
All those stupid things you do as a kid, you know, we did together.
[Nate] He's in my ear the whole time telling me we're the baddest thing
that ever existed, and "Let's roll."
"This is what life is like forever."
And I thought that it was at the time.
[Johnny] This train was going full speed ahead…
[inhales] …and it didn't really stop until the NCAA got involved.
Texas A&M star quarterback,
Johnny Manziel, has come under scrutiny this week.
Accused of signing sports memorabilia for money.
I go to my dad, and I was like, "Oh shit," like, "I… I really fucked up."
Johnny calls me, he says, "Hey, I'm being investigated. What do I do?"
I said, "Don't say a word. Don't do nothing."
Here we go again.
There may be two other questionable autograph-signing sessions.
There's growing concern Johnny Manziel may not even be in uniform…
The NCAA had an entire division
that was dedicated to finding athletes breaking the rules.
That is no joke.
Johnny Football could lose part of his eligibility, if not all.
Is this the end for Manziel?
But we had already formed an immaculate defense.
[suspenseful music playing]
We talked, and I devised a plan that was brilliant.
I started with, "How does he get caught?"
He gets caught because somebody takes a picture during a paid autograph session.
You can sign autographs all you want.
The part you have to conceal is money being paid.
You have all this cash, can't go buy a flight,
so I remember calling my grandpa one day and asking him,
"Hey, is there any way that I can, you know, give you some cash,
and then you're able to give me a check,
so I'm able to put some money into the bank account?"
And my grandpa's a fucking G.
You know, Nate was very okay with being the fall guy.
And with that,
me and Nate split everything 80-20.
[Nate] The next step is,
how are you gonna explain why you are wearing Rolexes
and driving new cars and flying in private jets?
As a freshman, you weren't allowed to talk to the media,
but they were allowed to talk to me.
And so the biggest spin that still exists today,
I invented a narrative that his family was vastly wealthy.
[Johnny] I've been blessed
with family members that have had these opportunities,
and I've always been able to do this.
We sold a little bit of a dream
that my family had more money, um, than they actually did.
What's interesting is here's a kid who doesn't need money.
He comes from oil money.
A kid who came from oil money.
We're not doing anything criminal.
We're just not abiding by the NCAA bylaws on which you're not allowed to make money.
Well, Johnny Football suspended for half a game.
The NCAA says there is no evidence that Manziel took money,
but he still violated the rules by signing certain photographs.
They, um, penalized him half a game
for failure to prevent the commercialization of his name.
And we went right back to signing autographs.
The last time the reigning Heisman Trophy winner returned to play in the SEC
was Tim Tebow back in 2007.
Now, it's this man's turn.
[presenter] The one person that everybody had their eyes on earlier this morning
was Johnny Football.
Once he won the Heisman,
I saw a different side of him.
It was like there was nothing stopping him from doing what he wanted to do.
[Johnny] What was going on with the NCAA,
for years and years and years, was just wrong,
and I went into that suspension pissed,
but also with the biggest smirk on my face ever.
And then, from then on out, everything I really did
just got absolutely nitpicked and torn apart.
People saying, "He's traveling around the world,
he's done Jay Leno, he hasn't been at practice very much."
Fuck your practice. I'm the best player in the country.
[presenter] Manziel caught a lot of heat from the media
after leaving the Manning Passing Academy.
Some reports say Manziel was hungover and missed camp.
[journalist] What happened on the weekend?
Um, nothing… nothing more than I overslept.
I was a shark in a fish tank,
and I didn't really feel like I had any way to move.
[presenter] Early Sunday morning, Manziel posted a quote,
[woman] Manziel was reportedly quickly and harshly removed from a frat party.
[Johnny] I like to have fun in my life.
I like to live my life to the fullest, and if that upsets some people, I'm sorry.
What Johnny needed was to be held accountable.
When you turn your son over to a coach and to a program,
they're supposed to not only teach him how to play football,
they're responsible to turn him into a good young man.
