Documentary on Troubled Former Texas A&M Superstar Quarterback

HOLLYWOOD— A new documentary on Netflix explores a former Aggie and NFL quarterback who attempted suicide after getting cut from the Cleveland Browns.

In the Netflix documentary “Untold: Johnny Football”, Johnny Manziel told his story about using opiates and cocaine every day, eventually going on a bender and attempted to commit suicide.

After the 2015 NFL season, Manziel admitted to using OxyContin and cocaine, dropping from 215 lbs. to 175 lbs. by Fall of that year. In January 2016, Manziel was accused of abusing his girlfriend at the time. Then in March 2016, the Cleveland Brown’s organization cut him from the team.

“I had planned to do everything I wanted to do at that point in my life, spend as much money as I possible could and then my plan was to take my life,” Manziel said. After Manziel was cut, he said he was diagnosed with bipolar disorder but refused to go to rehab and went on a multimillion-dollar bender.

Manziel’s plan was to use a gun to kill himself and the gun malfunctioned.

Manziel mania started after the lightning rod player beat the Crimson Tide at Texas A&M. With the circus following Manziel around, many NFL draft analysts and fans wanted Dallas Cowboys’ owner, who some think can’t get out of his own way, to draft the quarterback in the 2014 NFL Draft. Dallas ended up taking Notre Dame tackle turned guard Zack Martin and Manziel was picked by the Browns at 22 overall.

Manziel had plenty of off the field issues at Texas A&M and in the NFL, mainly around the party life the signal caller seemed to bring with him everywhere. There were fights in the lobby of the apartment building Manziel rented at and flipping the bird at Washington’s bench in an NFL game.

Manziel did spend time in rehab but had more off the field issues to the point his father thought Manziel would die before turning 24-years-old. He was dropped by two agents in three months by April 2016, which was a month after the Browns cut ties.

Manziel, now 30, has spent time in the Canadian football league and the XFL. In 2022, he was inducted into the Texas A&M Hall of Fame.

Untold: Johnny Football is available on Netflix.