From leading Texas A&M to win against the conference’s top team Alabama and becoming the first freshman to ever win the renowned Heisman Trophy to severely damaging his once-promising NFL career following some controversial incidents, Johnny Manziel hit headlines several times due to the ups and downs throughout his football journey.
Manziel’s story following the 2012 season is full of failures and disappointments. After being cut down by the Cleveland Browns, he attempted to make comebacks several times but never got back to his top form. The footballer’s story would be featured in the upcoming Netflix documentary “UNTOLD: Johnny Football” where he would heartbreakingly discuss his suicide attempts after struggling with personal issues.
Johnny Manziel discusses his heartbreaking past in new Netflix doc
According to multiple reports from 2015, Manziel began using OxyContin and cocaine on a daily basis following the 2015 NFL season and lost 40 pounds after dealing with a “$5 million bender”. He detailed the backstory while revealing his earlier plan to take his own life,
“I think I was just running from problems. It was probably a $5 million bender. 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.”
Former Football star Johnny Manziel opens up about planning to commit suicide after finding out he's bipolar.
“I got diagnosed as bipolar and I felt like it was the same as being called an alcoholic or a drug addict,”
"Spend as much money as I possibly could and then my plan… pic.twitter.com/XRzzVU8FzK
— Dov Kleiman (@NFL_DovKleiman) August 4, 2023
The ex-NFL star was diagnosed with bipolar disorder that year, but he did not head to rehab, and his substance abuse issues following the misdemeanor assault allegations of his ex-girlfriend got worse. He said he had purchased a gun with the plan to use it to commit suicide, albeit the weapon malfunctioned at the right time,
“Months prior, I went and bought a gun I knew I was going to use. I wanted 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.”
Johnny held his broken family status as a potential reason behind the destruction of his promising NFL career and apparently, he is having a much simpler life in Dallas now.
“Still to this day, I don’t know what happened, but the gun just clicked on me. I couldn’t fix what I had done; with Colleen, with the NFL, with A&M, everything. You know, at that point in time, I didn’t have much of a relationship with my family. The ride was over,” he added.
Why Browns cut Johnny Manziel in 2016?
Back on January 30, Manziel‘s former girlfriend Colleen Crowley alleged to police that he hit her so brutally that it ruptured her left eardrum. He was later released by the Browns due to his off-field issues, giving him the chance to appear in only five games in the league including two starts.
The dual-threat quarterback headed to the NFL after being drafted with the 22nd pick in the 2014 NFL draft. Nevertheless, his partying started on the Draft night and it continued throughout his rookie season. The ex-Browns star missed a Week 17 walk-through due to a late-night party.
From being projected to be ‘bigger than LeBron James’ by the renowned Fox Sports personality Skip Bayles to being a failed NFL star due to his off-field issues, Manziel’s story should serve as a cautionary tale to upcoming athletes.