[Kliff] I always felt you had to be careful
on trying to tell Johnny how to live his life.
Wasn't ideal I think, for us as coaches,
but it was kinda like, that's the dark side he needed to play good,
and as long as he wasn't getting in trouble, um,
do your deal.
[Kevin] Um, nobody's really ever been in this situation.
We've been very clear with Johnny and his family about the dos and don'ts,
but, um, there's not a perfect person in this room.
[Paul] For the school,
how do you take him out and waste a season?
How do you do that, financially or anything else?
Y… You don't.
[crowd cheering]
[presenter] So the suspension
that many around college football felt was just a joke is now history,
and Johnny Manziel is a college football player again.
[crowd cheering] Johnny! Johnny! Johnny! Johnny!
[commentator] In for his first snap of 2013.
And Manziel takes off.
There goes Johnny Football!
That's why they love him here in College Station.
Here's his other standard move after a touchdown.
All this money thing that he started doing,
I didn't like it, but people begged for that.
[woman shouting] Show me the money, baby!
[presenter] This season started
with enormous expectations for Johnny Manziel.
Perhaps his second Heisman Trophy, SEC National Championship.
[commentator] Third of the half for Johnny Football.
Following the touchdown, unsportsmanlike conduct,
No 2 of the offense, 15-yard penalty…
There were people trying to put discipline on me.
[Kevin] That's not okay, and obviously, I addressed that
on the sideline right after the play.
[Johnny] But at the same time,
nobody knew how to handle everything that was going on.
There is a code of conduct for the reigning Heisman winner,
and he violated it once again.
He's hanging out with Drake and LeBron, and he's coming home…
You think he cared what came out of me and Paul's mouth?
At that point, you were like… Didn't matter.
[man] This guy's been partying since he stepped into College Station,
so I think he's just being himself.
[woman] Can college football take three more years of Johnny Football?
[commentator] Say whatever you want about Johnny Manziel,
if you can watch one player in college football, you wanna watch him.
[Johnny] I'm getting approached by agents knowing if I come back out this year,
and I recreate even a smidgen of that success,
I'm gonna have millions of dollars
and be the first quarterback taken in the draft.
[presenter] Biggest question involving the former Heisman winner
is whether he should head to the pros
while his draft stock is looking so bright.
[Johnny] I bitched out on workouts
and felt like I didn't have to do what everybody else was doing,
and that whole idea and mantra I had in my head from Kerrville of,
"You're gonna dress the same way, do the same thing as the guy next to you,"
was completely eliminated in six months' time.
[commentator] Got a feeling Johnny Manziel's a little frustrated.
[Paul] I think all of the expectation, the partying, the NCAA stuff,
all the A&M, all the pressure,
I think it changed him.
[commentator] There's a reaction
on the sidelines from A&M's leader, Johnny Manziel.
[Kevin] The thing that makes him who he is,
is his passion and emotion.
It's our challenge to try to keep that energy positive.
[presenter] Johnny Manziel just can't help himself.
You draw the line in the sand, he steps over that line.
[man] Let's remember this. This problem did not happen last year.
[shouting] Turn the fuck up!
Last week was one
of his most disappointing games since he's been at Texas A&M.
[presenter] And the ovation for Johnny Manziel
along with these seniors as they close the door on Kyle Field.
[Johnny] There's no reason the team we had should be eight and four that year.
[explosions]
We were better than that.
But it didn't matter
'cause you're looking at mock drafts and you're looking forward and…
whether people like to say it or not, I was bigger than College Station.
[warning signal beeping]
So it was just kinda time to move on and go do the next thing.
[explosion]
Johnny Manziel made it official today, no surprise,
announcing he's gonna leave college to enter the NFL draft.
[presenter] The big question, "Where will Manziel go in the draft?"
I think I was considered a very risky person, um, for him
'cause I knew everything.
And so I think that the counsel he was receiving at the time
was probably sound advice, which is like,
"Hey, you're no longer doing this half-ass, 20-year-old management."
