Former Texas A&M Aggies quarterback Johnny Manziel has told some wild tales over the years about his time in College Station, Texas. These tales range from his autograph scandal, which resulted in a one-and-a-half-year suspension, to his use of a backup quarterback’s urine to pass all of his college drug tests.
After his redshirt sophomore season, the 2012 Heisman Trophy winner left the Aggies. He claims that when he was considering his options, his father, Paul, intervened and spoke with head coach Kevin Sumlin in an effort to get his son a big bag of scholarships. In an interview with Shannon Sharpe for his podcast Club Shay Shay, Manziel stated:
“It’s the spring of 2014, December 2013,”
“I’m getting ready to make this decision on if I’m going to the NFL draft or if I’m going to stay. My dad went and had a meeting with Kevin Sumlin. Well i pretty much went to him man to man and was like, ‘We’ll take $3 million and we’ll stay for the next two years.’
“And my dad did this without me knowing. I ain’t mad at him about it for nothing.”
Johnny Manziel’s Journey after school
After leaving school, Manziel was selected by the Cleveland Browns in the first round of the 2014 NFL Draft.
Additionally, according to Manziel, schools had a “bag man” even ten years ago who would give players and occasionally prospects money in exchange for a commitment. Manziel said,
“It’s the way the business worked back then,” “There was a bag man. There was a bag man at LSU. Then there was a bag man at ‘Bama. Well, there was a bag man at every school around the country if you were competing for a national title. It is what it was, and it was always that way until we’re into the NIL portion of everything now, the way it should be.”
