Johnny Manziel Opens Up About Alcohol Use, Bipolar Disorder; Seeks NFL Return

Former Browns QB Johnny Manziel said he hopes to get back to the NFL

Former Cleveland Browns quarterback Johnny Manziel says he wants to return to the NFL and adds that he has cleaned his life up since a series of incidents that ultimately got him cut from the team that drafted him.

Manziel said he was self-medicating with alcohol and suffering from depression. He says he is now taking medication for bipolar disorder.

"That’s what I thought would make me happy and get out of that depression," Manziel said to ABC News. "When I would wake up the next day after a night like that, going on a trip like that, and you wake up the next day and that is all gone, that liquid courage, or that liquid ... sense of euphoria that is over you, is all gone."

Manziel, now 25, burst upon the scene with Texas A&M in 2012 becoming the first freshman to win the Heisman Trophy.

"I had a sense of entitlement about what I had accomplished at the age," he said.

The Browns drafted him at the 22nd overall pick in 2014.

"For a while I got so ingrained, caring only about what Johnny wanted, only caring what mattered to me, what made me happy," Manziel said. "When I look back at it now, even when I thought I was doing what I wanted, I was miserable."

Manziel has not played in an NFL game since Week 16 of the 2015 season and was released by Cleveland after two seasons following an alleged domestic violence incident with his ex-girlfriend.

"I am watching all the other guys doing what I want to be doing, and I am sitting on a couch being a loser."

Manziel went 2–6 in his eight career NFL starts, completing 57% of his passes for 1,675 yards with seven touchdowns and seven interceptions.

"I am coming back from a huge downfall," Manziel admitted. "I don’t know what kind of comeback it will be, but I know I want to get back on a football field, to what brought me so much joy in my life."