"Johnny Manziel says his football career is ‘in the past’ ... and he’s OK with that"
By Don Williams
Posted Jun 27, 2020 at 4:52 PM
Lubbock Avalanche-Journal is owned by Gannett Media Corp.
Search Johnny Manziel’s name and right below the obligatory link to his Wikipedia page, Google shows you a list of questions that “People also ask.”
One of those questions being, “Where is Johnny Manziel now, 2020?”
I can answer for this weekend: At Hillcrest Golf & Country Club and, by all appearances, doggone happy to be here. Teeing it up in the Hillcrest Swinger seems a peculiar spot for the 2012 Heisman Trophy winner, inasmuch as he’s known the sports world over for what he did in College Station, not Lubbock, and not for what he can do with a golf club in his hands, but with a football.
Ask Manziel where he considers his football career at this point, and you get a refreshingly candid answer.
“In the past, probably, is the way I’d characterize it,” Manziel said, leaning forward and without a moment’s hesitation. “I’ve finally got to a point where I’m trying to achieve happiness in life, not happiness on the football field.
“I know a lot of people probably want me to come back and play and give it another chance, but I don’t know, as far as being a person and figuring out life as a young adult — trying to make it and figure it out — if I’ve ever been in a better place than I’m in right now. I can honestly say I’m happy and I’m doing the right things to try and put a smile on my face every day, and that means more to me than going out and grinding on a football field.”
If one were to write Manziel’s legacy right now, with him at 27, the story would be about one of the most electric, exciting players college football has ever seen and one of pro football’s most spectacular flameouts: from being the Cleveland Browns’ first-round pick to being released after two seasons, to bouncing to the CFL to the Alliance of American Football. Since that league folded last spring, he’s been out of the game.
Like a character out of a Dan Jenkins novel, Manziel’s known for his living it up off the field almost as much as his derring-do on it.
Not even he would deny that, probably.
“During that time when I got drafted, I didn’t put in the time that I needed to be a great player and I don’t think my heart was in it,” Manziel said. “And I think when I went back to Canada, it was the same way. I truly believed and truly thought it was what I wanted to do, and my heart wasn’t in it, and it worked out the way it did.”
Sounds strange, you note, to hear Johnny Football say his heart was ever not in the game. All that time at Texas A&M, when he was dazzling college football fans, he seemed to be having so much fun, and it rubbed off on the people watching.
“I had a great time,” Manziel said. “Anytime I ever stepped between the lines, I had an amazing time. I gave it everything I had.
“I think it’s just, the work you put in when you have the free hours and when you do things on your own, that matches up accordingly with what happens on the field. And when you get to thinking that you’re too good or you’re better than the game, it’ll humble you. And that’s what happened. I got humbled. Thank God I did get a chance to be humbled, because when you think you’re at the top of the world, it’s a dangerous place.”
But melancholy Johnny, he’s not. Just the opposite, in fact. A few minutes before, amid the hubbub of dozens of golfers on the patio at Hillcrest, he was laughing, yukking it up, talking loud with guys who, by and large, are new acquaintances. His cap turned backward, he had a bounce in his step everywhere he went.
He’d gotten to know some of the other golfers a few weeks before at a tournament in Midland.
“Nicest guy you’ll ever meet. He’s awesome,” said Michael Pruitt, one of the tournament’s defending champions. “He’s very nice. Obviously, some of the kids out here are wanting to get his autograph, and he’s a nice guy to give autographs. So, glad he’s here for sure.”
Winn Galyean is a friend of Manziel’s family from back in Tyler. Galyean lives in Tahoka now, so this weekend he and Manziel are commuting from Tahoka to Hillcrest. On Friday, they shot 6-under 66 to lead the first flight.
Is there anything Johnny Football doesn’t do well?
Golf is one of those things that, as Manziel says, puts a smile on his face these days. He’s loving life and living in Scottsdale, Arizona. “I’m probably playing six days a week,” he says. “Scottsdale is the mecca of golf, so it doesn’t get any better than that.” His handicap? “I’m probably a 2 right now, but I’ve taken it down from an 8, so I feel like I’m getting better day by day.”
Living in Scottsdale, Manziel and Arizona Cardinals coach Kliff Kingsbury might as well be neighbors. Manziel loves his old A&M quarterbacks coach. He’s grateful to Kingsbury for trusting a freshman quarterback to freewheel it — that’s hard for a coach to do, Manziel acknowledges. He says he’s grateful even more for Kliff’s helping him get squared away off the field the past couple of years.
“That’s a guy that I admire very, very much,” Manziel said. “I can’t respect another person on the face of the earth as much as I do Kliff. I know he had his challenges here (as Texas Tech head coach). People have their opinions on him here. But, man, what a guy, a guy who’s changed my life for the better and who I’ll always be thankful for.”