I… I just knew I was super loyal,
and that I contributed everything, mind, body, soul, spirit, to help him,
erm, and an image needed to change from being best friend
to it needed to be a big firm.
[Johnny] We'd originally told him
that there wasn't gonna be a guy with me in the day-to-day,
and when we told him that wasn't gonna happen,
I kinda think, like, he felt his role and the whole role was diminished,
and kinda pulled away.
[inhales] And I don't think we've spoken again since then.
You know, for me,
this is what we'd talked about flying on those planes to South Beach.
You know, this is what we talked about at the Fontainebleau sitting by the pool.
So, you know, I felt terrible about it, but at the same time,
because of what my track record was, they weren't gonna allow me to do that.
And Nate being away was probably a safeguard for a while.
[Nate] I didn't care about the business side of it.
Truly, I didn't.
The only thing I was hurting about was that I loved Johnny.
[rap music playing]
He was my best friend.
I was, um… unbelievably loyal to my guys.
U… Until you really can't be anymore.
Yeah, I'm Erik Burkhardt.
Um, I was Johnny's sports agent for way too many years.
So it's such a big deal,
especially for a quarterback, if they can go in the first round,
because if he goes top five, we're talking 20 to 25 million.
And every pick in the first round,
the money starts falloff about a million dollars.
So many people had been making millions of dollars
on the back of Johnny and his teammates, largely after that Heisman year.
He earned this contract, which was still gonna be peanuts
compared to what so many other people had made on his back the whole time.
[suspenseful tone playing]
I was real. I didn't come in saying, "You're gonna go top ten."
I came and I go, "You're not going in the first round."
He does not belong in the top 25.
He may get a bump to second round. He's not getting in the first round.
The big questions on Johnny were gonna be, "Do you really wanna be a quarterback,
or do you wanna be famous?" 'Cause he was super famous already.
There's things Johnny's gotta answer moving forward
to be a quarterback and be a leader.
We can leave no doubt.
For somebody to take your fucked-up ass in the first round,
here's what this strategy needs to look like.
[Johnny] I'm going straight to San Diego
and I'm getting right into this pre-draft training.
Come right back.
[Erik] So, number one: We're doing no PR.
The only thing coming outta your socials is you sweating and working your ass off.
You need to gain some weight, learn the game, no drinking,
and when you show up at the NFL Combine in two months,
now they're really gonna start considering you.
You know, 6:30, 7:00 in the morning until seven, eight o'clock at night,
and you just do it on repeat over and over and over again.
[Erik] We're gonna go crazy
and do a record-setting Nike deal through LeBron's team,
but we're gonna do those in silence.
I was drug testing him every other week
'cause I know that's gonna come up, and I wanna be able to go,
"Here's 25 drug tests. I've been testing him."
"'Cause when I signed him, I didn't know what I was dealing with,
but I wanted you to have peace of mind."
You need to own who you were and what you've done.
I was like, "We're gonna embrace who you were
and say, 'Okay, but now it's time to go be a pro, and I'm gonna grow up.'"
And that was my expectation that he actually would.
I was really, really good until the week before the combine in Indy,
and I finally just broke.
He calls me, and he's like,
"EB, I fucked up."
[suspenseful sharp tone]
[tsks] Like, "How bad?"
I didn't remember much of the night.
I woke up in a hotel room, and didn't know how I got there.
"Dude, I went to a party last night in the Hills."
He's like, "Man, everyone was there. Man, all the rappers, all the actresses."
I mean, I didn't know, going into Indy, if I was really gonna be able
to pass a drug test.
He's clean the whole time before that.
The only thing I've ever been told was, "Fail a drug test at the combine,
and you're gonna go from first-round pick to maybe undrafted."
They're gonna drug test you day two here.
He's like, "EB, I've been watching the NFL combine."
"I'm coming to the combine."
I say, "No, you're not." There… We're not risking this, so we compromise.
