Johnny Manziel’s pro career is over, but that doesn’t mean he is done playing football. The former Browns quarterback told ESPN’s Kevin Seifert that he will play in the Fan Controlled Football league's second season.
“This is a way to go out and compete and have fun on a way smaller scale,” Manziel said. “I don't have the drive to play football at a high level anymore. I don't have a drive to be the best football player anymore that I used to have in my life, and I'm OK with that. I've come to terms with what my football career was, and what it is, and now I'm trying to figure out how I can stay entangled in the game, but from a different position.”
He mentioned that, while he is no longer pursuing a professional career in football, this league gives him a way to play the sport in a less serious manner.
Manziel was a star at Texas A&M, winning the Heisman Trophy as a redshirt sophomore. The Browns drafted him in the first round of the 2014 NFL draft, but Manziel could never live up to the hype, only lasting two years in both Cleveland and the NFL.
Looking back, Manziel understands that he threw away a chance to have an NFL career.
“I had an ample amount of opportunities to put my career on a different path, and for whatever reason it was, whether it was me being young or just not seeing life through the right lens at that point in time, I squandered a good opportunity,” he said.
Manziel added, despite the turmoil, he is more at ease with where his career has gone.
“The more I look back on my life and continue to reflect and try to bury some things and put some things in the past, that's one thing that I decided to do, was to let [football] go and let that be what it is. Life goes the way it goes sometimes,” he said.
After the NFL, Manziel caught on with the Canadian Football League for two years, but was released from the league in 2019.
Fan Controlled Football is a 7-on-7 football league that allows fans to call plays in real time, playing on a 50-yard field without any special teams.
