Johnny Manziel believes college football is better with NIL

They didn’t call Johnny Manziel by the name of ‘Money Manziel’ for nothing while he was at Texas A&M. As a former Heisman Trophy winner, his game was money itself but, considering some controversies over his collegiate career, he also made some during his time in College Station.

Infractions like that are nothing but a memory when it comes to the NIL era of college sports. That’s why, after being out of college for a decade, Manziel is happy to speak on where the college game is at now and why he thinks it’s so much better now than it was then, even though it’s not yet perfect.

“I think college football is in a better spot,” Manziel said on ‘The Pat McAfee Show’. “It is better for these guys to be able to capitalize off their name, image, and likeness. I don’t think they’ve got it necessarily dialed to exactly what it’ll be in its perfect form down the road. Because I will say this…Money like that and things like that do change guys,”

Manziel says that he isn’t an active participant when it comes to NIL matters with the Aggies. Even so, with his experiences and mistakes, he likes to remind the current and next-wave Aggies of what’s most important when it comes to their finances.

“When I go back in the locker room? I’m preaching pretty much the same thing that I always would,” said Manziel. “This is small peanuts compared to what you want to do in the grand scheme of things. You can go take this maybe $100,000, $200,000 right now. But this isn’t something that’s going to set you up for life.”

“Just because you think you’ve got a little bit of money? It’s not going to last you the rest of your life,” Manziel continued. “It’s something you’re still going to have to work for for the three or four years that you’re there.”

Considering how he slipped up in college and the NFL, Manziel believes that he’s the perfect cautionary tale for athletes once they get paid and have a spotlight on them. He points out he learned firsthand how quickly you can lose it all with how life goes.

“I think I’m a perfect example,” admitted Manziel. “I have the ability to go look at those guys in the locker room now and be like, ‘You want to look at a guy who thought he was hot s***? Look at a guy who thought that nothing was ever going to go wrong? Who could just breeze through this second year of college? Go make this money, do this, and everything was going to work out?’. Well, life humbles you in a way that’s very quick.”

“If you don’t work at it and you let the other things become bigger than the game of football? Quickly, it’ll pass you by,” Manziel said. “And then you’re sitting here, 10 years later, watching other guys do what you loved to do at one point.”

There’s no doubt that Manziel could have had an immense valuation when it came to name, image, and likeness had it been around during his career. Since it wasn’t, though, he’s doing his best to not let other stars, specifically the ones at A&M, err in that area in the same ways that he did.