Johnny Manziel Is Sober, Wants Another Chance In The NFL

Johnny Manziel wants another chance to prove himself in the NFL. Once touted as the next big thing, Manziel turned out to be a huge bust for the Cleveland Browns after it became clear that drinking and partying were central to Manziel’s life and football often seemed a distant second. That’s all behind him now, ESPN reports, and a newly sober Johnny Football just wants another chance to play quarterback in the NFL for any team willing to take a chance on him.

“I refuse to let my entire life of sports from the age of 4 be squandered by partying,” Manziel said in a message to ESPN‘s Ed Werder.

“I just got sick of it. One day I didn’t like what I saw in the mirror and realized I could really help people in the position I’m in.”

“I love sports, I love football and when you take something away from yourself you realize it the hard way. The happiness from doing it sober has been ASTRONOMICAL. Beyond my wildest imagination and once that continued other good things started happening in my life and it just clicked.”

Johnny Manziel sent the message to Werder on Friday, just one day after taking to Twitter to announce his future plans and goals. Johnny made it clear that he just wants to play football in the NFL again and he’ll do whatever it takes to prove himself, even if it means playing for the worst team in the league.

It looks like Manziel was in his feelings a little bit on Thursday when he decided to hop on Twitter and let his hopes be known. The football hopeful admitted that he had a drinking problem that was beating out his desire to be a great NFL quarterback.

Manziel even claims to have reached sobriety on his own and without rehab this time around. The disgraced quarterback said that it was his realization of how much he missed playing football that helped him rearrange his priorities and get back to training. Johnny says that he’s been putting in some pretty intense workouts and getting back in shape so he can hopefully return to the NFL and play the game that he loves again.

Manziel was drafted by the Cleveland Browns as the 22nd overall pick in the first round of the 2014 NFL draft. The Browns had high hopes for Manziel, hoping he could do for the Browns what he did for his college team, Texas A&M. It didn’t turn out the way they had hoped, though, and the football star spent 10 weeks in rehab following his rookie season.

It seems Johnny Manziel didn’t learn his lesson after his first disappointing season and subsequent trip to rehab. He continued partying and drinking before ending up suspended for the first four games of 2016 for violating the NFL’s substance-abuse policy. Hopes that Manziel would straighten up and lead the Browns toward any type of successful season faded when the team cut him at the end of the 2016 season.

In addition to Manziel’s hard partying, he also has the issue of those domestic violence charges. Last month, Johnny was able to come to an agreement with the Dallas County district attorney’s office to have the domestic violence charges from an altercation with his ex-girlfriend last year dropped but he has to meet certain requirements first. Considering the NFL’s tough stance on NFL players and domestic violence, that coupled with his reputation for partying and drinking most likely will have NFL teams hesitant to give the former football star another chance to play professionally.

[Featured Image by Tom Pennington/Getty Images]