Johnny Manziel made headlines on Wednesday thanks to the interview he conducted with Shannon Sharpe.
Manziel was a guest on Sharpe’s “Club Shay Shay” show, and the interview was published Wednesday. In the interview, Manziel covered numerous subjects, including how much money he would have made via NIL, and how he apologizes to numerous figures, such as LeBron James and Skip Bayless. But the former Heisman Trophy winner also made a bombshell reveal.
For the first time, Manziel publicly discussed the offer his father made to then-Texas A&M head coach Kevin Sumlin.
Manziel was a star quarterback for the Aggies as a redshirt freshman in 2012 and redshirt sophomore in 2013. He was considering returning to school or entering the NFL draft for 2014 and decided to go pro. But before that happened, he says he only later learned that his father approached Sumlin with a deal for Johnny to remain at A&M.
“It’s December/January, and I’m getting ready to make this decision on if I’m going to the NFL draft, or if I’m going to stay. And I found this out five years later from my dad. But 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 said this is true today as when he told me — [Sumlin] laughed,” Manziel said.
Manziel says that Sumlin similarly laughed off the request when then-Aggies offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury approached him asking to become the highest-paid OC in the country. Kingsbury later left to become the head coach at Texas A&M.
Manziel ended up entering the NFL draft and became the No. 22 overall pick by the Cleveland Browns in 2014. Had Sumlin worked with Manziel’s family to make the under-the-table deal happen, Manziel would have stayed at A&M for the 2014 and 2015 seasons.
There are multiple reasons why Sumlin was justified in laughing at the request from the Manziels.
For one, they would have been breaking the NCAA rules by agreeing to such a deal. Two, Manziel was barely a student by then and not a dedicated player. His play had even slipped and they had gone 9-4 in 2013. Three, Manziel had outgrown A&M, was uncontrollable, and Sumlin was probably done with Manziel and ready to move on with Kenny Hill and then other recruits the Aggies had.
Though the potential $3 million deal sounds awesome now, it was never realistic.
You can hear the interview in this clip:
