Johnny Manziel<\/strong><\/a>\u2019s rise and fall transcended football \u2014 and he\u2019s pulling back the curtain on his controversies and mental health struggles for the first time in Netflix\u2019s Untold: Johnny Football.<\/em><\/p>\n Texas A&M fans may remember Manziel\u2019s college career got off to a rocky start when he was arrested weeks before his first game as the football-crazy school\u2019s quarterback. The incident marked the first of many controversies to come.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t have much of a recollection other than waking up shirtless on a concrete bench in Bryan County Jail,\u201d Manziel, who was booked for a fake ID after a fight, told Netflix cameras. \u201c[A&M\u2019s statement] said, \u2018That wasn\u2019t very normal for my character.\u2019 \u2026 I guess looking back now, it was normal for my character.\u201d<\/p>\n It wasn\u2019t long into the 2012 season, however, before Manizel proved that he could perform on the field regardless of his hard partying. As a result, his coaches, as they later admitted, let him get away with whatever he wanted \u2014 and \u201cJohnny Football\u201d was born.<\/p>\n After leading the Aggies to a shocking victory against No. 1 ranked Alabama in November, Manziel recalled being treated like a celebrity on and off A&M\u2019s College Station campus. \u201cYou walk off the field like a f\u2014king G,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n One month later, Manziel became a household name as the first freshman to win the Heisman Trophy, awarded every year to the country\u2019s best college football player. While his outstanding play brought A&M a windfall in money and publicity \u2014 Manziel\u2019s Heisman win was estimated to bring the university $37 million worth of free PR \u2014 he quickly grew frustrated that he wasn\u2019t seeing any of that money himself.<\/p>\n \u201cThere were two times throughout the season where I had to sign hundreds and hundreds of autographs [for] our donors,\u201d Manziel said of the events the university held to raise funds for a new stadium. \u201cI was tired of not having any money and I sure as hell saw 45 million No. 2 A&M Adidas jerseys sold. It didn\u2019t make any sense, and I had a bone to pick.\u201d<\/p>\n Manziel and then\u2013best friend Nate Fitch<\/strong> opted to ignore NCAA rules that college athletes couldn\u2019t profit off of their own likenesses and began selling autographs in January 2013. They made $30,000 on their first deal with an unnamed \u201cking of all autographs,\u201d who Fitch alleged Alex Rodriguez<\/strong><\/a> vouched for during a phone call.<\/p>\n The two BFFs subsequently began partying with A-listers including Drake<\/a>, Rick Ross<\/a>, Lebron James<\/a>, Jessica Biel <\/a><\/strong>and Justin Timberlake<\/strong><\/a>. \u201cNone of them could believe [Johnny] was there,\u201d Fitch said.<\/p>\n As a result of A&M advising freshmen not to talk to any media, Fitch fielded questions about Manziel\u2019s sudden wealth, lying about his family being from \u201coil money.\u201d The two men made more than $100,000 \u2014 they split the money 80\/20 \u2014 before the NCAA began to investigate Manziel. Fitch and Manziel\u2019s attempts to cover their tracks, which included trading the cash for checks from Manziel\u2019s grandfather, proved somewhat successful as Manziel was suspended for only half a game and they continued their autograph business during the 2013-2014 season.<\/p>\n A&M, however, went 8-4 during Manziel\u2019s sophomore season and the quarterback caught a lot of heat for his increasingly erratic behavior, which included skipping practice and showing up hungover. \u201cF\u2014k your practice. I\u2019m the best player in the country,\u201d Manziel recalled thinking. \u201cWhether people like to say it or not, I was bigger than College Station.\u201d<\/p>\n After the season ended, Manziel declared for the NFL draft \u2014 and Fitch and Manziel quickly had a falling out when the athlete signed with professional agent Erik Burkhardt<\/strong>.<\/p>\n \u201cWe had originally told [Nate] that there wasn\u2019t going to be a guy with me on a day-to-day,\u201d Manziel said. \u201cWhen we told him that wasn\u2019t gonna happen, kind of thing like he felt his role in the whole world was diminished kind of pulled away. I don\u2019t think we\u2019ve spoken again since then. \u2026 I felt terrible about it, but at the same time because of what my track record was, they weren\u2019t going to allow me to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n As he prepared for the NFL combine, a pre-draft workout in which teams judge former college players on their abilities, Burkhardt attempted to keep Manziel on the straight and narrow, drug testing him weekly. \u201cI was really, really good until the week before the combine in Indy, and I finally just broke,\u201d Manziel said, admitting he went to a party with rappers and actresses in L.A. \u201cI woke up in a hotel room, and didn\u2019t know how I got there.