I call Paul and Michelle. I'm like, "Okay,
you are checking yourself in the hospital, Paul, with, like, fucking heavy heart,
so that Johnny can divert and come to the combine for 12 hours,
so that it doesn't look weird,
and put him on a plane down to see Dad who's in the hospital."
"I'm so sorry, but we'll reschedule these interviews."
That was my strategy, and Paul's like, "Okay, Michelle, you're going,"
and, like, she's crying, "I knew he would do this."
I'm like, "Fuck."
He's like, "I don't even get there till tomorrow, bro."
"I'm gonna chug a gallon of fucking water. "I'll piss this shit out. Trust me."
He goes, "I… I've been passing these tests at A&M for a while,"
which I come to find out on my own
it was their, like, fourth-string backup quarterback
-that was pissing for him at A&M. -[smirks]
-So how's the day been? -It's been really good.
A little early morning, but we're kinda in the mood now, in the swing of things.
I get, like, three gallons of water, a bunch of Pedialyte,
and four drug tests.
There's, like, six hotels at the combine. So every team's, like, staying
at these same hotels.
We get on the elevator, and up… Comes on.
Two general managers and a college scouting director get on the elevator.
I'm holding the drug tests, like, trying to hide them.
We go to my room.
We're, like, holding his piss up in the bathroom of my hotel room,
and it's, like… it's a little ambiguous.
Johnny's just crushing liquids.
We take our second one. It's a little lighter.
So he's like, "Ha ha ha! We got this shit."
I was like, "Keep drinking."
What was that process like?
It was really cool to see… to see a bunch of these coaches I've seen on TV and…
By the way, he of course crushed his interviews.
In fact, rave reviews out of the combine on how great he did.
And that was a very, very, um, scary thing,
one that I think snapped me out of it for a little bit,
and then once I got through that unscathed, um…
you know, kinda let loose a little bit more.
[presenter] It was a pro day done the Johnny Manziel way.
[Erik] The next step is pro day where he's gonna do the on-the-field.
I go to multiple pro days every year, there will never be another like this.
[presenter] A huge crowd at College Station.
George and Barbara Bush even showing up.
Manziel's performance receiving universal praise.
Our strategy's working. The buzz is like, "He could go."
[woman] Most experts agree he's gonna be a top-ten pick.
[man] He'll be a top-ten pick.
At that point, our strategy was just throw his ass in a cave, lock him up.
After I got through my pro day, I felt like a majority of the work had been done.
Will the Houston Texans pick Johnny Manziel first?
Houston, number-one pick.
The buzz is building in the city.
[presenter] All around Houston,
billboards are up to bring Johnny Football back to Texas.
He got involved with a big charity foundation event.
The owner was gonna be there with his wife.
Johnny ends up, like, donating his own money to the cause.
It goes phenomenal.
The next day, I get a call.
"He was golfing today at River Oaks Country Club,"
and it got back to the owner's family, basically, that Johnny, by hole five,
had taken his shirt off, "looked intoxicated,"
and broke multiple clubs over his knee and threw 'em in the pond.
There goes Houston.
It's Weekend at Bernie's. It's just like, how can we get him to the finish line?
The wheels are coming off. I'm talking to him every day.
"Stay accountable. You've worked your whole life. We got one month to go."
People are talking first pick overall or a top ten.
The story that just sums up the whole thing,
the night before his private workout with the Browns…
[Erik] They all fly in.
They're gonna do dinner with him in College Station
with a private workout the next morning.
Dinner goes awesome.
So we go up to our rooms…
[Billy] I miss about five calls from him.
I go over there, and it's a shit show.
Bottles of 1942 everywhere.
He's drinking straight outta the wine bottles.
So the next day, one of the receivers is missing.
This other receiver's drunk, can't get up.
So the Browns walk in the facility, he's warming up,
they look over, they're like, "Where's the receivers?"
And Johnny goes, "Ah, we're good."
You know who catches passes for him?
