Former Cleveland Browns quarterback Johnny Manziel's life began spiraling downward pretty much since the year 2016 started. He was cut by the Browns in March, and his former agent, Eric Burkhardt, cut ties with the quarterback in February. Manziel hired Drew Rosenhaus shortly after, but Rosenhaus terminated their relationship in April. Burkhardt, recently appeared on Peter Schrager's Fox Sports podcast to discuss what led the two to their split in February.
"You've got to do what's best for people." Burkhardt said via the Star-Telegram. "That was the decision I made along with his family, and for Johnny. It's not like I blindsided Johnny and he was finding out about it on the bottom line. And we've remained friends. He totally understood.
"Life is bigger than football. That's what I would want out of my son's adviser or agent if he had one. At the time we had to give an ultimatum to Johnny, and if he couldn't meet that I had to be a man of my word and do what I said I was going to do. It was a difficult time."
Burkhardt added that one of the hardest parts is that even though their professional relationship with Manziel has ended, their personal one has not. He says the two still talk on fairly regular occasions, and that he does worry about him because a real friendship still exists between them.
"Johnny FaceTimed me last week because he wanted to see my 2-year-old son. That's the hard part. The hard part is he shows up to my house, and my kid's a 1-year-old, and he shows up to my house and gets in the bounce house with 30 little kids in the backyard.
"I just care a lot about him. That was strictly a business decision at the time based on some ultimatums I had to give him."
