Johnny Manziel

Manziel's paternal great-great-grandfather Joseph immigrated to the United States, in 1907, from Lebanon and settled in Louisiana.

He is of Italian descent on his maternal side.

Manziel grew up playing a variety of sports, including football, basketball, baseball, and golf.

At Tivy High School in Kerrville, Texas, he focused on baseball and football.

However, in football, sportswriters, coaches, and parents said he "achieved folk hero status" and was compared to quarterbacks like Brett Favre, Michael Vick, and Drew Brees.

At Tivy High School, Manziel played high school football for four years, beginning with the freshman team in his first year.

By the end of his first season, he played with the varsity team as a receiver.

He began his sophomore year primarily as a receiver, but started the fourth game at quarterback.

He shared that position for the remainder of the season, finishing with 1,164 yards passing, 806 rushing and 408 receiving for a combined 28 touchdowns.

His junior year was his first as starting quarterback, and he completed that season with 2,903 passing yards, 1,544 rushing yards, 152 receiving yards and 55 touchdowns.

That year, he was voted All-San Antonio Area Offensive Player of the Year as well as District 27-4A MVP.

During Manziel's senior season, he compiled 228-of-347 (65.7%) passing for 3,609 yards with 45 touchdowns and five interceptions.

He also had 170 carries for 1,674 yards and 30 touchdowns.

He had one touchdown reception and returned a kickoff for a touchdown for a combined 77 touchdowns.

That year, he was honored as District 28-4A MVP (unanimous selection), Class 4A First-team All-State (AP), San Antonio Express-News Offensive Player of the Year (second year in a row), the Associated Press (AP) Sports Editors Texas Player of the Year, Sub-5A First-team All-Area (SA Express-News), No. 1 QB in Texas by Dave Campbell's Texas Football, DCTF Top 300, PrepStar All-Region and Super Prep All-Region.

For Manziel's three years as a starter, he completed 520-of-819 passes (63.5%) for 7,626 yards and 76 touchdowns, rushed 531 times for 4,045 yards and 77 touchdowns and caught 30 passes for 582 yards and another five touchdowns.

He was the only quarterback in America named as a Parade All-American his senior year, and he was also named The National High School Coaches Association (NHSCA) Senior Athlete of the Year in football.

Johnathan Paul Manziel (born December 6, 1992), nicknamed "Johnny Football", is an American former football quarterback who played two seasons with the Cleveland Browns of the National Football League (NFL).

Manziel was born in Tyler, Texas, on December 6, 1992, to Michelle (née Liberato) and Paul Manziel.

He has a younger sister named Meri.

He won the Mr. Texas Football award in 2010.

Manziel was highly recruited out of high school; in addition to Texas A&M, he received offers from Baylor, Colorado State, Iowa State, Louisiana Tech, Oregon, Rice, Stanford, Tulsa, and Wyoming.

Although he grew up a Texas Longhorns fan, the University of Texas did not recruit him.

Although it was rumored that Texas wanted Manziel at defensive back, Texas coach Mack Brown said the rumor was not true.

Though Manziel originally committed to play for Oregon, he later changed his commitment to the Aggies, thanks to the influence of then-quarterbacks coach Tom Rossley.

Manziel was nationally recruited out of high school as a dual-threat quarterback, and he debuted in college football for the Texas A&M Aggies as a redshirt freshman in Kevin Sumlin's Air Raid offense during A&M's first season in the Southeastern Conference (SEC) in 2012.

He broke numerous NCAA Division I FBS and SEC records, which included becoming the first freshman and fifth player in NCAA history to pass for 3,000 yards and rush for 1,000 yards in a season.

At the end of the regular season, he became the first freshman to win the Heisman Trophy, the Manning Award, and the Davey O'Brien Award.

Manziel capitalized on his redshirt freshman season by leading Texas A&M to a 41–13 victory over the Oklahoma Sooners in the 2013 Cotton Bowl Classic.

Manziel applied for and was granted a registered trademark for the nickname in 2013.

Manziel was inducted into the Texas A&M Athletics Hall of Fame in September 2022.

Manziel was selected by the Browns as the 22nd overall pick of the 2014 NFL draft.

Despite some success, he struggled with consistency and his tenure was overshadowed by off-field controversies.

He was released by the Browns after the end of the 2015 season.

Following further controversies during the 2016 offseason, Manziel was not signed by another team before the start of the season and spent two years away from football until he returned with the Tiger-Cats of the CFL in 2018.

He was later traded to the Alouettes during the season, but was released the following year and rendered ineligible to play in the CFL after it was determined he violated the terms of his contract.

Shortly after his release, Manziel signed with the Express during the AAF's inaugural season, which was cut short when the AAF suspended operations two weeks later.

TexAgs users tagged Manziel with the nickname "Johnny Football" during Manziel's sophomore high school football season in Texas.

The nickname followed him to Texas A&M University.

He also played for the Hamilton Tiger-Cats and Montreal Alouettes of the Canadian Football League (CFL) in 2018, the Memphis Express of the Alliance of American Football (AAF) in 2019, and in Fan Controlled Football from 2021 to 2022.