Johnny Manziel is owning up to his mistakes.
“I don’t expect people to look at my story [and] feel bad for me,” Manziel told comedian Kevin Hart in an interview released Tuesday. “A lot of what I did was self-inflicted.”
The 2012 Heisman trophy winner and former Texas A&M standout quarterback got candid with Hart on the most recent episode of his show “Cold as Balls,” which features Hart interviewing athletes while they sit in an ice bath.
In the 14-minute segment, Manziel discussed a range of topics about his life, including his rise to fame at A&M and a career that brought him to his current position in the Canadian Football League with hopes to make an NFL comeback.
There was a time before Manziel became Johnny Football when he considered quitting football and pursuing his first passion — baseball.
“I know I can go play baseball,” Manziel said. “I talked to the coaches at A&M and they were going to let me go try out.”
But in August of 2012, A&M began its fall football camp. Eleven days later, Manziel won the starting job. That same season, the legend of Johnny Football was born.
“Things changed after the Alabama game, after we played Nick Saban and Alabama and we beat them and they were the No.1 team in the country,” Manziel said. “After that game [everything was different]. Class started being different, having to get a golf cart driven to class and stuff like that.”
Manziel described what it was like for him to go from being at the bottom of the quarterback roster to becoming one of the best in the country before he left college early to enter the NFL draft, all within a year.
“I went from fourth on the depth chart that spring, to 11 days into fall camp winning the job,” Manziel said. “Six months later, I’m on the stage in New York winning the Heisman.”
Manziel said his success on the field led to a dramatic increase in popularity off the field, which he found difficult to balance.
“After that first year and the fame and stuff started to come, I couldn’t help but eat it up,” Manziel said. “I felt like I was the guy that had to party to be able to play good.”
That mindset followed Manziel to Cleveland, where he said he learned the hard realities of what it was like to be in the NFL.
“I didn’t know what it took — how [much] hard work you really had to put in — to be good,” Manziel said. “I just felt like when I went out that first day and I was like ‘Alright I’m going to see how this goes,’ and then it went so bad.”
Four years after leaving A&M, Manziel said he is letting go of his past and focusing on an NFL comeback.
“I am at a point now where I can look back and reflect and realize that I was one way that was wrong,” Manziel said. “What can I do moving forward? Because I can’t change how I was. That’s all I can do … get back to where I want to be.”
Manziel’s full interview with Hart is available to watch on YouTube.