Netflix Untold: Johnny Manziel

I had forgotten about Uncle Nate. The guy has always had a punchable face.

IIRC, Nate's family tried to launch a reality TV show about their Estate Sales around the same time. They shopped around a pilot to a few networks around the time that antiquing and treasure hunting shows (Pawn Stars, Storage Wars, etc.) we're massive hits.

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Manziel simply couldn't be successful. He cared about having "fun", never ever looked at tape, and treated everything as a party

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Whenever I hear Manziel's name, I think of Charlie Robison:

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I played ball every single fall. I could run just like the wind.
Went to college like they asked me to, but they didn't ask my friends.
Don't think I seen a single classroom, but I drank a lot of beer.
My buddies still love to listen to me when I talk about that year

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We enjoyed it for what it was. My wife laughed and said well at least he didn’t try and fail when he was at the Browns. I joked and asked where the LSU highlights were and I was given a look

When he was first talking in the beginning two of our friends were in the clips so that was cool

Great little documentary. Overall its a pretty sad story, but I can't say I have a ton of sympathy for Johnny. However, I will root for him to stay healthy and welcome him back to Aggieland whenever he wants.

A lot of good points were brought up about how schools were not prepared to support the person behind Johnny Football Mania. And that the NCAA was a complete racket.

Honestly more than a little surprised that so many Aggies enjoyed this show. There’s very little to celebrate. You’ve got a talented player being enabled in a destructive journey.

Cheated piss tests
Deliberately broke team rules
Deliberately broke NCAA rules
Put zero effort in bettering himself in the NFL

Last shots of him and his friends tossing darts and he’s drinking a beer.

I detected no remorse which to me is the most problematic. Americans are a forgiving people.

I haven’t watched it because I figured it would basically include everything in your synopsis which would piss me off. Such a waste of natural talent.

Finally watched it. To be honest there’s a few surprise elements in there, but overall not really. Even back then we already had the 24/7 news cycle and constant paparazzi so we saw him imploding in real time. Sure there were plenty of us that made excuses “oh it’s not as bad as the media is portraying it”, “it’s just how Johnny is, he’s will be fine” “the browns don’t know what they lost, some other team will pick him up and be a steal!”, but the reality was it was absolutely as bad as it looked and many aggie fans just turned a blind eye because of all he did when he was in school.

I am surprised that a big part of it was he just didn’t find football that fun anymore. I always thought he was a gamer that lived for the competition, but what drove him was the after party and celebration for being a superstar. Thought “uncle Nate” was a d-bag back when I first heard of him, but I’ll say he seems like the more responsible person in the whole thing and probably kept him from self destructing even earlier, it’s a shame their friendship was ruined because of everything.

Really didn’t like when Johnny’s dad made the comment about how it was the football program’s responsibility to turn him into a man, no, that’s your job as a parent. I will say Johnny was wild and as he spiraled down I don’t think there was anything his parents/family/friends could do, he was on a mission and was gonna do it however he wanted to, reason be damned.

Sad deal, guy had so much talent and natural ability, but he just got burnt out and didn’t want to put the time in to be elite. No hard feelings about that, but he probably could’ve have self destructed a little less spectacularly and been in better shape. Hope he grows and matures from all this and has a good life doing whatever he will be doing for the rest of his career.

They aren't poor either though. That was bit of an exaggeration to act like he couldn't have gotten a lot of that stuff from his parents.

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By the end of year 2 he was borderline cancerous. It was definitely time for him to go.

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I go back and forth on if Sumlin was the worst coach possible for him or the best coach possible for him.

I don't think anyone could have kept him between the lines, but Sumlin seemed especially ill-prepared to play that role in Johnny's life

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Would have like to have seen JFF under Sherman.

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Sherman probably would have played Showers in 2012