Johnny Manziel believes he would have stayed longer at Texas A&M with NIL

Can you imagine Johnny Manziel in the NIL era of college football? Manziel himself can and he probably would’ve stayed in the college game a little bit longer.

A Heisman Trophy winner from Texas A&M, Manziel practically broke the internet with his popularity, swagger and play on the field. If NIL was available back then, Manziel might’ve signed a deal to finish out his last two years with the Aggies, probably making the same money he did on his NFL rookie contract.

He sat down with Matt Leinart on Throwbacks to discuss.

“Yeah, I think so, just because, I mean, you know, you get into your rookie contract if you’re not taken  high enough, I mean, you know, I could have stayed two more years in college and probably made what I made throughout the four years of your NFL deal for the most part,” Manziel said. “So I think it would have given me the opportunity to still be at a place today and then like that, be able to make money and be able to, you know, still continue to go play the college football life. It’s tough for me looking back, having left two years of eligibility on a table.”

The former No. 22 overall pick by the Cleveland Browns, Manziel’s pro career was over in a hurry due to on the field struggles and off the field issues.

Still, he’s a college legend and this isn’t the first time he pondered what life would be like if NIL was in place during his college years.

“I think for me, obviously being able to make an amount of money like that, I would’ve made more money staying in college than I probably would’ve on a rookie contract,” Manziel said on Almost Friday Media’s Glory Daze podcast. “So I felt pressure to go to the NFL to try and make a dollar amount that nobody in my family had really, I didn’t see from my dad, I didn’t see from anybody else that was in my immediate family.

“So for me it was a huge financial incentive to be able to do it. If I could have stayed in college and stayed in school and continued to live the life that I was living while making money, I think for me it would’ve been an absolute game-changer.”

Manziel burst onto the college football scene in 2012 when he became the first freshman to ever win the Heisman Trophy. That year, he threw for 3,706 yards and 26 touchdowns to help the Aggies to an 11-2 record. Along the way, he set multiple records, including one against Arkansas when he had 557 yards of total offense. That broke Archie Manning’s record, and Manziel broke his own mark just two games later with 576 yards of offense in a single game.

As a redshirt sophomore in 2013, Manziel threw for 4,114 yards and 37 touchdowns as he finished fifth in the Heisman voting. He then headed to Cleveland, where he spent two years before leaving the Browns and playing in other professional football leagues.