Johnny Manziel: New Netflix documentary reveals dark side of ‘Johnny Football’

The rise and fall of “Johnny Football” will be on full display in a new Netflix documentary that will premiere on Tuesday.

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Johnny Manziel, the 2012 Heisman Trophy winner, will be featured in “Untold: Johnny Football,” USA Today reported. The 111-minute documentary will examine Manziel’s meteoric rise to fame at Texas A&M, his drug usage after the 2015 season and his intention to end his life after the Browns cut him after the 2016 season, according to ESPN.

Manziel was known as a swaggering college football player on the field and a party boy away from it, USA Today reported.

He faced a misdemeanor assault charge after being accused of striking and threatening his then-girlfriend in January 2016, according to ESPN. His attorneys reached an agreement to dismiss the charge if certain conditions were followed, according to the cable sports network.

The Browns released him two months later.

Manziel, who is from Kerrville, Texas, but now lives in Scottsdale, Arizona, told USA Today that it was time to tell his stories without excuses.

“I still go out in daily life and have so many people that come up to me and ask me about football, you know, are you still playing or are you doing that? You’re doing that,” Manziel told the newspaper. “So, a decade later, I’ve reflected back on it quite a bit and felt like this was a good time. Able to put a bow on the ‘Johnny Football’ side of things, to stop a lot of those questions that I get and be able to tell an amazing story and be able to move on with my life. I got an amazing opportunity with Netflix and untold to be able to do this. And it felt right.”

One of the more disturbing aspects of the documentary was Manziel’s suicide attempt, which is revealed in the film.

Manziel told USA Today that after his release, he bought a gun and went on a “$5 million bender,” intending to spend large sums of money before taking his life.

“I had planned to do everything I wanted to do at that point in my life, spend as much money as I possibly could and then my plan was to take my life,” Manziel said. “I wanted to get as bad as humanly possible to where it made sense, and it made it seem like an excuse and an out for me.”

Manziel’s attempt failed after his weapon malfunctioned, USA Today reported.

“Still to this day, don’t know what happened,” Manziel told the newspaper. “But the gun just clicked on me.”

Manziel said that after the 2015 season, he began using OxyContin and cocaine daily, ESPN reported, citing multiple news outlets. He lost 40 pounds in nine months and weighed 175 pounds.

In the documentary, Manziel allegedly states that he was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and refused to enter rehab, according to the cable sports network.

Manziel told USA Today that he plays plenty of golf and is reportedly opening a sports bar later this year. He also reflects on how his career could have gone, but added that he is making his mental health a priority.

“I think there’s a lot of things that I have to do just from a mental health standpoint. They get me out of bed in the morning to make sure I’m staying on myself,” Manziel told the newspaper. “I don’t ever want to go back to being in a place of where I was maybe six, seven years ago after my time in Cleveland was up. Things to do just on a personal level, to keep myself pretty even keel and where I want to be. And my friends and my family right now are the biggest piece and biggest factor in my life.”

In an interview with Sports Illustrated that was published Friday, Manziel said he was now “in a great place.”

“I’m in a place where I’m happy with my wife; happy with myself; the things that have happened in the past, you know, I don’t look back very much,” Manziel told the magazine. ”I got to live a dream. That dream didn’t last as long as I would have liked it to and didn’t have as much success at the next level.