Manziel says he and Kingsbury communicate “all the time.” But recreating what they had at Texas A&M? Back up a minute. For one thing, Kliff has Kyler Murray, the latest dynamic dual-threat quarterback and first-round draft choice.
And besides. Manziel’s attitude toward football at the moment seems to be been there, done that. He’s never said he’s retired, and if someone calls he’ll listen.
But Manziel gives the impression he no longer needs it for fulfillment.
Told that he appears content, Manziel says he “couldn’t be happier” than he is right now and then gives a long list of reasons. He’ll always be revered in Aggieland, always have the camaraderie of his teammates and friends from there. He’ll always get to go to the Heisman Trophy presentation, being a past winner. He can look at that trophy at his grandmother’s house and remember the dazzling plays he made on Kyle Field that helped him win it.
Want him to go on?
He has his health. Johnny Football doubts he’ll ever suffer from football-related dementia. He never suffered a broken bone on the football field. Makes sense. Whoever got a clean shot on him?
He loves the Valley of the Sun, the friends he’s made, the people who loved him and never abandoned him when his star was falling.
Oh, sure, if you want to make him a punchline for what he didn’t do as a pro football player, go ahead. Johnny Manziel can handle it.
“People can call me whatever they want,” he says without animosity, “but at the end of the day, I’m proud of what I did. I’m proud of what I accomplished. I bettered myself. I bettered my family’s life. I got a chance to play amazing college football, and it didn’t work out in the NFL and that’s OK.”
Now he’s a long way from turning 30. And, oh by the way, at least for now he can work or not work.
“New opportunities come along,” Manziel said, “and maybe there’s something else for me along the way that I like doing and that I want to do and it puts a smile on my face to go to work. But for now, I’m very, very content being ... .”
He pauses for the first time in the conversation to think of the word.
“Chill.”
A few moments later, Manziel offers a fist to bump and pushes his chair back from the table. With the same confident gait he carried during his Heisman season, he heads back into the hubbub to mill with other golfers.
If you didn’t know better, he could be taken for just one of the guys — and maybe that’s what he really wants to be.
Driving away, it dawns on me that I’ve forgotten to ask two questions that suddenly seem more relevant: Did being Johnny Football ever become a burden? And does no longer having to be Johnny Football feel liberating?
Because it sure does look that way.
https://www.lubbockonline.com/sport...-rsquoin-pastrsquo--and-hersquos-ok-with-that
By Don Williams
Posted Jun 27, 2020 at 4:52 PM
Lubbock Avalanche-Journal is owned by Gannett Media Corp.
Search Johnny Manziel’s name and right below the obligatory link to his Wikipedia page, Google shows you a list of questions that “People also ask.”
One of those questions being, “Where is Johnny Manziel now, 2020?”
I can answer for this weekend: At Hillcrest Golf & Country Club and, by all appearances, doggone happy to be here. Teeing it up in the Hillcrest Swinger seems a peculiar spot for the 2012 Heisman Trophy winner, inasmuch as he’s known the sports world over for what he did in College Station, not Lubbock, and not for what he can do with a golf club in his hands, but with a football.
Ask Manziel where he considers his football career at this point, and you get a refreshingly candid answer.
“In the past, probably, is the way I’d characterize it,” Manziel said, leaning forward and without a moment’s hesitation. “I’ve finally got to a point where I’m trying to achieve happiness in life, not happiness on the football field.
“I know a lot of people probably want me to come back and play and give it another chance, but I don’t know, as far as being a person and figuring out life as a young adult — trying to make it and figure it out — if I’ve ever been in a better place than I’m in right now. I can honestly say I’m happy and I’m doing the right things to try and put a smile on my face every day, and that means more to me than going out and grinding on a football field.”
If one were to write Manziel’s legacy right now, with him at 27, the story would be about one of the most electric, exciting players college football has ever seen and one of pro football’s most spectacular flameouts: from being the Cleveland Browns’ first-round pick to being released after two seasons, to bouncing to the CFL to the Alliance of American Football. Since that league folded last spring, he’s been out of the game.
Like a character out of a Dan Jenkins novel, Manziel’s known for his living it up off the field almost as much as his derring-do on it.
Not even he would deny that, probably.
“During that time when I got drafted, I didn’t put in the time that I needed to be a great player and I don’t think my heart was in it,” Manziel said. “And I think when I went back to Canada, it was the same way. I truly believed and truly thought it was what I wanted to do, and my heart wasn’t in it, and it worked out the way it did.”
Sounds strange, you note, to hear Johnny Football say his heart was ever not in the game. All that time at Texas A&M, when he was dazzling college football fans, he seemed to be having so much fun, and it rubbed off on the people watching.
“I had a great time,” Manziel said. “Anytime I ever stepped between the lines, I had an amazing time. I gave it everything I had.
