Former first-round draft pick Johnny Manziel is the subject of a new documentary on Netflix about his life. Dubbed “Johnny Football” for his loose but successful style of play at Texas A&M, he was drafted 22nd overall in 2014 to be the new quarterback for the Cleveland Browns.
It did not go well. In fact, he revealed in the documentary that he attempted suicide after the team released him in March 2016. Two years after that, he placed blame on the Browns for basically expecting him to be something he’s not—such as a student of the game.
“If Cleveland did any of their homework, they would have known that I was a guy that didn’t come in every day and watch film, I was a guy that didn’t really know the Xs and Os of football”, he said. Little did we know, until last night, how literally that was true.
In a clip from the documentary that has been doing the rounds on social media, Manziel’s agent, Erik Burkhardt, described a conversation he had with the team’s general manager at the time, Ray Farmer, that makes it clear just how much studying he did.
“Their GM’s calling me going, ‘He doesn’t watch tape’. I’m like, ‘Well, he’s got to watch some tape’. He’s like, ‘EB, his iPad hours is 0.00’”. As in, the tool that the team supplied him with the study film showed that it had not been used.
The segment ends with a short clip of Manziel chiming in, raising his hand to his eye in a circular shape and saying, “Zero”.
Those who watched him play, in truth, are probably not surprised by this little ‘revelation’—although I suppose the actual 0.00 is kind of remarkable. I mean, he didn’t even open it? Surely he must have known that the team would see this. I’m sure he cheated on plenty of college tests; one would think he would manage to give the illusion that he watched some film. Even an hour.
Manziel only managed to start eight games over 14 played in his two-year NFL career, posting a 2-6 record. He went 147-for-258 passing (57 percent) for 1,675 yards with seven touchdowns and seven interceptions. He rushed for 259 yards on 46 attempts with one touchdown and seven fumbles.
The Pittsburgh Steelers only saw him on the field just one time in a start in week 10 of the 2015 season. They defeated Manziel’s Browns 30-9, but he set a career-high with 372 passing yards, going 33-for-45 with one touchdown and one interception. He was sacked six times and lost one fumble.
Two years after moving on from “Johnny Football”, Cleveland mustered up its courage to go back to the quarterback well in 2018 and drafted Baker Mayfield with the first-overall selection. He is now competing for the starting job with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, but he’s still in the league, so that’s something. And he probably looks at his iPad once in a while.
