Johnny Manziel was investigated by the NCAA for getting paid to sign autographs when he was at Texas A&M back in 2013. Manziel denied at the time that he was ever paid to sign any piece of memorabilia, but the former Heisman Trophy winner has now come clean.
Manziel made an appearance on Barstool Sports’ “Bussin With The Boys” podcast this week, and he openly talked about getting paid thousands of dollars to sign autographs prior to his sophomore season at Texas A&M. He said he was approached by a guy who asked him if he’d like to make $3,000 to sign some memorabilia, to which he replied, “F— yeah.”
“So I take this guy’s number down. We’re doing it all sneaky. We don’t want to get caught. We’re trying to learn from everybody else who got caught,” Manziel recalled. “And then I may or may not have gone back to this guy’s condo and signed, probably, 10,000 pieces. He gave me 3 grand.”
Manziel said at that point he was on Instagram trying to figure out how to get a table at LIV Nightclub, which is in Miami Beach. That meshes with the report from years ago that Manziel was approached at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport the day before attending the BCS National Championship Game between Alabama and Notre Dame.
The story got better from there. Manziel said another man who was bringing pictures over to him at the first autograph signing made him a much better offer. Manziel took that one, too.
“He’s like, ‘Yo, you’re getting ripped off. Here’s this guy’s number. Hit him up. He’ll give you 30 grand,'” Manziel said. “And I’m like, ‘F— yeah, man. I’m gonna make $3,000 and then $30,000.'”
Manziel said he went to a room at the Fontainebleau hotel in Miami Beach and signed more memorabilia. The person he made the deal with told him to take a picture when he was done and he’d get the code to a safe where his money was located.
“I got to make a decent living in college,” Manziel said.
Manziel insisted he never took a dime before he won his Heisman Trophy. He joked that the NCAA can take his sophomore season away from him since the Aggies only went 9-4 and beat Duke in the Chick-fil-A Bowl.
Manziel has accused the NCAA of trying to ruin his college career. He explained a few years back how he was able to avoid being tracked by them. The autograph scandal in 2013 resulted in him being suspended for the first half of A&M’s game against Rice. We highly doubt the NCAA will do anything else about it now.
You can hear Manziel’s full story about signing autographs below, but beware that it contains inappropriate language.