His lawyer,
his agent…
The first route, it's like, "Okay, let's run a slant." I'm like…
Like I'm in high school, bros. This is ridiculous.
I call him, like, "How'd it go?"
He said, "I fucking killed it."
[broadcaster] Welcome indeed
to New York City, to Radio City Music Hall
where, tonight, we find out where Johnny Manziel will be playing…
There's cameras in our face around our table the entire time.
From the minute we walk in, it's like the Johnny Manziel Show.
"Where's he going?" And we have no idea.
With the first pick in the 2014 NFL draft,
the Houston Texans select Jadeveon Clowney.
[Erik] Then you had the Jacksonville Jaguars at three.
I had on good authority. They were ready to take a franchise quarterback.
The Jacksonville Jaguars select Blake Bortles.
[audience cheering]
[broadcaster] The first quarterback
of this draft selected is not Johnny Manziel.
Bortles goes three, and Johnny's like, "Fuck, yes! I'm going to Dallas."
[broadcaster] What happens
when Jerry Jones gets the chance to take Johnny Football?
[Johnny] I really thought the floor would probably be Dallas at 16.
They wait the whole clock.
[broadcaster] If they take Johnny Manziel right now, this place is gonna explode.
The Dallas Cowboys select
Zack Martin, guard, Notre Dame.
[crowd cheering]
We're sitting at the draft table, and he's just going down the draft.
A lot of teams did their homework.
[broadcaster] Snubbed by team after team after team after team.
[Johnny] I was nervous about it. You can see it on my face on draft night.
I think you can see it in a lot of people around me.
Like, if I don't get picked in the first round, I'll probably
disappear, run off the face of the earth.
And I remember being horrified.
Like, my career's on the line right now too.
So at that point, I'm, like, texting Cleveland,
"Come back in, bro. Trust me."
-Browns at 26 just moved up to 22. -[crowd] Johnny!
And you can hear the chant in the Radio City Music Hall for Johnny.
[man laughing mockingly] Ha ha ha!
With the 22nd pick,
the Cleveland Browns select
Johnny Manziel,
quarterback, Texas A&M.
[broadcaster] My goodness.
[audience cheering, applauding]
[Erik] That moment was unbelievable.
[broadcaster] Right there, is the hope for the city of Cleveland.
[Erik] As down as it felt… It felt like we were in there for three days.
He walks across that stage, and does the Money Manziel.
[crowd cheering, whistling]
[Erik] Holy shit.
He went in the first round.
It all works out.
[broadcaster] The Browns finally get the face of their franchise.
[Erik] I was like, "We're gonna make it."
"He's gonna be the savior. They're gonna build statues of this guy."
And then, I'll never forget, we leave the draft,
we're at this light and the sunroof's open
and Johnny's like,
crushing shots of whatever in this limo with his family and friends,
and we look up
and it was the first Nike ad on the side of this building in New York,
and I was like, "Wow."
"Let's go."
[plane whizzing]
[soft beat music playing]
[woman] Well, the news is Johnny Manziel is having
a ripple effect across Browns Nation.
-[people shouting] Johnny! -[man] Whoa!
[Johnny] You know, the people around me
that I had, um, were genuinely very, very excited.
[people shouting]
You know, they thought this was a great opportunity for me to come in
and to revitalize a franchise that had been struggling for a long time.
You know, every day that passes,
every week that goes by is… is only a positive thing for me.
There was so much pressure on him and expectations,
and you could tell he was struggling.
[Johnny] Didn't take me very long to be in Cleveland
to find out that I wasn't gonna be happy there.
I had every single thing that I could've ever wanted.
You have money, you have fame,
you're a first-round draft pick battling for a starting quarterback position,
and when I got everything that I wanted,
I think I was the most empty that I've ever felt inside.
[indistinct chatter]
[Johnny] You know, I'd always had a great time
in the locker room with my guys
and the practice and the camaraderie and everything that comes along with it,
but I never felt that way in the NFL.
