According to Johnny Manziel himself, his dad, Paul Manziel, attempted to cut a $3 million deal with now-former Texas A&M head coach Kevin Sumlin to ensure his son would stay at the school following his redshirt sophomore season.
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Johnny Manziel on the Bag men and how he wanted $3 milli to stay another 2 years at A&M .. but these blue blood colleges SWORE they didn’t pay recruits under the table before NIL 😂 #Canes #Hurricanes #Gocanes #johnnymanziel #clubshayshay pic.twitter.com/LlVYaqSq8s
— Oregon Cane 🟧🟩(Jay) 🇯🇲 (@jamrock1986) February 21, 2024
"It's the spring of 2014, December 2013," Manziel said during an interview with Shannon Sharpe for his podcast "Club Shay Shay." "I'm getting ready to make this decision on if I'm going to the NFL draft or if I'm going to stay. My dad went and had a meeting with Kevin Sumlin. And pretty much went to him man to man and was like, 'We'll take $3 million and we'll stay for the next two years.'
"And my dad did this without me knowing. And I ain't mad at him about it for nothing."
Of course, Manziel did leave the program, getting drafted in the first round of the 2014 NFL Draft.
In the interview, Manziel also mentioned that college programs had a "bag man" who would hand out cash to recruits to assist in recruiting them.
"It's the way the business worked back then," Manziel said. "There was a bag man. There was a bag man at LSU. There was a bag man at 'Bama. There was a bag man at every school around the country if you were competing for a national title. It is what it was, and it was always that way until we're into the NIL [name/image/likeness] portion of everything now, the way it should be."
Manziel played for the Aggies during the 2012 and 2013 seasons. He won the Heisman Trophy as a freshman, completing 295 of 434 passes (68%) for 3,706 yards, 26 touchdowns and nine interceptions. In 2013, he completed 300 of 429 passes (69.9%) for 4,114 yards, 37 touchdowns and 13 interceptions. He finished fifth in the Heisman Trophy voting that year.
As a rusher, he had 345 carries for 2,169 yards and 30 touchdowns, including 21 as a freshman.
Manziel, now 31, also won the Davey O'Brien Award, Manning Award, AP College Football Player of the Year and SN Player of the Year, was an All-American, and much more.
He was drafted No. 22 overall by the Browns in 2014 but had a tumultuous career in the NFL. He completed just 57% of his passes for 1,675 yards, seven touchdowns and seven interceptions. In the same interview with Sharpe, he went on record talking about his cocaine use.
Following the NFL, Manziel played in various other football leagues including the Canadian Football League, where he completed 64.2% of his passes for 1,290 yards, five touchdowns and seven interceptions.
His most recent stint in football was at the Fan Controlled Football organization. In March 2022, he announced that he was returning for a second season as a player-coach.
