BLIND GOSSIP

The #1 Blind Item Site in the World!

Time Off Is A Lie

SOLVED!

UPDATED!

[Blind Gossip] All the success this athlete achieved in his life was destroyed by substance abuse and a series of bad choices. Despite his problems, though, he keeps saying that he is going back to work.

Actually, he can’t go back to work. He’s not training and he wouldn’t make it through the first drug test because he’s not sober.

When he is sober he gets really depressed because the reality of how he messed up his life is too much for him to deal with. So he goes right back to [using].

He is pretending that everything’s under control and that he just needs to take a little time off to get his head together and then he’ll be ready to go. We know it’s a lie, but we’re trying to support him anyhow.

Similar: Why Oh Why

Athlete:

[Optional] Do you think he will ever work as a professional athlete again?

SOLVED!

Athlete: Johnny Manziel

Back in 2016, Blind Gossip told you that Johnny Manziel was very depressed whenever he was not using drugs and alcohol.

Well, it turns out that there was a good reason for that. Manziel has now been diagnosed with bipolar depression!

Manziel is now sober, on medication, and working towards an NFL comeback.

From ESPN:

Johnny Manziel says he’s bipolar, working on comeback

Johnny Football wants a comeback.

In an interview with “Good Morning America” that aired Monday, Heisman Trophy winner and NFL bust Johnny Manziel said he has been diagnosed as bipolar and is taking medication for it. And his goal is to get back on the football field.

“I am watching all the other guys doing what I want to be doing and I am sitting on a couch being a loser,” Manziel said.

Manziel said he was diagnosed with bipolar disorder “about a year ago.” He added that he has stopped drinking, saying that he had used alcohol as a way of “self-medicating” as he battled depression.

“At the end of the day I can’t help that my wires are a little bit differently crossed than yours, I can’t help my mental makeup of the way that I was created,” Manziel said. “But I know if I stay on these meds and I continue to do what I am doing right now … I think my dad, my mom, I think [girlfriend Bre Tiesi], would all agree that they see a drastic change.”

Manziel won the Heisman Trophy at Texas A&M in 2012, becoming the first freshman to claim the award. And he was a first-round pick by the Cleveland Browns in 2014. But after two unremarkable seasons, he was out of the league.

He acknowledges there’s no one to blame except himself after the drinking binges documented on social media and a run-in with the law that included a domestic assault charge.

“You are left staring at the ceiling by yourself and in that depression and back in that dark hole of sitting in a room by yourself, super depressed, thinking about all the mistakes you made in your life,” he said. “What did that get me? Where did that get me except out of the NFL? Where did that get me? Disgraced.”

Manziel says he’s been working out and trying to convince some NFL team to give him a second chance.

“I don’t know what kind of comeback it will be,” he said, “but I know I want to get back on a football field to what brought me so much joy in my life and it makes me happy doing as my job.”

After that article was published, it was announced that Manziel is joining the Spring League (a developmental football league), so he’s definitely taking steps towards a comeback.

Please note that if you or someone you love is suffering from a mental illness, it is nothing to be ashamed about. It is a health condition just like any other, so don’t be embarrassed to get help! A good starting point is the National Alliance for Mental Illness. The NAMI HelpLine can be reached Monday through Friday, 10 am–6 pm, ET at 1-800-950-NAMI (6264). You can also check them out at NAMI.org.

We wish Johnny Manziel the best in his recovery and in his comeback.

Congratulations to Delightful for being first with the correct response!

UPDATE!

Johnny Manziel is going back to work as a professional football player!

Will he be returning to the NFL?

Ha!

No.

His long history with alcohol and drugs means that ship to sailed.

It’s not the NFL.

It’s a fan-run startup football league called Fan Controlled Football.

Say what?

From ESPN:

Johnny Manziel agrees to join Fan Controlled Football startup league

Johnny Manziel has agreed to resume his playing career with a startup league called Fan Controlled Football, he told ESPN this week.

The league, scheduled to begin play in February, will feature 7-on-7 games where fans set rosters, call plays and interact in a blend of traditional and esports environments.

“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 said. “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.”

Manziel, 28, connected with FCF co-founder and CEO Sohrob Farudi through comedian Bob Menery, a mutual friend. Manziel last played football in April 2019 for the Alliance of American Football and also has played in The Spring League and the Canadian Football League since the Cleveland Browns released him in 2015.

He said this week that he wasn’t looking to return to football at any level but was drawn to playing the FCF version on his own terms. Since the AAF folded, Manziel has moved to Scottsdale, Arizona, where he said he plays golf, throws the football in the backyard with friends, watches football on the weekend and has had a “normal, laid-back lifestyle” for the duration of 2020.

“Life gives you opportunities sometimes to do something that you would still like to do if it was in a different capacity,” Manziel said. “This has a lot of potential to just be a good time and still be football-centric. 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. 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.”

Farudi said the league will place a heavy emphasis on connecting fans with the players’ lives away from the field, via social media or other digital integration, making it “built for a guy like” Manziel.

The teams will play a six-week schedule, with games livestreamed on Twitch from a league-leased facility in Atlanta.

Seven on seven? Esports? Not serious football? Heavy emphasis on their lives off the field? Twitch?

Interesting, but definitely not traditional football. It’s just “football-centric.”

Hey, it’s a job!

A job that certainly won’t pay as much as this job did (approximately $7 million in his rookie year).

After his fall from grace, Manziel went on to sign with the Canadian Football League. He was cut for his off-field behavior.

