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Johnny Manziel left Texas A&M after just two seasons at the helm. A redshirt sophomore, he bolted for the NFL Draft after winning a Heisman and leading the Aggies to a 20-6 overall record.
If it were up to his father, though, that might not have been the case. In a recent interview with Shannon Sharpe, Johnny Manziel dropped a bombshell about that decision to go pro.
The passer opened up about a number of things in the Club Shay Shay sit down, some of which revolved around his time in both College Station and in Cleveland.
The biggest tidbit revealed in that podcast, though, involved his Texas A&M career.
Manziel claims that without his knowledge, his dad made an offer to Aggie brass about his son finishing out his college tenure. He reportedly asked head coach Kevin Sumlin for a $3 million deal to remain on campus for two more seasons.
At this point in time, Manziel was the biggest star in college football. It came during a time of transition for Texas A&M with the Ags recently having entered the SEC.
Considering his stardom, it might’ve been worth the risk.
“I could’ve done $10M a year in NIL. I could’ve done $5M myself on Instagram alone.”
Kevin Sumlin ultimately declined. Manziel broke that negotiation down.
“I’ll paint a picture for you… I’m getting ready to make this decision on if I’m going to the NFL Draft or if I’m going to stay. I found this out five years later from my dad. My dad went and had a meeting with Kevin Sumlin, and pretty much went to him man to man and was like, ‘We’ll take $3M and we’ll stay for the next two years.’
“[Sumlin] laughed.”
Of course, that deal was illegal at the time as this was before the world of NIL. Still, as Johnny Manziel notes in the interview, he wasn’t the only player to ask for (or receive) that type of cash.
And we all know that the Aggies have boatloads of money on hand, as well as the desire to produce a winning program.
With the deal falling through, Manziel hit the NFL Draft.
Johnny Manziel blamed Sumlin for the downfall of Aggie football.
The quarterback placed blame on his former head coach for not only being the reason he left, but for what transpired in the time immediately following his Texas A&M career.
Most notably, the transfer of Kyler Murray.
Manziel called Murray the greatest player in the history of Texas High School football, but he says the coaching staff didn’t have the same faith in his ability to lead the team.
Instead of handing over the keys, they signed another 5-star QB in Kyle Allen.
“[Texas A&M] had Kyle Allen and Kyler Murray in that same class. After I left, the direction of the program, I felt, lost a lot of its stability… We didn’t hone in and focus on one guy who going to be our guy.
“They played this game of back-and-forth… It’s Kyler Murray! You’re not going to go and give this guy the keys?… In my opinion, where our program is right now, that is the one mistake that was made that is keeping us from where we want to be and why we didn’t have success.”
Murray later transferred to Oklahoma where he’d win a Heisman trophy. The Aggies would go 24-15 over the next three seasons.
Despite the opinion, Johnny Manziel said he holds respect for his former head coach and all he did for him in College Station. Still, he thinks things could’ve been different if Sumlin had held onto both him and Murray.
Check out the full episode below: