Johnny Manziel has a particular type of privilege.
In the Netflix documentary “Untold: Johnny Football,” Manziel admits things that would have Black QBs crucified, even in retirement. From being crowned the quarterback king of his Tivy high school team and then morphed into “Johnny Football” at Texas A&M from 2011-2013.
The Heisman Trophy winner, who became the first redshirt freshman to get the award, made it to the NFL in the first round but needed to handle the transition better. The 22nd-second pick of the 2014 draft admitted on the Netflix documentary that during his brief time on the Cleveland Browns roster he watched the film “zero” times, like, never.
Agent ZERO
“Their GM’s calling me going, ‘He doesn’t watch tape,'” his then agent Erik Burkhardt said on the Netflix documentary “Untold.” “I’m like, well, he’s gotta watch some tape. He’s like, ‘EB, his iPad hours is 0.00.'”
Manziel played 14 NFL games and started in eight, eventually going 2-6 in those starts. His winning two NFL games without effort indicated his entire football journey. The Tyler, Texas-born and raised QB breathed football by proxy as the state virtually mandates its residents to worship the pigskin.
Manziel was a naturally gifted gunslinger who modeled his style after the run-and-shoot game of an early Vince Young, but unlike Young, Manziel treated the game like a giant tailgate where the pickup truck fortified bar never closed. Amid the scandals that followed him from college to the pros, Manziel’s perception as a legendary novelty act whose money sign celebration became part of pop culture is disrespectful to the Black QBs who study but were “questioned” during the lead-up to the 2022-2023 season.
Arizona Cardinals quarterback Kyler Murray’s original 2022 contract extension from the Cardinals for roughly $160 million guaranteed contained an “independent study addendum” that required Murray to review four hours of game film per week (outside of regular team preparation). It also stated that while watching film, Murray could not be engaged in other activities such as watching television or playing video games.
Ironically, when Murray signed the offer, Manziel’s former collegiate QB coach, Kliff Kingsbury, was the head coach of the Arizona Cardinals. Kingsbury said in the documentary he knew Manziel didn’t put in the effort while at Texas A&M.
“Of course, we all watch film,” Murray said during a news conference after word of the study clause was leaked. “That doesn’t need to be questioned. But I refuse to let my work ethic, my preparation be questioned… it’s disrespectful and it’s almost a joke.”
Eventually, the team eliminated the mandatory “independent study” clause in Murray’s extension.
“How Y’all Consume The Game Is Trash” — KD
Manziel played off script like Black quarterback Patrick Mahomes has been accused of, and the stigmatization of the Black quarterback not being intelligent enough to lead a team has always been an underlying narrative in the NFL. Manziel played eight games. Mahomes has two Super Bowl rings and two Super Bowl MVP wins.
Yet Mahomes was at the center of speculation when an opposing defensive coach said to The Athletic, “take his first read away and what does he do? He runs, he scrambles and he plays streetball.”
The defensive coach was a voter in a poll by The Athletic, which asked 50 people in the NFL to place NFL quarterbacks into tiers, and the person was the lone dissenter not placing Mahomes in the top tier.
Where is the speculation about the white quarterbacks winging it like Manziel, who got exposed in the pros? Instead, radio silence from the unnamed insider critics says a lot about how many consume the game.
In the words of Kevin Durant from his Twitter Spaces rant to his ever-critical fans, “I just think how ya’ll consume the game is trash.”
Amen.
