Johnny Manziel claims that he attempted suicide after being cut by the Browns.
The admission comes in a new Netflix documentary, titled Untold: Johnny Football.
Via Jake Trotter of ESPN.com, Manziel developed a plan to end his life after being released by the Browns in March 2016, less than two years after the team made him a first-round pick in the draft.
“I had planned to do everything I wanted to do at that point in my life, spend as much money as I possibly could and then my plan was to take my life,” Manziel said in the documentary, via Trotter. “I wanted to get as bad as humanly possible to where it made sense, and it made it seem like an excuse and an out for me.”
Manziel explained that he had purchased a gun with the plan of using it to commit suicide. He said that, when he pulled the trigger, the gun did not go off.
“Still to this day, don’t know what happened. But the gun just clicked on me,” Manziel said.
Manziel never returned to the NFL, although he later played in the CFL and the AAF.
“It’s been a long, long road, and I don’t know if it’s been great or it’s been bad -- that’s kind of still up for debate,” Paul Manziel, Johnny’s father, said in the documentary “But we’re blessed. And he’s still with us. And we can mend all the fences still. I think Johnny’s got a lot better days coming than what he’s had.”
Here’s hoping that’s the case. Regardless of how or why his football career ended prematurely, he has many years in front of him. We all deserve a chance to pursue and secure happiness, wherever and however it can be found.