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00:00 I'm sitting here 10 years later and I talk about this game weekly.
00:03 I'm Melissa Amirita for Sports Illustrated and I am joined today with the legend Johnny
00:09 Football ahead of his release of his Netflix documentary Untold.
00:14 In the documentary, Johnny, you talk about your struggles with mental health and drug
00:18 abuse after being cut from the Browns.
00:21 What has the response been like from fans and the community as some of your past struggles
00:25 have been back in the news lately?
00:27 Yeah, I think for me, the people closest to me in my life have reached out and been nothing
00:32 but positive.
00:33 A couple of these things that I'm telling in the doc are things that I've never really
00:36 told to anybody outside my immediate family.
00:38 So we'll definitely see as the week goes on how the perception is on things from the outside.
00:43 But for me, my perspective really only matters for friends and family who are close to my
00:47 life and that reception from them has been great.
00:51 What advice would you come away with to give people about struggling with mental health
00:54 issues?
00:55 Yeah, that it's okay, that more people struggle than you can imagine.
01:00 You can probably wrap your head around, it's okay to ask for help.
01:03 It's okay to not feel all right.
01:05 I think that's something that I struggled with for the longest time that I very quickly
01:09 dismissed when somebody would ask me if I was okay or this or that.
01:13 I was very closed up.
01:15 I was very shy and bottled up about my struggles and what was really going on.
01:22 And I think that's the biggest thing that the more that you can do to keep yourself
01:26 vulnerable and let people know that you're not all right will go a long way for you,
01:30 for me.
01:31 The way that I approach life now with a very on my sleeve, open and honest, transparent
01:37 kind of attitude has seemed to benefit me.
01:42 If you don't mind me asking, who was the person or what was the breaking moment where you
01:48 kind of took on this new mantra?
01:51 A buddy of mine, Mike Sander, who's a musician, we've been really close over the past six,
01:58 seven years.
01:59 This is how me and him would talk.
02:01 This is the way that I pretty much speak in most of my interviews now, being open and
02:05 transparent and honest and real is something that we talked about for nights and nights
02:10 on end and kind of just shaped that on its own.
02:15 I got around good people who cared about me and cleared my mind to clutter a little bit
02:19 and allowed me to feel better about what I was doing in my life and the decisions that
02:24 you make in your life.
02:25 I wasn't second guessing myself anymore.
02:28 I was just letting life be exactly what it is and being open and honest about it.
02:32 It seemed to be better for me and us.
02:34 How'd you meet him?
02:36 When I was in college, he had a show in College Station and we ended up talking online and
02:41 then just kind of kept in touch throughout the years.
02:44 When I moved to LA after my days in Cleveland were over, he lived there as well.
02:48 We lived pretty much around the corner from each other in Studio City and just developed
02:51 a really close bond and a good friendship.
02:54 He's the person that kind of helped bring this documentary to light a little bit, helped
02:59 put me in front of the right people to get this done and has been a great friend to me
03:03 throughout the last decade or so.
03:05 I gotta ask you a question now.
03:07 November 12, 2012.
03:08 Does that date ring a bell to you?
03:11 It does.
03:12 It does.
03:13 You gotta tell me.
03:14 What did it feel like?
03:15 How did you feel after that game?
03:19 You know, looking back on it when you're in that moment, it really is a laser type of
03:24 focus that I had never had in previous games before.
03:28 You know, it's one you want to win so bad and such a great opportunity for our team,
03:32 such a great opportunity for me personally to be able to go do the things that I wanted
03:35 to do in life.
03:36 You know, I'm sitting here 10 years later and I talk about this game weekly.
03:41 You know, I get stopped when I'm getting gas or if I'm out at dinner or something and it
03:46 comes up really, really frequently.
03:48 So to be able to have made a mark on college football like that, that's still around a
03:53 decade later, you know, it's special.
03:55 And it was a special day, a special win for our program.
03:58 And it was really fun to be on the sideline when we beat Alabama again a couple years
04:01 ago.
04:02 After that game, you cemented your legacy.
04:05 Your nickname, Johnny Football, was born and then you won the Heisman.
04:09 That's crazy.
04:10 What was going through your mind when that all happened?
04:12 Yeah, it's just like how did these things you dream about as a kid come to come to fruition?
04:17 You know, the Heisman bias, you know, against that a freshman may never win the Heisman
04:22 was very, you know, much in the front and center of that year to break down that barrier
04:27 and be able to be the first freshman to lift that trophy still means the world to me to
04:30 this day.
04:31 And, you know, I'll always have that.
04:34 I go back home and see my family and, you know, walk into my grandma's house and see
04:38 my trophy sitting there.
04:39 It's, you know, it's special.
04:41 It's historic and legendary as it gets in college football.
04:45 And, you know, that's something that they can't take away from me.
04:48 So you gave your grandma the trophy.
04:52 It's in my grandma's house.
04:53 It's it's a family heirloom at this point.
04:57 It should be 100%.
05:00 What is the biggest difference you see in yourself from the man we know today and the
05:06 freshman when you first stepped on the gridiron at Texas A&M?
05:09 Yeah, definitely less cluttered in my head.
05:11 I'm a little bit more at peace at the point that I'm in in my life right now.
05:14 You know, I'm able to enjoy things a lot more than I was at that time.
05:18 You know, for a long time there, I was kind of like a chicken with my head cut off just
05:21 running around.
05:23 And now life seems to be a lot more peaceful, a lot more easy, free.
05:27 You know, I don't have people in my business all the time.
