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Aggies 'Frat Boy' QB Johnny Manziel Admits He Was 'Incapable' Of Being 'Good NFL QB'

All of the beans were spilled in Johnny Manziel's "Untold" documentary that premiered on Netflix Tuesday.

Casey Smith

In this story:

For two years in Aggieland, quarterback Johnny Manziel revitalized the Aggies' program, took the nation by storm and completely changed the College Station and Texas A&M financial landscape for the better.

Between living a party lifestyle and running a paid autograph business with his friend, Nate Fitch, while at Texas A&M, the aspirations to play professional football quickly faded after he was drafted No. 22 overall by the Cleveland Browns, admitting in the film he did not watch a single minute of film. Manziel said at that point in time in his career he was "supposed" to know the rights and wrongs of being an NFL player.

"It wouldn't have mattered where I was at, what team, wherever I was at that point in time in my life, I was incapable of being a good NFL quarterback," Manziel said. "When you get to that point and you get to that time, you're supposed to know better. You're supposed to know what you're supposed to do. You're supposed to behave like a pro. You're supposed to push your career forward, your athleticism forward. You strive for being a great athlete. But, when it came down to it, I was a frat boy and my frat was the football team."

Manziel and Fitch began his paid autograph sessions while in college, which was deemed to be illegal benefits at the time under former NCAA rules. However, Fitch fabricated a story that the reason Manziel had so much money to party with celebrities and sit courtside at NBA games was because his family came from generational wealth stemming from the oil industry, which was untrue.

Things spiraled out of control for Manziel in the pre-draft process, almost failing a drug test at the NFL Scouting Combine after having not used any illegal substances for a long time prior, his agent Erik Burkhardt said. 

After the combine, Burkhardt had struck a deal with the Browns for a private workout at Texas A&M's indoor facility, but Manziel and the wide receivers partied the night before and the pass-catchers didn't show up. Burkhardt had to run routes in the workout and help Manziel break into the team's equipment storage because he had lost his cleats, his agent said on Twitter Tuesday.

"It was Easter weekend so literally nobody was on campus (workout was at A&M’s indoor). In the previous nights haze, somehow [Manziel] also lost his bag," Burkhardt said in a tweet. "This means he didn’t even have cleats (or clothes) for the damn workout. Keep in mind we had just negotiated the largest shoe deal ever in the history of the NFL (predraft) with Nike. We had a whole Johnny Football line w royalties, etc. 

"The workout was at 8 am so we couldn’t even go to the store to even buy cleats for the workout… and the equipment staff & coaches were out of town for Easter, so we literally had to break into the equipment cage at A&M with like a tire iron. They’re an Adidas school. Also [Manziel] has a gigantic foot (size 14-15). So my man is wearing these terrible offensive-lineman-sized BRAND NEW stiff ass all white Adidas and there weren’t any shorts in the shoe cage so he wore literally these tiny A&M shorts that he wore as boxes under his jeans the night before."

Manziel was out of the league after two seasons in Cleveland, getting released after missing a Browns game after going to Las Vegas the night prior as well as domestic assault allegations by then-girlfriend, Colleen Crowley.

The Kerrville, TX. native was inducted into the Texas A&M Hall of Fame in 2022 after becoming the first freshman to win the Heisman Trophy in 2012.

"I loved what I did. I loved the freedom," Manziel said of his time in College Station. "I loved being the guy that got to go do all these amazing things on and off the field, but at some point in time, you have to look back at it and think like, 'F---, was enough ever enough? Were you ever going to be satisfied or were you just going to continue to go on living that frat boy life 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 your life and what you wanted to do.'"

Manziel's had multiple stints in rehab and said "it's natural" that people worry about his well-being because he's "given them a reason to do that."

To conclude the documentary, Manziel reflected on the past 12 years of his life and implied he's in a better place now than he was.

"It's hard for me to sit back and look at these days," Manziel said. "It feels like a distant memory for the most part, but I'm very much on the pursuit of happiness in a way more simplistic form than I was years ago."

Follow Casey Smith on Twitter @casey_smith2419

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Casey Smith
CASEY SMITH

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