Netflix’s Untold: Johnny Football unleashed the Johnny Football craze long after it was buried under his tragic downfall. The air was all about ‘Johnny Football’ like it once was when he won the Heisman and everyone’s hearts and minds in 2012. So, how did Shannon Sharpe calling him the same title, the ‘Johnny Football’, elicit a bashing from him? The answer was simple, yet not so convincing to Sharpe and many other fans: Johnny’s groundedness.

The Club Shay Shay show with Johnny Manziel uncovered many truths that have been brewing underground since the release of the Netflix documentary. One of them was Johnny’s take on his alma mater, Texas A&M, being called ‘the house of Johnny built’. After all, the year marked Texas A&M entering the SEC conference, and the best end-of-the-season ranking in university history since Bear Bryant’s 1956 squad went 9-0-1. A season that also gave Texas the reputation it has today among its rivals, along with its second touted Heisman Trophy winner, Johnny Manziel. On one hand, Manziel was hosting the Heisman in New York City, whereas on the other, the Texas A&M University System Board of Regents announced that the storied Home of the 12th Man, Kyle Field, would undergo a $485-million “redevelopment.” Jim Schwertner, the system regent, suggested the finished project to be called ‘Kyle Field: The House That Johnny Built’, something that Manziel was displeased about.

“That’s disrespectful to Mike Evans. That’s disrespectful to Jake Matthews,” He sternly retorted back. Per him, it was not just him who won and broke the records, it was the whole of their team. Hence, the name of the project only crediting Johnny Football’s success was directly ‘disrespectful’ towards other players like Mike Evans. In other words, the lovable rouge of 2012 was displaying a never publically seen before groundedness. The times that Manziel went through were tough, especially when one of the coaches whom he respects the most left the team.

Johnny Manziel was considering leaving Texas

Kliff Kingsbury, the OC and QBs coach at Texas A&M, was a person who was the closest to Johnny, someone with whom he shares a deep bond. Hence, when Kingsbury left Texas A&M in 2012 to take up a head coaching role at his alma mater Texas Tech Raid, Manziel was devastated.

READ ALSO: Johnny Manziel Considered Transferring From Texas A&M When Kliff Kingsbury Departed – “I Was Getting Used a Little Bit”

Johnny reportedly felt ‘used’ during the aftermath of Kingsbury leaving. So much so, that he even considered stepping out of the stadium. But he did not. Yet, he felt that “Unfortunately where they (Texas A&M) needed to go and where I needed to go and grow as a human being and as a football player weren’t always step in step, they weren’t always aligned.” Would Johnny have reached the heights of success he had without Texas?