Johnny Manziel gets another shot, this time with ‘Fan Controlled Football’ league
“The more I heard about what this was going to be, the more I felt it was going to be something that was just very fun,” Manziel told ESPN. “It’s going to be very fan-oriented and something I could get behind without being extremely, extremely, extremely serious, the way that my football career has been in the past.”
“To have one of the most talented and exciting players in the history of college football is a historic moment for the FCF,” Farudi mentioned Wednesday in a information launch saying the addition of the quarterback, “and for our fans who will have the opportunity to call the plays for Manziel.”
For the previous star at Texas A&M, the place he turned the primary freshman to win the Heisman Trophy, the FCF represents his newest try to seek out success on the skilled stage. Picked twenty second general by the Cleveland Browns within the 2014 draft, Manziel didn’t impress as a quarterback whereas creating headlines and incomes suspensions for his partying methods. He was launched after simply two seasons by the Browns, by which level his life had taken a darker flip, with allegations of domestic violence and concern for Manziel’s psychological state voiced by each his father and his agent.
After present process remedies for substance abuse and bipolar dysfunction, Manziel signed up in 2018 with the Spring League, a developmental operation meant to function a showcase for gamers trying to latch on with groups in established leagues. Later that 12 months, he joined the Canadian Football League, saying on the time he felt “very blessed to be in this position.
Just a few months later, however, Manziel was banned from the CFL for what the league said was an unspecified violation of “a condition of his agreement.” Shortly thereafter, in March 2019, Manziel acquired another shot with the Alliance of American Football, however he solely made two appearances earlier than the first-year league folded.
Manziel indicated in June that he thought of his soccer profession a thing of “the past,” and mentioned then that his “heart wasn’t in it” throughout his stints within the NFL and CFL. He has discovered an agreeable facet, although, within the FCF’s encouragement of its athletes to share their lives through social media and different platforms.
“They’re going to let the people [who] join this league be who they are and have fun with it and be a little bit more free than what football is sometimes,” he informed ESPN. “That’s definitely what appealed to me. They don’t want me to change who I am or anything else. They want to come out, put a good product out and be fun with it.”
Farudin informed the web site that when Manziel joined his earlier leagues, it was “like the handcuffs were put on.”
“You had to walk and talk differently. He couldn’t just be himself,” Farudi mentioned of the 28-year-old quarterback. “That’s where we want to be different as a league. We’re really embracing this idea of being more than an athlete. … We’re very comfortable with having players be big personalities off the field and doing what they want to do. For us, it’s as much as about the off-field opportunities to connect with the fan base as it is about the football on the field.”
According to the FCF’s information launch Wednesday, Manziel has been linked to one of many league’s 4 groups, the Zappers, which is co-owned by comic Bob Menery, a good friend of the quarterback. Other listed crew co-owners embrace San Francisco 49ers cornerback Richard Sherman, Los Angeles Chargers operating again Austin Ekeler, former NFL operating again Marshawn Lynch, New York Mets pitcher Trevor May and hip-hop star Quavo, a former highschool quarterback.