What it takes to be the face of franchise each and every day,
that's just not who he is, and he never put that much into it.
If he wanted to do it, his skill set and how good he is as a player,
he could've done it. He never worked at it.
[Erik] I started seeing signs pretty early on in Cleveland.
The one thing for me was he always loved the game,
and he'd call me after practice, like, "I don't… Man, it's not fun anymore."
Their GM's calling me going, "He doesn't watch tape."
I'm like, "Well, he's gotta watch some tape."
He's like, "EB, his iPad hours is 0.00."
Zero.
I would sit in my condo in Cleveland downtown
and just feel like it was the only place that I could get away
from everybody and anything.
And I would look out those windows every day and I just felt empty.
I went from one fishbowl city to another, and I wanted nothing to do with football.
I wanted nothing to do with stepping on that field.
And I had bigger issues in my life
than being able to go out and play free-spirited, flowing football.
I had gone from the whirlwind ride of 2012 in College Station,
the Heisman Trophy, the Cotton Bowl, the NCAA investigation,
straight into another season, into the NFL draft.
I just didn't get a break.
[Johnny] It's been life for so long now.
I can't really think back to the days of how it was
when I didn't have people tweeting or taking pictures of wherever I was.
[Johnny] I truly almost see those times in black and white.
And I didn't know why I couldn't see sunny days.
[commentator] …Manziel, and Manziel is buried.
And there's your first cash sign.
This thing of the, you know, show me the money.
Every time they sack him, the defensemen do that right in his face.
He had a terrible start in the NFL.
[presenter] It was horrific…
[presenter 1] Nothing like the Johnny Football we saw at Texas A&M.
I'm supposed to be the savior. [inhales] You know, I'm just looking for a good day.
In the back of my head all the time,
I was telling myself, "You do not wanna fuckin' be here."
And "Do what you need to do to get out."
[presenter] Stories surfaced about him being late for team meetings.
He was demoted to third-string quarterback.
A high-price, first-round draft pick heading in the wrong direction.
Yeah, I…
You know, I made the decision to go out on Friday night.
I think I was trying to suppress how I felt,
and get out of being Johnny Football.
When he turned pro, the partying became more public.
-I can't hear. -He can't hear you.
There's too much money… in my… hand.
Nothing that I'm doing on the weekends is affecting my job.
Nothing on the weekends that I'm doing, um, is hopefully hurting
any of my teammates in my locker room.
[Paul] So he kinda just said, "Fuck it. I just got $8.5 million,
so I'll just go do what I want."
People around me always told me, like, "You're doing this on purpose."
Now, in my conscious mind, that didn't make sense to me.
He just keeps putting himself in situations
where he's getting himself in trouble.
That guy knows that he represents more than himself
and has issues off the field.
It's… It is frustrating.
I wanted to get him help. We all knew he was self-destructing.
[Erik] It was like he stopped caring.
And I was like, "Okay, we gotta do rehab."
[female presenter] Johnny Football, the big bust of a rookie last year,
entered a treatment program on Wednesday.
It was hard the first couple days,
obviously being a guy that's on every single TV.
He's been somewhat of a legend, and perhaps to his own peril here.
[Johnny] I did have people trying to figure out
which treatment center I was at,
and I remember walking down the hill one day
and seeing this rental car drive right past us,
and it was Jeremy Fowler from ESPN, and I just…
It threw me for a loop whenever that happened.
[female presenter] When he returned to the team after ten weeks of rehab,
he looked and sounded like a changed man.
I'm gonna say "Loser in life." Can't get out of it.
The hype and everything is a little bit tempered and a little down,
and that, for me, is a good thing.
Got out of rehab. He was doing awesome. He was focused.
He started playing, and you could just gradually see,
once he started being around other influences, here we go again.
When you take one step onto a slippery slope,
you know, it goes pretty quick.
Remember, he went to rehab, not supposed to drink.
Drank, got into a fight with his girlfriend.
