ATLANTA, GEORGIA – DECEMBER 03: Football Quarterback Johnny Manziel talks onset prior to the SEC Championship game between the LSU Tigers and the Georgia Bulldogs at Mercedes-Benz Stadium on December 03, 2022 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)
There are plenty of stories about veteran NFL quarterbacks refusing to help the rookie once he joins the team, obviously knowing that the team’s plan is for the new kid to eventually take over.
Robert Griffin III claimed that Joe Flacco wouldn’t help Lamar Jackson in Baltimore. And Ben Roethlisberger made it clear from the beginning that he wasn’t interested in mentoring Mason Rudolph in Pittsburgh.
Speaking of such situations in the AFC North, former Cleveland Browns quarterback Johnny Manziel claims that one of his old teammates also refused to help him out during his rookie campaign.
Appearing on Shannon Sharpe’s “Club Shay Shay” podcast (h/t Zach Mentz of Cleveland.com), the former Heisman Trophy winner stated that then-teammate Brian Hoyer declined to help out when Manziel asked for it:
“My quarterback room was not a home for me, because of Brian Hoyer. Brian Hoyer had been waiting on opportunity to go really provide for his family, get an opportunity, and he saw how much of an upper hand he had on me – and he didn’t hold back when it came to that.
So there were instances in the quarterback room early on where I would ask the same question a couple of times, and he’d be at the head of the table and go, ‘Again? We’re doing this again?’
I didn’t know what work like that was. I didn’t know what the grind was because I was great at Texas A&M without it. So a sense of entitlement comes in that I can do it the same way because I don’t know any better. “So when you have that going on in the quarterback room, I ain’t speaking. If I question something, I’m not asking. I’m embarrassed. I’m getting dogged by a guy who is supposed to be my teammate when I’m trying to figure it out.”
Despite this, Manziel emphasized that he personally doesn’t “have a bad word to say” about Hoyer.
Johnny Manziel apologizes for not living up to Skip Bayless’s LeBron take 😬
(via @ClubShayShay
) pic.twitter.com/blRHsYhDLn— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) February 22, 2024
Manziel was considered the ultimate boom-or-bust prospect heading into the 2014 NFL Draft. He was drafted 22nd overall by the Browns, making two starts in his rookie year.
Unfortunately, Manziel’s legal problems and struggles with alcohol and drugs quickly derailed his career. He started six games for Cleveland as a sophomore in 2015, but eventually lost the starting job and was released in 2016.
No NFL team ever signed Manziel again. He had brief stops in the CFL and now-defunct Alliance of American Football league.
