World Courant
Johnny Manziel can nonetheless bear in mind the second his soccer profession fell aside.
He remembers the lights and crowd at Radio Metropolis Music Corridor in New York Metropolis on draft night time in 2014. He remembers the second he walked onto the stage after being drafted within the first spherical by the Cleveland Browns following a profitable school profession.
And above all, he remembers the crippling melancholy that struck him afterward.
“I had the chance to stroll throughout the stage at Radio Metropolis Music Corridor and be a No. 1 draft decide within the NFL. I had the whole lot in my life that I may ever need. I had cash. I had fame. … And for some motive, after I obtained there and obtained the whole lot I wished, I believe that was actually probably the most empty I’ve ever felt inside,” Manziel stated throughout a Q&A with college students and recovering addicts on the annual VitAL well being convention on the College of Alabama on Monday, in video obtained by Fox Information Digital.
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Cleveland Browns quarterback Johnny Manziel walks off the sector after the loss to the Kansas Metropolis Chiefs on December 27, 2015 at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas Metropolis, Missouri. (Peter G. Aiken/Getty Pictures)
“I believe from that time on I actually began to show round and isolate myself and give attention to doing the mistaken issues, issues that made me really feel higher quickly, that made me pleased quickly. So I slowly discovered what melancholy was.”
Manziel entered the NFL after two years as one of many largest stars in school soccer historical past. His two-year run at Texas A&M included a Heisman Trophy, a historic upset win over Alabama, a number of damaged information and an notorious suspension for illegally signing autographs for cash.
However his star shortly pale in Cleveland. Manziel checked into rehab in April 2015, simply 4 months into his rookie season. He was launched by the Browns in 2016, shortly after the tip of his sophomore season. His ongoing issues with alcohol and medicines reportedly performed a serious function in his standing on the crew.
Manziel says his ingesting issues worsened when he began having bother with soccer.
“As a lot as I beloved soccer and pretty much as good as I used to be at it, I believe there was one thing else in school and highschool that I actually obtained good at, and that was partying,” Manziel stated Monday. “I believe when issues began to choose up once more in my soccer life, I centered on one thing else that I used to be actually good at.”
Manziel’s NFL efficiency mirrored the shift in his priorities. In simply eight begins over two seasons, he went 2-6. His solely two wins got here in 2015 in opposition to a 3-13 Tennessee Titans crew and a 5-11 San Francisco 49ers crew. Manziel completed with a career-high 1,675 yards passing with seven touchdowns, seven interceptions, a 57 % completion share and 22 sacks.
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Johnny Manziel smiles on the sector throughout week seven of the Fan Managed Soccer season on Might 28, 2022 in Atlanta (Brett Carlsen/Fan-Pushed Soccer/Getty Pictures)
Former Browns coach Mike Pettine, who was concerned within the choice to draft Manziel, admitted to reporters in December 2015 that the Browns didn’t see these points when the quarterback was in school and that the crew appeared to have acquired a a lot totally different participant than the one at Texas A&M.
“You see the fame, what was there,” Pettine stated of Manziel’s pre-draft evaluation that 12 months. “I do not assume we anticipated his issues, his points, how deep-seated they have been, the magnitude of them.”
The distinction was that Manziel had skilled melancholy after being drafted by Cleveland.
Along with alcohol use, Manziel has stated previously that he misplaced 40 kilos in 2015 as a consequence of extreme cocaine use.
Nevertheless, in February 2018, Manziel stated throughout an interview with “Good Morning America” that he would develop into utterly sober.
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Johnny Manziel of the Texas A&M Aggies celebrates a landing throughout the third quarter throughout a sport in opposition to the Rice Owls at Kyle Area on August 31, 2013 in Faculty Station, Texas. (Scott Halleran/Getty Pictures)
“Alcohol was detrimental and medicines have been detrimental to the place I wished to go in my life. I did not see that till it was too late. The way in which I have a look at issues and the way in which I have a look at it now has no place in my life. It would not serve me higher. I am not going to get higher by going out and ingesting or doing medicine,” Manziel stated.
“I desire a more healthy, purer life-style, and it is taken me a very long time to get to that time.”
Manziel will be part of The Motion Community’s “Huge Bets on Campus” podcast this week as a school soccer analyst, the corporate introduced Wednesday.
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Jackson Thompson is a sports activities journalist for Fox Information Digital. He beforehand labored for ESPN and Enterprise Insider. Jackson has coated the Tremendous Bowl and the NBA Finals, and has interviewed iconic figures equivalent to Usain Bolt, Rob Gronkowski, Jerry Rice, Troy Aikman, Mike Trout, David Ortiz and Roger Clemens.
