Teammate Insights: Johnny Manziel’s Struggles with Distractions and Commitment

Johnny Manziel. Uh huh. What was your view of him when you were teammates? And what about now? I love Johnny. I think he’s a great person. He’s very friendly, he’s. He’s a lot of fun. And, um, I think that’s probably been a big, uh, part of his struggles in the NFL, though, is he’s got so many friends, he’s got so many people that wanna be with him and wanna hang out with him, that, um, it detracts from his focus on being a quarterback. And to be an NFL quarterback, you have to be so obsessed and committed to the game that you almost have no time in your life for anything but a little bit of family. And the rest of it is being a quarterback. And that’s a commitment that few people are willing to make. Um, it’s almost a commitment above a level of a coach. But if you can’t have that level of commitment, you almost can’t succeed in the NFL as a quarterback. In what way were the distractions evident when he was here? Like, to you personally? So being a quarterback just starts when everyone leaves the building at the end of the day, like as a lineman, as a receiver, the rest of the team. I mean, meetings are over, you watch your film. You know, the guys that stay the longest, besides a quarterback, might watch an hour of film after meetings are all over, at the end of The day. Well, a quarterback, he needs to be there from six in the morning until eleven PM. He needs to have coaches hours. And um, if you don’t do that, you just can’t make it. And so if you think that you’re gonna go to work and then leave after meetings and go to dinner and a basketball game and go get drinks with friends during the week, during the. During the season, just. You can’t do it. It’s just not gonna happen. And if you do it, you won’t be properly prepared on a Sunday. If you were saying that at the time, did. Did you ever. Did you ever wanna like, pull them aside and say, hey, well, I think it’s tough if you’re not a quarterback, to coach a quarterback? Um, we had discussions and. And you talk, but um, in. Unless as a quarterback, you’re. You’re self motivated to do those things, uh, nobody’s gonna talk you into something you don’t wanna do.