\u201d<\/p>\n While Burkhardt wanted Manziel\u2019s dad to fake a hospital trip to buy Manziel\u2019s some time, the football player was confident he could drink enough water to get the drugs out of his system \u2014 which he claimed was his strategy while in college. Burkhardt later learned the Aggies\u2019 fourth-string QB was submitting his own clean urine for Manziel.<\/p>\n Despite the close call, Manziel passed the test and nearly solidified a deal with the Houston Texans before he got drunk at the owner\u2019s country club. Manziel was ultimately picked 22nd by the Cleveland Browns in the 1st round.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I got everything that I wanted, I think I was the most empty that I\u2019ve ever felt inside,\u201d Manziel said, noting that he didn\u2019t feel any connection to his teammates in Cleveland.<\/p>\n Manziel admitted to watching zero game film and struggling on and off the field. \u201cI 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,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd I would look out those windows, every day I just felt empty. I went from one fish bowl city to another and I wanted nothing to do with football.\u201d<\/p>\n In 2015, his substance abuse issues spiraled again, and after he missed a game in early 2016 because he was partying in Las Vegas, he was officially cut by the Browns. Manziel subsequently went on what he described as the biggest bender yet, getting arrested after a fight with his then-girlfriend Colleen Crowley.<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n \u201cThroughout that relationship, I was unfaithful. You know, we get into a heated, heated argument. You know she\u2019s trying to jump out of the car and \u2026\u201d he said before trailing off.<\/p>\n Manziel was dropped by his agent and estranged from his family.<\/p>\n \u201c[It was] the first point in my life where I really ramped up my drug use to a constant, daily thing. I was mostly doing a lot of coke and taking Oxys,\u201d he said. \u201cI went from 215 pounds in January to 175 pounds by September. The wires in my head seem very twisted. I got diagnosed Bipolar<\/a>, Then I felt like it was the same thing as being called an alcoholic or a drug addict.\u201d<\/p>\n Manziel described his monthslong bender, on which he spent an astonishing $5 million, as \u201cdirect self-sabotage trying to burn this thing down.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI had planned to do everything that I wanted to do at that point in my life \u2014 spend as much money as I possibly could and then my plan was to take my life,\u201d he said. \u201cMonths prior, I went and bought a gun that I knew I was going to use. I wanted 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, don\u2019t know what happened, but the gun just clicked on me.\u201d<\/p>\n While Manziel concluded that he \u201ccouldn\u2019t fix\u201d what happened \u201cwith Colleen, the NFL, with A&M\u201d and \u201cdidn\u2019t have much of a relationship with my family,\u201d he returned to Texas.<\/p>\n According to his sister, Manziel is still a work in progress.<\/p>\n \u201cI think people do, maybe, worry about me sometimes, but I mean, that\u2019s natural,\u201d he concluded. \u201cYou know, I\u2019ve given them reason[s] to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n Johnny Manziel.<\/span> MEGA<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n![\"Johnny](\"https:\/\/www.usmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/Johnny-Manziel-Planned-to-Take-His-Life-After-5-Million-Bender-inline-1.jpg?w=700&quality=86&strip=all\")
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\n Johnny Manziel.<\/span> Larry W Smith\/EPA\/Shutterstock<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n![\"Johnny](\"https:\/\/www.usmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/Johnny-Manziel-Planned-to-Take-His-Life-After-5-Million-Bender-inline-4.jpg?w=700&quality=86&strip=all\")
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\n Johnny Manziel.<\/span> Photographer Group\/MEGA<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n