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Kirby Smart certainly hasn’t forgotten about Johnny Manziel’s off-field antics.
During the Nike Coach of the Year Clinic, the Georgia Bulldogs coach made a sharp comment about the former Texas A&M quarterback who faced challenges in the NFL.
The presentation highlighted Manziel, along with Joe Burrow, Bryce Young, and Cam Newton, all of whom have won the Heisman Trophy. When asked if they were champions, the coach made a harsh remark about Manziel, who had a rocky start in the NFL despite his college achievements.
“Champion of what? Champion of Fireball,” Smart said, drawing laughter from the crowd, according to a video shared Monday by On3 Sports.
Smart was the defensive coordinator at Alabama when Manziel led the Aggies to a 29-24 upset of the Crimson Tide in 2012.
It helped him turn into a college football sensation as he became the first freshman to win the Heisman Trophy that season.
He declared for the 2014 NFL Draft following his sophomore season with the Aggies and was selected by the Browns as the No. 22 overall pick.
While Manziel excelled in college football, he struggled in the professional league due to his admitted lack of film study and battles with substance abuse problems.
The Browns cut Manziel in March 2016, two months after a famed misadventure to Las Vegas, where his attempt to go incognito blew up in his face.
Two years later, Manziel spoke candidly about his substance abuse struggles and bipolar diagnosis in an interview with “Good Morning America.”
“I was self-medicating with alcohol. That’s what I thought would make me happy and get out of that depression,” Manziel said in 2018.
In the wake of his NFL ouster, Manziel played in the CFL (Canadian Football League), the now-defunct Alliance of American Football and the Fan-Controlled Football League.
Manziel reflected on his real-life roller-coaster in the 2023 Netflix docuseries “Untold: Johnny Football.”
“I think people do maybe worry about me sometimes, but I mean… that’s natural. You know, I’ve given them reason to do that,” he said in the program.
“I didn’t go into Texas A&M thinking I was gonna play two years and end up in the NFL Draft … And I tell people all the time, it wouldn’t have mattered where I was at, what team. Wherever it was at that point in time in my life, I was incapable of being a good NFL quarterback.”