Johnny Manziel wanted to return to the NFL — nearly a decade after his last game in the league.
The 32-year-old former quarterback revealed on Logan Paul’s “Impaulsive” podcast that he worked out a bit last year in hopes of getting another chance after getting asked if it was too late to get another crack in the league.
“I asked myself this question last year,” Manziel said. “Got myself into a mindset of like, ‘OK, I’m going to go start working out again, throwing the football around, see if I can still get myself in shape.'”
Manziel, who was drafted No. 22 overall by the Browns in 2014, added that he did not want to just play pro football but that he would only return to the game if he got an opportunity to play in the NFL.
“I remember calling my agent, being like, ‘I think I’m gonna try and make a comeback.’ He’s like, ‘OK, we’ll start talking with some guys, UFL, XFL,'” Manziel said. “And I’m just sitting there thinking like, ‘There’s no way I’m going back to f–king play in one of these early leagues… UFL… XFL… Anything like that.'”
The Texas A&M legend was one of the best quarterbacks in college football in 2013 and 2014, winning the Heisman Trophy as a freshman.
His well-known partying lifestyle, off-field scandals and watching “zero” game film did not help his career, which he talked about in a 2023 Netflix documentary. Manziel was seen as a possibility as a top-five talent in the 2014 NFL Draft but slipped to Cleveland late in the first round.
He later admitted he attempted suicide after being release by Cleveland.
“I think I was just running from problems,” Manziel said in “Untold: Johnny Football.” “Direct self-sabotage, trying to burn this thing down. I had planned to do everything that I wanted to do at that point in my life. Spend as much money as I possibly could, and then my plan was to take my life.
“Months prior, went and bought a gun that I knew I was gonna use. I wanted it to get as bad as humanly possible to where it made sense, and it made it seem like an excuse and an out for me.”
He lasted just two years with the Browns with a 74.4 quarterback rating before his NFL career was over.
After his short NFL tenure, he bounced around the CFL, Alliance of American Football and the Fan Controlled Football league.
Even though Manziel would like to return to the game’s top league, he admitted to Paul that his chances of making it are slim.
“As much as I would like to think that that’s something I can do, I think at 32, my chances are probably pretty chopped,” Manziel said.