Getty Image / Kevin C. Cox
The new Netflix documentary Untold: Johnny Football premiered on Tuesday, August 8th. Sports agent Erik Burkhardt shared a behind-the-scenes story of Johnny Manziel‘s pre-NFL Draft workout with the Cleveland Browns as chatter about the doc picked up online.
The biggest piece of news to come out of Untold: Johnny Football was Johnny Manziel revealing failed plans to spend all of his money then take his own life. Then on Tuesday after the doc was released, a clip began circulating revealing that Manziel didn’t watch a second of game tape on his iPad. Not one single second.
Johnny Manziel was given a team iPad where coaches could secretly track the amount of time he spent watching film.
But the problem was that Manziel didn’t watch any film. Literally not a minute.https://t.co/ydbOVnybo0
— Joe Pompliano (@JoePompliano) August 9, 2023
Roc Nation sports agent who currently represents Kyler Murray, Saquon Barkley, and who formerly represented Johnny Manziel chimed in with a fantastic behind-the-scenes story. Burkhardt shared the story of Johnny Football’s pre-NFL Draft with the Cleveland Browns, how Burkhardt himself had to run routes, how Manziel (a Nike athlete) lost his gear and had to wear adidas, and more.
Some additional context to the Browns private workout where I literally had to run routes for my guy @JManziel2….
1. I was going FULL SPEED (not fast! 🤣) and literally having to lay out/ dive for balls bc he’s throwing normal NFL passes as if I was Mike Evans… https://t.co/543jQQvOGf
— Erik Burkhardt (@ErikBurkhardt) August 9, 2023
Sending the agent out to run routes for a 1st Rounder his a hilarious move:
2. After about 6-7 routes I’m GASSED… @JManziel2 then drills a slant to me that I body catch & it takes what little breath I have left out of me…
3. At that point Kyle Shanahan is dying laughing & runs a couple routes and has me just spot-catch some balls at the top of routes
— Erik Burkhardt (@ErikBurkhardt) August 9, 2023
Note that it wasn’t the airline who lost Johnny Manziel’s bag. The tweet says Johnny himself somehow lost it:
Another ridiculous sidenote from that morning workout w Browns: it was Easter weekend so literally nobody was on campus (workout was at A&M’s indoor). In the previous nights haze, somehow @JManziel2 also lost his bag (how was this not in his hotel room??!!🤦🏻♂️)…
— Erik Burkhardt (@ErikBurkhardt) August 9, 2023
How was there nobody at Nike on call 24/7/365 for emergencies like this?
This means he didn’t even have cleats (or clothes) for the damn workout. Keep in mind we had just negotiated the largest shoe deal ever in the history of the NFL (predraft) with Nike. We had a whole Johnny Football line w royalties, etc. The workout was at 8am so we couldn’t even
— Erik Burkhardt (@ErikBurkhardt) August 9, 2023
go to the store to even buy cleats for the workout… and the equipment staff & coaches were out of town for Easter, so we literally had to break into the equipment cage at A&M with like a tire iron. They’re an Adidas school. Also @JManziel2 has a gigantic foot (size 14-15).
— Erik Burkhardt (@ErikBurkhardt) August 9, 2023
Incredibly, inexplicably even, the Cleveland Browns saw all of this and still made the decision to draft Johnny 22nd overall in 2014:
So my man is wearing these terrible offensive-lineman-sized BRAND NEW stiff ass all white Adidas and there weren’t any shorts in the shoe cage so he wore literally these tiny A&M shorts that he wore as boxes under his jeans the night before. 🤦🏻♂️🤌🏼
— Erik Burkhardt (@ErikBurkhardt) August 9, 2023
Immediately after the workout the Browns staff leaves and @JManziel2 looks at me and says: “what’d you think?!”
I say: “I’ve seen you much better!”
JMM: “If you could fucking run, I would have been!!!” 🫠— Erik Burkhardt (@ErikBurkhardt) August 9, 2023
The Cleveland Brown liked what they saw and the rest was history, right?
Johnny Manziel is now opening a Nightclub/Bar in College Station that’s certain to be a hit based on the name.