The Johnny Manziel era has officially begun in the podcast industry.
On the 10th anniversary of Manziel's infamous NFL rookie year, the once-great college football star quarterback is revisiting his glory days. His new podcast, “glory days” launches Thursday in parallel with Almost Friday Media. Manziel is currently on a mission to assemble interesting guests for the episodes.
And there's one person in particular who Manziel agrees would be a “dream guest.” That person is hip-hop artist Aubrey Drake Graham, also known as Drake.
“I've been friends with Drake for a long time, so I thought it would be really great to have him sit down and talk a little bit about our relationship and his life. He was a dream guest,” Manziel told Fox News. He spoke in an exclusive digital interview.
Drake has been a leading figure in the genre for over a decade. But this summer, his reputation changed in the eyes of some fans.
Drake performs in concert in St. Louis. (Prince Williams/Wire Images/Getty Images)
Drake has been at the center of the biggest rap feud of 2024, and perhaps the biggest in recent years, after going back and forth with rival Kendrick Lamar on a series of diss tracks. The feud resulted in a total of nine diss tracks between the two rap stars this summer.
When Kendrick released “Not Like Us” on May 4, Drake was on the receiving end of one of the highest-flying diss tracks in the history of the genre. The song has already been listened to over 1 billion times across multiple platforms.
As of August 25th, “Not Like Us” had been streamed over 700 million times on Spotify. It became the fastest rap song to reach this milestone in just 112 days. In the first 24 hours of its release on YouTube, the music video reached 1.5 million views per hour.
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Lamar and his hit songs enjoyed exposure at Drake's expense due to their content.
But even if Drake ultimately agrees to appear on Manziel's new podcast, he says he won't bother mentioning his feud with Lamar or even get Drake's side of the story.
“I would definitely avoid that. It's a minor issue,” Manziel said. “That's something that people make a big point about, but in the grand scheme of things, it's such a small thing in his life, his career, his accomplishments. So I probably wouldn't say that. Dew.”
Still, Manziel admitted he is monitoring the situation closely this year.
Johnny Manziel of the Texas A&M Aggies, selected in the first round of the 2014 NFL Draft by the Cleveland Browns, walks on stage at Radio City Music Hall in New York City on May 8, 2014. (Elsa/Getty Images)
“It was kind of a viral thing and it went on there for a while, for a few months, so you know, I was definitely following it a little bit,” Manziel said.
The popularity gained by Lamar from this feud will culminate in a once-in-a-lifetime performance in early 2025, as many declare him the winner of the rap battle. On February 9th, Lamar will perform his first Super Bowl halftime show. Career at Caesars Superdome in New Orleans.
Fans will be clamoring for him to perform “Not Like Us” during the show, which will be watched by well over 100 million people.
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“I think it’s cool, it’s obviously great.” [thing] It would be a great performance for him, and the Super Bowl always has a great halftime show,” Manziel said of Lamar's inevitable performance.
Manziel has a close relationship with Drake, dating back to the peak of the former quarterback's stardom in the early-to-mid 2010s.
Drake was one of Manziel's biggest supporters as he entered the NFL Draft out of Texas A&M University. Drake's support was so great that in 2014 he released a single, “Draft Day,” dedicated to Manziel, who was a first-round pick of the Cleveland Browns. The song also headlined the soundtrack of a major motion picture of the same name, playing over the credits after the fictional story of a star quarterback who, like Manziel, falls in the draft.
But Drake's endorsement of the former pro and 2012 Heisman Trophy winner didn't help the rapper's credibility.
Drake greets Johnny Manziel during the NCAA Men's Final Four semifinal game between the Kentucky Wildcats and the Wisconsin Badgers at AT&T Stadium on April 5, 2014 in Arlington, Texas. (Ronald Martinez/Getty Images)
Manziel's NFL career ended after just two disappointing seasons before a series of personal issues affected his life for many years to come. These problems included drug addiction and depression. Some theorize that Manziel may have fallen victim to the “Drake curse.” This is a pattern that has been documented in the virus of Drake's interactions with star athletes and professional sports teams prior to his unfortunate failure.
Other potential victims of Drake's curse include Serena Williams at the 2015 US Open, the Golden State Warriors in 2015-16, and the humiliating loss to Khabib Nurmagomedov in October 2018. MMA fighter Conor McGregor, among others.
But Manziel said he doesn't see it that way. The former quarterback takes responsibility for his own actions that resulted in the way his career turned out and believes it's all his fault. In fact, Manziel even went out of his way to apologize for Drake's debacle with the NFL while representing the hip-hop star.
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“I don't think I treated Drake the way I should have. [him] It represents the clothes I wore, his OVO brand, his label, and everything else. At that point, I was so selfish that I was dragging everyone that was tied to me through the mud,” Manziel previously said on Shannon Sharpe's podcast in February.
“I owe those people an apology, and hopefully one day I'll have the opportunity as a man to look him in the eye and do that.”
Former NFL stars Antonio Brown and Le'Veon Bell left the stage Saturday after Brown spoke in support of Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump at a campaign rally in Latrobe, Pennsylvania. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)
Now, Manziel is hoping to interact with Drake in the future on an episode of “Glory Days.”
The podcast is Manziel's latest foray into the media industry following the critically acclaimed Netflix documentary that focused on his downfall from football and his battle with addiction.
Manziel is entering the competitive realm of sports podcasts run by popular former athletes. But his approach to standing out is to focus on the dark side of the sport and the mental health issues common among athletes as much as the fun and winning.
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“For a lot of people, it's not always easy to play football and finish the struggles that come with it,” Manziel said.
In addition to Drake, another guest Manziel would like to have on the show is former NFL star Antonio Brown. Like Manziel, Brown has attempted to leverage his high-profile and controversial image to build a reputation on social media.
In his various podcast appearances, Brown acknowledged that he may be dealing with CTE and expressed his passion for sharing stories of athletes' past trauma.
“He's definitely a guy who had an interesting football career and continues to advocate for that career now off the field, so I could definitely see that.” [myself] I’ve been sitting down with AB and talking about it a little bit,” Manziel said.
Brown has also been active in politics this election cycle, having been active in former President Trump's campaign in Pennsylvania, a key battleground state.
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However, similar to the Drake-Lamar feud, Manziel said he was not interested in exploring political topics on the show at any point.
“Politics is probably something I'll never get involved in,” Manziel said.
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