Manziel then went on to the Alliance of American Football for a starting salary of $70,000 per year.

That’s the price of substance abuse, people. A 99% pay cut from $7 million a year to $70,000 a year.

We do not know what Manziel’s salary will be with the FCF.

We hope – but do not know – that Manziel is sober. We also do not know what kind of testing requirements the league has to ensure that the players are healthy and drug-free.

We wish Johnny Manziel well in his new job!

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. CheshireKitty says

    Going to veer away from the previous guesses and go with Jon Jones, MMA fighter. Was stripped of his belt for legal issues involving a hit and run with drugs in the car. Popped on his first fight back for drugs, blamed it on boner pills, got stripped of his belt again. Is talking about all the time he’s had off to reflect and get his head straight and is due to return summer 2017. Loves his cocaine, an upper. Really is a GOAT contender if he’d get out of his own way.

  3. Moonpie says

    So many choices here.
    Tiger is not using, but if he is, it’s steroids. Stopping is the reason he’s broken down.
    Lance Armstrong is retired and too old to cycle professionally.
    Johnnie Manziel has never been successful professionally.
    Lamar Odom is my guess. He married that woman at the start of the end of his career and began to use more until it broke him. He thinks he can play ball again but at 37, he is way too old and broken down and that is what’s depressing him.

  8. Mumumumu says

    Self destructive Manziel. It’s a sad story really. So many people hanging around him, and he has not one true friend.

  14. amagod121 says

    Here’s to hoping it isn’t Lamar Odem but he’s in rehab now, isn’t he? I believe this is actually about Johnny Manzel.
    He has to be willing to face the things that scare him when he’s sober or he’ll be like this forever. And that’s how I see his future. If he even has much of one.

  15. CAGirl2014 says

    Athlete: Lamar Odom

    [Optional] Do you think he will ever work as a professional athlete again?

    Nope. That ship has sailed my friend. He’d do better finding religion, getting clean, then writing a book about it. He could do the talk show circut and make a bundle.

  17. Justmyself says

    Johnny football?

    Poor guy. Addiction is hard on everyone, the user and those who love the user. I hope he finally gets clean and realizes that you don’t have to play a sport to be successful and if you DO want to play your sport, get clean.. get healthy and rebuild what’s been broken. Going back on the junk just keeps you from what you truly want.

  23. Visha85 says

    Athlete: Lamar Odom

    [Optional] Do you think he will ever work as a professional athlete again? No

  29. CyndiTx123 says

    Manzel ???

    No he is too emotional messed up…. Poor guy… Should have received psychiatric counseling and therapy for his mental issues…. and also rehab for his addictions

  32. ggriffin3 says

    Johnny Manziel

    Doubtful…drugs and alcohol don’t help keep his body healthy for if/when he decides he wants to play

  34. KrazyCatLady says

    Johnny Football. What a waste. He was partying in Miami the other day chugging fireball on a yacht at 7 am. I hope he can overcome it.

  41. KCeagle says

    Johnny Manziel

    Here’s hoping this likable young man can get his act together. He’s still young and where there’s a will..
    But he needs to stay out of the headlines for scandal related behaviors.

  42. FiyahHotFlashy says

    LaMarr Odom….He’s DONE! He squandered a promising career for reality TV fame. Kardashian Curse!

  44. GretaGuesses says

    Johnny Manziel

    No, he won’t work as a professional athlete again. I truly keep expecting to read of his demise via an overdose, car wreck or something. Such a shame too, as the kid was talented back in college. He threw away a chance that thousands would have loved to have.

  54. flygurl says

    Lamar Odom. He’s headed to rehab again. He probably won’t work in professional sports ever again. It’s all just too sad, he was a top athlete before the kardashian’s got ahold of him

    • queenmarie88 says

      Just a thought—-the Kardashians are not the ones who got him on drugs. They don’t do drugs—the girls don’t anyway. Lamar did that to himself.

  61. CzarNick says

    Johnny Manziel

    Doubt it. He’ll just do the reality circuit to make money and then get a book deal.

    • itstarapagain says

      He is from a filthy rich old oil family. Part of his problem. Doesn’t have to work and it appears that his family, friends and high school/college coaches just enabled him while giving him the very special Snowflake talk 24/7

      The recent Vanity Fair article about him… “friends ” who excuse all bad behavior and talk about his big comeback. He’s a *

  67. rosarybjork says

    Lamar Odom. Nope. He’s old and doesn’t try to learn anything new. He would make a good coach but he won’t try and pull himself together.

  80. amulbunny says

    Johnny Manziel

    Nobody will touch him. Unless he gets serious about rehab, and changing his life plan, we’ll probably hear about an OD and a dead body.

  81. dynamodavid says

    Athlete: Johnny “Football” Manzel

    Do you think he will ever work as a professional athlete again? Nope! He and Tim Tebow are done as Professional Athletes.

  85. Rofl my Wofl says

    I don’t know, Lamar Oden? That’s one of the high profile athletes I can think of that was on the rise but who fell hard and has yet to return.

  88. Xanadu says

    Tiger Woods

    He hasn’t been right since his father died. Classic case of a perfectionist who’s experienced a few major bumps in the road of life and now can’t handle the mistakes on his report card.

    He’ll probably make a (real) comeback when he’s a “senior” in the golfing world and the public are feeling nostalgic. Hopefully someone is managing his money.

  89. PrincessConnie1 says

    Lamar Odom
    Unfortunately, I think he is too damaged to ever work as a professional athlete again.