'Hypocritical!' Johnny Manziel Slams Ex Texas A&M Coach Kevin Sumlin

Former Texas A&M Aggies quarterback and Heisman Trophy winner Johnny Manziel and his former head coach Kevin Sumlin had quite a ride.

Legendary Texas A&M Aggies quarterback and Heisman Trophy winner Johnny Manziel and his former head coach Kevin Sumlin had quite a ride.

From 2012-2017 Sumlin coached the Aggies, including from 2012-2013 when Manziel was under center in College Station. During their time together in Aggieland, the pair went 20-6 as Manziel was one of the best college quarterbacks in the nation.

Manziel recently spoke to Shannon Sharpe on his podcast and reflected on his relationship with Sumlin at the time and why things went south from a coaching standpoint for his former coach.

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“Coach Sumlin lost a little bit of what he was originally there to do,” Manziel said. “You get a new contract, you go to the SEC, you win 12 games, you get a Heisman winner, you’re talking about a new stadium, you’re talking about a new deal. Your focus shifts on what the main thing is to a whole bunch of (expletive), in my opinion.”

Manziel led somewhat of a party lifestyle in college, which continued as he entered the NFL, but he didn't appreciate the words of instruction from Sumlin at the time.

“I think where our relationship fell out a little bit was... how do you have a guy who’s a grown man, telling me what I should do?" Manziel said. "My coach, my guy I’m looking up to, my head football coach is telling me to live a certain way and put all this partying behind you, but if you know anything about Kevin Sumlin and what he’s doing behind the scenes … From my eyes, it’s hypocritical.”

After Sumlin was fired from A&M he was the head coach at Arizona from 2018-2020, then coached the USFL Houston Gamblers in 2022 before taking on the co-offensive coordinator position at Maryland in 2023. 

Manziel doesn't see the same fire in Sumlin now that he did back at A&M.

“I think what made Coach Sumlin so great is no longer really with him right now where his focus is,” Manziel said. “I think life has gotten the better of him a little bit. I don’t want to sit up here and be a preacher, I don’t want to sit up here and tell anybody they’re living wrong or anything like that, because that’s what it used to feel like for me back in the day when people were doing that to me. I don’t see the same spark."

Manziel has never been one to mince words and says he's not here to judge. His professional career path certainly didn't go as everyone expected either. 

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Manziel declared for the NFL Draft and was taken by the Cleveland Browns with the 22nd overall pick in 2014, and his NFL career lasted just two seasons before he was out of the league.

“I do not sit here today as a judge of a man, a judge of a person who helped get me to the point where I wanted to be in life, by no means whatsoever,” Manziel said. "I’m calling a spade a spade. I’m just going to give the God’s honest truth as I know it to be. If that ruffles some feathers, so be it. That’s the way the world goes.”