The “douche” with a drinking problem wants you to know he’s a quarterback with a future.
Johnny Manziel’s rehabilitation tour is on, after he sent out a spree of tweets last week acknowledging his problems, and followed it up with a lengthy Instagram post Sunday that traced how he rose, hit rock bottom — and how he plans to climb again.
The former Heisman Trophy winner, first-round pick and NFL flameout said he is “so far sober with a clear head on my shoulders.” The entire post was posited as a message to George Whitfield Jr., a quarterback coach who has worked with him since his early Texas A&M days.
The message suggests Manziel has reunited, or wants to reunite, with Whitfield, whom he worked with when Manziel was just a third-stringer in College Station. Manziel — predictably referencing a certain Drake song — intimated that no one believed in him then, and no one believes in him now. And so he plans to rise again.
“This kid has no chance going into the SEC, they said,” Manziel wrote in his ode to Whitfield and himself. “He’s too short, he’s not accurate enough, just a freelancer they said. I bet you’ll never forget where you were the day we slayed the Dragon in Tuscaloosa in front of 100,000. You were the first person I called. Or when there was still this conspiracy that a freshman couldn’t win the Heisman.”
Of course Manziel did win the Heisman as a freshman, part of the improvisational quarterback’s thrilling collegiate career. After being picked by the Browns in 2014, though, the fascinating scrambling plays took place off the field, where Manziel dealt with problem after problem that stemmed from drinking. Then in late January of 2016, he allegedly assaulted an ex-girlfriend, a case that was finalized with a plea deal in December.
“Under six feet tall and drafted in the 1st round, STARTED FROM THE BOTTOM NOW WE HERE, screaming it out the window on draft night,” Manziel wrote. “Never forget it. Then it all changed and I lost my ways, the grind, the love, the hustle, my way of life in general. Thick and thin you stood by me and I’ll never forget it. We thrive when they say ‘YOU CANT’ it’s all we’ve ever known. With the simplistic mindset and goals we have Whit, let’s go.”
Whitfield has been a longtime believer in Johnny Football.
“I know him as a football player, and he can do this,” he told cleveland.com in 2015, saying there was no obstacle Manziel couldn’t overcome.
“ ‘Fix the man and the rest will come’ you said,” Manziel wrote. “‘Don’t worry about a thing I got you cuzzin, give me 48 hours to assemble’ was all I heard. A day later it’s January 12 and I’m Dime City bound once again. Broken, Humbled, but for once in my life thankful for that day and 18 so far sober with a clear head on my shoulders. All I have is today and we’ll take this thing a day at a time for as long as it takes. You made it happen and I’m ALL IN cuzzin, because I know you always have been. Let’s go #JustWaitOnIt