[broadcaster] Both Manziel and the woman told police they had been drinking.
No charges were filed.
And after that, it started to spiral a little bit more and more and more.
[suspenseful music playing]
I thought I would go to Vegas on a Saturday afternoon
and I would turn around and come back and be in time for the game the next day.
[presenter] It sounded a little cuckoo,
but he had the wig on, there was a fake mustache involved.
[Johnny] I sit down at a blackjack table,
and I can start to see people, you know, looking at me a little bit.
This is when the Twitter shitstorm absolutely hits the fan.
I don't know anything about getting a plane to leave Vegas
to go back to Cleveland. I'm looking at commercial flights.
I missed the last one at 10:30, and at this point, I'm like,
"Well, let's fucking rip it tonight."
I completely detached from all of it.
Johnny Football is now looking for another team this morning.
The Cleveland Browns cutting ties
with Johnny Manziel and his bad-boy behavior.
[presenter] There is no future
for Johnny Manziel with the Cleveland Browns,
certainly not anymore, as the Browns have finally realized.
Manziel is not reachable.
[Paul] It was just…
It was disastrous. It was… It was the fall.
[presenter] One of the biggest busts in NFL history.
"Tiny," "selfish," "undisciplined," "immature," "sort of a brat."
[presenter 1] Johnny Manziel arrived as the future of Cleveland football,
and now he will soon leave as an embarrassment.
[gloomy music playing]
[Johnny] When I got cut from the Browns,
I felt like the biggest weight lifted off my shoulders ever.
But that didn't translate into what I experienced
and what I… [inhales deeply]
…would deal with in my everyday life.
[news reporter] Dallas police say
they are examining hotel surveillance video
showing an encounter between Manziel and his ex-girlfriend, Colleen Crowley.
Crowley said Manziel led her down a back stairway,
and that she told the valet,
"Please don't let him take me. I'm scared for my life."
[Johnny] Throughout that relationship, I was unfaithful
and, you know, we get into a heated, heated argument.
You know, she's trying to jump out of the car, and, um…
[tsks]
Colleen Crowley has obtained a protective order from a judge in Texas
that will keep Johnny Manziel away from her for two years.
It was so out of control,
but he couldn't hear it.
His mind was so gone. I mean, he was just…
Did you apologize for what happened?
What about rehab, Johnny? Gonna go to rehab?
We tried to get him in another rehab.
Took him, you… you know.
He escapes.
[man] Friends and family are concerned. Everything going well?
My friends and family are all right. They're with me.
[Paul] My relationship with Johnny was very strained.
"I've done everything I can for ya. You're not listening."
"You're self-destructing. You're disrespectful."
Pretty much "Go fuck yourself. Go… You know more than I do, so go ahead."
[female presenter] His dad says Manziel refused rehab twice in the past week.
I said, "If you miss one counseling session,
I will have to literally terminate you,"
which doesn't happen in agent business, much less to Johnny Football.
[female presenter] Even his agent, Erik Burkhardt, is dumping Manziel.
[Johnny] I got released as a client of my uncle,
who was doing my attorney work.
My dad withdrew his name from my company,
and the people around me, closest to me,
were in the mindset of, "We have to let him go."
And, you know, when that happened,
it was full-blown "I'm gonna rub this whole thing in your fucking face."
"You think you've seen something now? You haven't seen shit yet."
[rock music playing]
[Johnny] You know, the first point in my life
where I really ramped up my drug use
to a constant, daily thing.
-[man] Johnny, got anything you wanna say? -[man 1] Johnny Football. How's it going?
[Johnny] I was mostly doing a lot of coke and taking Oxys.
I went from 215 pounds in January to 175 pounds by September.
The wires in my head seemed very twisted.
I got diagnosed as bipolar,
and I felt like it was the same as being called an alcoholic or a drug addict.
[presenter] The money and the fame and the criticism and the social media
it is eating him alive.
[Johnny] I think I was just running from problems.
Probably a f… five-million-dollar bender.