05:31 You know, I'm able to live a life that I kind of want to now, which is, you know, a lot
05:36 more on the scale of normalcy rather than fame and chaos and everything else that it
05:43 was back in 2012.
05:44 Speaking of the chaos of college football season, it is no secret you were paid some
05:51 money for autographs, etc, etc.
05:55 How do you think Johnny Football, the brand, would have benefited from NIL deals that are
06:02 currently going around?
06:03 It would have been, you know, probably to a point where I wouldn't have had to go to
06:06 the NFL to make money.
06:08 You know, I would have been able to stay in college for a couple more years and absolutely
06:12 clean up.
06:13 But, you know, I think college football is in a better spot now because of it.
06:17 It's nice to see these guys getting what they deserve based off their name, image, and likeness.
06:21 And looking back on this story, there's a ton of things throughout the past that had
06:26 an impact on getting to where we are in the college football landscape.
06:31 And, you know, my story is probably a little bit of that.
06:34 So let me ask you, if the NIL deals were in place, would you have just cleaned up and
06:40 not gone to the NFL and lived your life?
06:43 What would you have done?
06:45 It's tough to say.
06:46 It's such a big what if, you know, who would have known?
06:49 It's, you know, are you making X amount?
06:52 Is it more?
06:53 Is it less?
06:54 Is it this?
06:55 Is it that?
06:56 It's kind of hard to, you know, talk about something that's in the present now but wasn't
06:58 around in the past.
06:59 We know they would have thrown you the bag.
07:02 So with that being said, in that hypothetical, what do you think?
07:08 I mean, probably, yeah.
07:10 I look back now and I think one of the things that I just like, you know, I wish I would
07:14 have got to enjoy more of College Station.
07:16 I wish I would have got to enjoy more games in a Texas A&M uniform.
07:20 I wish I would have, you know, got to stay and finish out my time with people that I
07:24 came into school with.
07:25 I wish I would have had the opportunity to, you know, maybe win an SEC championship, maybe
07:31 get an opportunity to go to a national championship game.
07:34 Be able to do more for my school and that jersey because those times were the best two
07:40 years of my life.
07:41 All right.
07:42 Well, in the documentary, not to give any spoilers away for anybody, you love the name
07:48 Johnny Football.
07:49 So I got to ask you, what do you prefer?
07:52 Johnny Football or Money Manzel?
07:54 I probably like Johnny Football the best.
07:56 You know, it was fun.
07:58 It was fun during those times.
08:00 It's fun when your nickname is, you know, named after the sport you're playing.
08:03 So I definitely don't get called those things as much anymore and it's kind of nice to just
08:07 be Johnny at this point in life.
08:09 OK, but you're opening up a bar in College Station, Johnny Manzel's Money Bar.
08:14 It's ready to go.
08:15 What are your big plans for the venue?
08:18 I think we'll see and it'll play itself out over the next couple of weeks.
08:21 We got some ideas in the works, but I've always wanted a place at College Station, you know,
08:25 a place in that street and that town has meant so much to me.
08:29 So I think this is the start of some other things that we'll have coming there eventually
08:33 over the next year or so.
08:34 But it's another great opportunity for me to get back to College Station, get to some
08:38 games and be able to do something after.
08:40 So, you know, I'm excited.
08:41 You know, my partners in that are excited as well.
08:44 So it should be great.
08:45 You've talked about your relationships with LeBron during your playing days, right?
08:49 What impact did he have on you as a player and a person?
08:52 Yeah, I think, you know, during some of my toughest times, even in college, you know,
08:55 he was a person that reached out to me to, you know, try and keep me focused, try and
09:00 keep me upbeat.
09:01 You know, that guy did so much for me during my time in Cleveland.
09:04 You know, his people around him in his camp did so much for me.
09:08 You know, I'll always be extremely grateful for the care and the love that he showed me,
09:13 my family, all my friends.
09:15 So, you know, it doesn't get much better than that.
09:19 Doesn't get much better of a person than him.
09:21 And I'm very thankful that I got to spend, you know, any amount of time around that guy.
09:26 Before you go, I do have one more question for you.
09:29 Draft Day by Drake.
09:30 Your name is mentioned.
09:31 I got to hear the backstory.
09:33 Did you know that he was going to mention you?
09:36 Or was it just like something you woke up one morning, you put on your iPod and that's
09:40 what you heard?
09:41 No, I, uh, I was at my girlfriend's house at the time and just got out of college, decided
09:48 to go to the NFL.
09:49 This was probably, you know, February of 2014.
09:56 I get a call in the middle of the night and it's Drake and one of his boys.
09:59 He's like, we have to play this for you.
10:00 He plays it for me, I'm just like kind of losing my mind at the thought that this could
10:03 have ever been a reality.
10:05 And you know, what a great song.
10:07 What a great dude.
10:10 Really really cool to be able to say that, you know, I'm friends with that guy and that
10:13 I got to do the things that I've got to do, you know, with him.
10:17 He's a legend.
10:18 The song's legendary.
10:19 So I'm very proud of it.
10:21 You know, the OVO and whole Drake crew, you know, meant the world to me growing up, my
10:26 time in college and then going on through life still to this day.
10:29 So, you know, I always have that.
10:32 All right.
10:33 Well, thank you so much for taking the time to speak with us at Sports Illustrated.
10:37 I am your host Melissa Amrita, joined by the legendary Johnny Football, and we will catch
10:42 you guys soon.
10:42 (upbeat music)
10:45 (upbeat music)