The NFL may be done with Johnny Manziel, but Johnny Manziel insists he’s not done with the NFL.
The former Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback says he’s achieved sobriety on his own and is determined to resume his career.
“I refuse to let my entire life of sports from the age of four be squandered by partying,” Manziel said in a message sent Friday to ESPN’s Ed Werder. “I just got sick of it. One day I didn’t like what I saw in the mirror and realized I could really help people in the position I’m in.
“I love sports, I love football and when you take something away from yourself you realize it the hard way. The happiness from doing it sober has been astronomical. Beyond my wildest imagination and once that continued other good things started happening in my life and it just clicked.”
Manziel, who turned 24 last month, was to the point when asked his immediate goal: “Play football. A pre-season game, anything I don’t care what it is. Only need one team to believe in me and I’ll do anything to make that a possibility.”
The message to Werder came one day after Manziel, who confessed to being a “douche” in 2016, said that he’s “just trying to be a good person again” in a series of tweets.
No lie.. I was a douche in 2016 I'm just trying to be a good PERSON again#LostInTheSauce
— Johnny Manziel (@JManziel2) January 19, 2017
Haven't been this happy in a long time man. I appreciate all the people in my life who reached out during the truly rough patches in '16
— Johnny Manziel (@JManziel2) January 19, 2017
Manziel was selected by the Browns in the first round of the 2014 NFL draft, though whether he had the size to translate a brilliant collegiate career to the NFL level was subject to debate. He started just eight games in two years with Cleveland, throwing as many interceptions – seven – as touchdowns.
He checked into rehab for undisclosed problems at the end of his rookie season but his conduct did not improve. In November, Manziel was benched after a video emerged of him partying at a nightclub a month after his he was pulled over by police while arguing with his then-girlfriend. The Browns coach at the time, Mike Pettine, said: “I don’t think we anticipated that his problems, his issues, how deep-rooted they were, the extent of it.”
The Texas A&M alum was suspended for the first four games of the 2016 season for violating the NFL’s substance abuse policy, but the punishment was never formally served after the Browns released him in March.
He reached a deal with the Dallas County district attorney’s office for the conditional dismissal of a domestic assault case, where he was accused of hitting and threatening his former girlfriend during a night out last January.
