NFL Draft Day Special With Johnny Manziel
The Comeback SZN and Barstool Sports worlds collide today to bring you an exclusive NFL Draft Special.
It’s no secret that Manziel’s road to the draft in 2014 was (and will always be) one of the most scrutinized in NFL history. If anybody understands the process — for better or worse — it’s Johnny.
I sat down via Skype with the Heisman winner and his agent Erik Burkhardt to talk all things NFL Draft, including the QB class, who they think will go number one overall, the mistakes that were made in 2014 and a few unexpected stories along the way.
Even one about our very own Dave Portnoy:
“When I was in college, I read Barstool everyday. I literally refreshed, read every story of every day. It got me through my days in class and everything. And now, I think me shunning Dave on the draft day made him grind harder, and now he’s built a little empire. I think I’m almost solely responsible for Barstool’s success.”
Trust us, you’ll want to listen to the entire thing. The insight is incredible. But to give you an idea of what to expect…
“I don’t know if I was too prideful or stubborn or what it is, but have to kiss a lot of ass during this (draft) process, and it just wasn’t where I was at in the point in time. Erik (agent) would be like, send this text to this guy or do this or do that. My answer was always, ‘No. C’mon, Erik. Get real.’ Then sure enough, we’re sitting there, 19th pick, 20, 21… the picks are going and going and going and I’m sitting there sending texts all over the place trying to get picked.”
On Baker Mayfield comparisons:
“I saw some of the things (Baker) said. He’s doing what he has to do right now to try to separate himself from anything bad, and I completely understand it. When people lump him in with me — look, sitting here today, I haven’t had a great NFL career. It’s been a struggle for me, all the off the field stuff. He is trying to separate himself from that. Maybe I took it a little bit to heart when I first heard it. But the people in his corner are doing all they can do to get him drafted as high as possible.”
On expectations in the Green Room:
“Teams leveraged and used me to try to get other teams to trade up and go beyond their means to get me. Jacksonville was a team that said they really liked me. Third pick comes up and they pick (Blake) Bortles and then EB (agent) texted someone in the organization like ‘what the fuck’ and they said they used that to make sure their guy was available at three.”
Smash that play button. You won’t be disappointed.