During his interview with Shannon Sharpe on Club Shay Shay, ex-Texas A&M quarterback and former Heisman Trophy winner Johnny Manziel revealed several secrets about himself but one may come as a shock to many.
When he was the Cleveland Browns quarterback, Manziel said that LeBron James tried to befriend him, but he rejected him.
He explained to Sharpe why he didn’t want the King’s friendship.
“LeBron would text me every week to come over to the house and watch a game, or play poker with the boys and just tried to be there,” Manziel said to Sharpe on his Club Shay Shay podcast. “And I was so depressed for the first time in my life that even my biggest role model and inspiration in my life couldn’t get me out of bed to come hang out with him.”
Manziel admitted his mental health at the time wouldn’t allow him to accept James trying to take him under his wing.
“When I went to the Cavs games, I went, I was in, I was out. I didn’t really grasp and latch on to him in a way that I should’ve. He tried to take me under his wing, right? And I’m just kind of nudging it away because of where my mental is, and being just fully depressed in where I was in my life.”
It may have been a different story had Manziel decided to listen to James and let him try to mentor him while he was still in Cleveland but Manziel was not only struggling mentally, but he has also admitted in the past that he was a huge partier. James was the biggest star in Cleveland at the time when he played for the Cavaliers.
“The way I carried myself during my time in Cleveland was pure and blatant disrespect to them for giving me everything that I could’ve ever needed to be successful. … I regret disrespecting @KingJames.” – @JManziel2 pic.twitter.com/jOomledner
— Club Shay Shay (@ClubShayShay) February 21, 2024
It made only sense that he would want to try to help the young quarterback adjust to life as a superstar who is constantly in the spotlight.
Clearly, he didn’t handle his fame well. Even before the Sharpe interview, it was revealed several months ago that while in Cleveland, Manziel didn’t even study the playbook that was given to him which explains why he played sparely during his time there and why after he left Cleveland and he never caught on to any other NFL team.
By then, Manziel had the reputation of being a partier and lazy, and no team in the league wanted to touch him. Looking back on that time, Manziel seems to have many regrets especially not allowing one of the biggest superstars in the world to give him advice on how he should handle himself.
“The way I carried myself during my time in Cleveland was pure and blatant disrespect to them for giving me everything that I could’ve ever needed to be successful. … I regret disrespecting LeBron.”
Manziel is still shaken by the way he acted in Cleveland and knows that he should have done better for the people in that city especially after they had spent so much time and effort in supporting him but he says he hopes he will be able to somehow apologize for all the chaos he had caused.