[Johnny shouting]
[Johnny] Direct self-sabotage, trying to burn this thing down.
I had planned to do everything that I wanted to do
at that point in my life.
Spend as much money as I possibly could, and then my plan was to take my life.
[rock music ends]
[Johnny] You know, I… Months prior, went and bought a gun
that I knew I was gonna use.
[rhythmical drumming playing]
[Johnny] I wanted it to get as bad as humanly possible
to where it made sense,
and it made it seem like an excuse and an out for me.
Still, to this day, I don't know what happened,
but the gun just clicked on me.
I couldn't fix what I'd done
with Colleen, with the NFL, with A&M, everything.
You know, at that point in time,
I didn't have much of a relationship with my family.
[child cheering]
The ride was over.
[rhythmical drumming continues]
[Johnny] I left LA not knowing where I was gonna go, um,
not knowing what was gonna happen, and I went back to Texas,
and, you know, I didn't really say a whole lot to my dad,
just kinda showed up at the front door
and pretty much saying, "I don't have anywhere else to turn, man."
-[birds chirping] -[Johnny whistles] Come on.
[breathes in] Come here.
-Come here. -[Paul chuckles]
-[Johnny laughs] -[dog panting]
I took him yesterday and he was runnin', runnin' wild on the golf course.
-I'll send you a video. -You should take him every day.
He doesn't wanna stay in the house, I know that.
[Paul] It's been a long, long road, and it's been…
I don't know if it's been great
or if it's been bad.
That's kinda still up for debate.
[Paul] Come up the hill.
[Johnny] All right. I'll drive down the first one.
[Paul] But we're blessed, and he's still with us.
[soft music playing]
[grunts softly] Yeah.
[Paul] And we can mend all the fences still.
[Johnny] Hey, you hit one good out of three.
But I think Johnny's got a lot better days coming
than what he's had.
[Meri] A lot of people wonder, you know, why isn't he doing anything?
He's not in a place mentally
to go out and do something right now.
I know how much good he can do in this world,
but I know the struggle he goes through every single day of his life.
And it's never gonna go away.
[Johnny] I think people do maybe worry about me sometimes,
but, I mean, that… that's natural.
You know, I've given them reason to do that.
I didn't go into Texas A&M thinking I was gonna play two years
and end up in the NFL draft.
You know, I thought if I ever got to play football in college,
that would be an unbelievable accomplishment for me.
And I tell people all the time,
it wouldn't have mattered where I was at, um, what team.
Wherever it was, at that point in time in my life,
I was incapable of being a good NFL quarterback.
-[announcer] -[crowd cheering, applauding]
[Johnny] You know, when you get to that point,
you're supposed to fuckin' know better.
Supposed to know what to do, behave like a pro.
You're supposed to push your career forward,
your athleticism forward, you know, your strive for being a great athlete.
[uplifting music playing]
[Johnny] But when it came down to it, you know, I was a frat boy,
and it's just my frat was the football team.
I loved what I did. I loved the freedom.
I loved being the guy
that got to go do all these amazing things on and off the field.
You know, but at some point in time, you have to look back
and think, "Fuck, was enough ever enough?"
You know, are you ever gonna be satisfied,
or you're just gonna continue living that frat-boy life
for year after year after year
until you finally look up, and you're still living it,
and it's been detrimental to where you wanted to go in life
and what you wanted to do.
You know, it's hard for me to sit back and look at these days.
It feels like a distant memory for the most part.
But, you know, I'm very much on the pursuit of happiness
in a way more simplistic form than I was years ago.
I don't really see myself as the… as the Johnny-Football-craze
that's kinda… thatt's kinda swept Aggielands.
That swept around the nation a little bit.
Um, I see myself as Johnny Manziel.
I'm a guy from Kerrville, Texas, who just tried to be a laid-back guy
who likes to hang out with my friends
and be a normal college student just like anybody else.
[crowd cheering]
[music ends]
[closing theme song playing]