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The Netflix documentary chronicling the rise and fall of Johnny Manziel was filled with a number of pretty wild revelations, and while it was a fairly exhaustive look at the controversial quarterback, there was one particular storyline it largely failed to cover.
I am, of course, talking about Johnny Football’s friendship with Drake.
If you tuned into the project hoping to get a look at Manziel’s meteoric ascent to the top of college football, you got exactly that. Were you curious about whether his lavish lifestyle was actually funded by his illegal autograph side hustle? The documentary delivered.
It also featured a candid look at his ill-fated stint in the NFL, his struggle with drugs and alcohol, his recovery, and much, much more.
All of that is fairly compelling stuff, but I’m not sure how you can make an entire documentary about Johnny Manziel without at least taking a look at how he managed to become boys with the man who got his start acting on Degrassi before transforming into arguably the biggest musical artist on the planet.
I guess I just have to take matters into my own hands.
How Johnny Manziel and Drake became friends in the first place
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If you paid attention to Manziel in college, it’s very hard to forget he and Drake were bros back in the day.
It all started when they met in Cabo in 2013 while Johnny was on spring break in the wake of his Heisman-winning campaign at Texas A&M. While I can’t blame anyone who doesn’t want to put a ton of stock into Manziel’s memory, the QB claims he and their crews spent a few days partying and that he and Drake remained close after parting ways.
By that time, Manziel had become a celebrity in his own right. He may have initially made a name for himself on the football field, but he also garnered a ton of attention thanks to his well-documented love of bars, clubs, and other venues where he could let off steam while living what appeared to be his best life.
The spotlight came with plenty of perks, but it’s hard to argue many of them were cooler than his burgeoning friendship with Drake.
If you think about it, it’s pretty insane it ever came to be in the first place. Sure, college football has produced plenty of superstars, but Manziel won the Heisman before he was old enough to legally drink and soon found himself rubbing shoulders with A-list celebs while still living in a dorm.
As someone who was around the same age as Johnny during his glow-up, I thought it was the coolest thing ever to witness from afar.
It was hard not to be both jealous and somewhat in awe when I stumbled across a new picture of Manziel and Drake hanging out on Instagram, and the fact that Aubrey dropped released a song about the kid known as “Money Manziel” around a month before the 2014 NFL Draft only cemented his legend.
In hindsight, you could argue Johnny was one of the first victims of the supposed “Drake Curse” based on how he crashed and burned after joining the Browns, but it was a pretty sweet ride up until that point.
Are Johnny Manziel and Drake still friends?
Back in the day, the duo—at least from a social media perspective—was inseparable. However, they seem to have gone their separate ways. They never hang out anymore, at least publicly. Was it Johnny’s fall-off? Did Drake get too big? Or was it something bigger that happened between the two of them?
Thankfully, I’ve done the investigation—and turns out there wasn’t much to investigate, as the two of them are still friendly.
You would never know it, as neither of them ever really posts about each other or showcase their bromance for the world to see.
However, it seems as though they are still pretty good mates, as they apparently remain on good terms and will still chat from time to time (Johnny is close enough with Drake that he actually has developed a relationship with his father Dennis).
Maybe I’m a jerk, but frankly, I have a hard time believing that’s actually the case. I personally feel like when “Money Manziel” regressed back to Just Johnny Manziel and left the lifestyle that led him to Cabo behind, he and Drake were operating on different wavelengths.
Maybe I’m underestimating how good of a guy Drake really is, so good for them if they’re still friends (on a related note, LeBron James has seemingly cut ties with Manziel, as they haven’t spoken much since the latter Cleveland. Classic!).