“I think it’s just, the work you put in when you have the free hours and when you do things on your own, that matches up accordingly with what happens on the field. And when you get to thinking that you’re too good or you’re better than the game, it’ll humble you. And that’s what happened. I got humbled. Thank God I did get a chance to be humbled, because when you think you’re at the top of the world, it’s a dangerous place.”
But melancholy Johnny, he’s not. Just the opposite, in fact. A few minutes before, amid the hubbub of dozens of golfers on the patio at Hillcrest, he was laughing, yukking it up, talking loud with guys who, by and large, are new acquaintances. His cap turned backward, he had a bounce in his step everywhere he went.
He’d gotten to know some of the other golfers a few weeks before at a tournament in Midland.
“Nicest guy you’ll ever meet. He’s awesome,” said Michael Pruitt, one of the tournament’s defending champions. “He’s very nice. Obviously, some of the kids out here are wanting to get his autograph, and he’s a nice guy to give autographs. So, glad he’s here for sure.”
Winn Galyean is a friend of Manziel’s family from back in Tyler. Galyean lives in Tahoka now, so this weekend he and Manziel are commuting from Tahoka to Hillcrest. On Friday, they shot 6-under 66 to lead the first flight.
Is there anything Johnny Football doesn’t do well?
Golf is one of those things that, as Manziel says, puts a smile on his face these days. He’s loving life and living in Scottsdale, Arizona. “I’m probably playing six days a week,” he says. “Scottsdale is the mecca of golf, so it doesn’t get any better than that.” His handicap? “I’m probably a 2 right now, but I’ve taken it down from an 8, so I feel like I’m getting better day by day.”
Living in Scottsdale, Manziel and Arizona Cardinals coach Kliff Kingsbury might as well be neighbors. Manziel loves his old A&M quarterbacks coach. He’s grateful to Kingsbury for trusting a freshman quarterback to freewheel it — that’s hard for a coach to do, Manziel acknowledges. He says he’s grateful even more for Kliff’s helping him get squared away off the field the past couple of years.
“That’s a guy that I admire very, very much,” Manziel said. “I can’t respect another person on the face of the earth as much as I do Kliff. I know he had his challenges here (as Texas Tech head coach). People have their opinions on him here. But, man, what a guy, a guy who’s changed my life for the better and who I’ll always be thankful for.”
Manziel says he and Kingsbury communicate “all the time.” But recreating what they had at Texas A&M? Back up a minute. For one thing, Kliff has Kyler Murray, the latest dynamic dual-threat quarterback and first-round draft choice.
And besides. Manziel’s attitude toward football at the moment seems to be been there, done that. He’s never said he’s retired, and if someone calls he’ll listen.
But Manziel gives the impression he no longer needs it for fulfillment.
Told that he appears content, Manziel says he “couldn’t be happier” than he is right now and then gives a long list of reasons. He’ll always be revered in Aggieland, always have the camaraderie of his teammates and friends from there. He’ll always get to go to the Heisman Trophy presentation, being a past winner. He can look at that trophy at his grandmother’s house and remember the dazzling plays he made on Kyle Field that helped him win it.
Want him to go on?
He has his health. Johnny Football doubts he’ll ever suffer from football-related dementia. He never suffered a broken bone on the football field. Makes sense. Whoever got a clean shot on him?
He loves the Valley of the Sun, the friends he’s made, the people who loved him and never abandoned him when his star was falling.
Oh, sure, if you want to make him a punchline for what he didn’t do as a pro football player, go ahead. Johnny Manziel can handle it.
“People can call me whatever they want,” he says without animosity, “but at the end of the day, I’m proud of what I did. I’m proud of what I accomplished. I bettered myself. I bettered my family’s life. I got a chance to play amazing college football, and it didn’t work out in the NFL and that’s OK.”
Now he’s a long way from turning 30. And, oh by the way, at least for now he can work or not work.
“New opportunities come along,” Manziel said, “and maybe there’s something else for me along the way that I like doing and that I want to do and it puts a smile on my face to go to work. But for now, I’m very, very content being ... .”
He pauses for the first time in the conversation to think of the word.
“Chill.”
A few moments later, Manziel offers a fist to bump and pushes his chair back from the table. With the same confident gait he carried during his Heisman season, he heads back into the hubbub to mill with other golfers.
If you didn’t know better, he could be taken for just one of the guys — and maybe that’s what he really wants to be.
Driving away, it dawns on me that I’ve forgotten to ask two questions that suddenly seem more relevant: Did being Johnny Football ever become a burden? And does no longer having to be Johnny Football feel liberating?
Because it sure does look that way.
https://www.lubbockonline.com/sport...-rsquoin-pastrsquo--and-hersquos-ok-with-that
