Johnny Manziel, aka 'Johnny Football': REFLECTS on Life in Cleveland and Other Cities Post-Career

Living in Different Cities: A Journey Through Sports let's bring it back to living in cities you've lived all over the country you've lived in La briefly I believe you live in Scottdale now correct um you that's The Challenges of Being Assigned a City in Sports one thing that's really interesting about sports versus education and obviously the childhood dream of any athlete is to get drafted especially first round it's so cool that you liveed out your dream one of the challenging things about sports in my opinion is they tell you where you have to live you don't get a choice it's saying hey Johnny you're going to Cleveland or hey uh Zion you're going to New Orleans whereas as someone who's uh vir Junior degree you want to go live in New York City go ahead you want to live in LA go ahead you want to go live in London go ahead you want to quit your job go ahead do you think there's some type of interesting piece now the NBA has been a little different you know people like LeBron have really paved the way where now the players have a lot more power where they can sort of demand trades of sworts and kind of you know be able to dictate their terms but isn't that interesting when you think about Athletics where you're pretty much told like hey your whole day is controlled and you have to go live in certain city sometimes it can be really challenging for your head to cuz like what if you don't want to live in a certain city Adjusting to Life in Cleveland yeah it was difficult for me I think Cleveland is a huge you know 180 from what Texas is and to be born and raised in Texas and never really leave for 22 years and then go to Cleveland it's like i' never seen anything like that I'd never seen the weather like that a place I think it takes a toll um on your mental and and how your life goes a little bit you know at the end of the day you sign up for a four-year contract one that pays obviously really well and one that um you know is is warranted so it's always gone you know you go you go play college sports you're good enough you get a chance to go the draft and Exploring New Places Post-Career then you get a chance to you know go play in the National Football League but for me you know I think I've got a chance now since I've been out of the game to live in a lot of different places you know I went to Canada and played football there for a whole year so got to see you know every Province there got to live in you know Montreal for a year that beautiful was a really really cool place to get to live in a great you know country to get to see um I went back to Texas for a little bit after I lived in LA for 5 years and uh you know we're still like Texas is always home a place I want to be but like not a place I'm ready to full-time live yet just with um I think for me being in Texas I get noticed and recognize a little bit more and I want to be in a place for me where I can go live a normal life and I don't have to have this um you know have to be a famous football well you don't want to get pulled away for pictures every two seconds of your day I've settled on Arizona and right now Arizona's been great for me I play a lot of golf I think the weather outside of the summer months is absolutely amazing and you know I found great people there so it's like a great place so tell me why you Choosing LA Over New York chose to live in LA versus New York um so once you were done playing or took a break you were basically in you know full autonomy of your life like I'm going to do whatever I want you chose La you know that's one thing we're always counseling with students or even young employees like hey you know what city you go to uh it really impacts your life a lot and I'm a big proponent like LA and for for technology SF is really big as well so la SF New York work incredible for technology companies and being able to get great tech jobs was there a reason you chose La what Drew you to La I came out here um I think I Finding Peace in Arizona wanted that exact opposite of whatever Cleveland was whenever I got in Cleveland I came out here for a month and then ended up staying for four or five years and it just kind of happened that way um you know I loved everything that I think anybody loves about LA and about um California and you know it was something that was just completely different of the world I'd been in for two years it was always sunny it was great great weather a lot to do um and I just I I loved it here and I think you know after four or five years I I left probably sometime around 200 you know 18 19 so I got out of here before the whole Co the pandemic and stuff and you know made my way not too far over to Scottsdale and started playing offl every day and never really looked back I love that you so do you have any The Joy of Golf and Mental Health aspiration to get on any type of tour I don't think so you know I think for me playing golf is a uh you know it gives me that competitive fire that I had in football you know it gives me that ability to compete and go out and have um you know a good time I think a lot of it too is help with my mental health and I think with um being outside every day and getting a chance to spend four or five out four or five hours out in the sun and getting a chance to you know do something physical do something that's good for your mental um for me is is worked volumes I love that mental health Prioritizing Mental and Physical Health is everything mental and physical health fitter body fitter mind always prioritize yourself always prioritize a Lo abilly