REVEALED: Not from a wealthy ‘oil money’ family, Johnny Manziel made up a story to explain the illegal money he made selling autographs at the height of Brown’s fame
- Manziel was under investigation by NCAA regarding signing autographs for pay
- This was not allowed for her student-athletes under the statutes at the time
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Johnny’s Manziel’s Netflix documentary about the rise and fall of football has produced many surprises, including a fictional story that has been widely believed to date.
At the height of Manziel’s star, he was investigated by the NCAA on charges of breaking the rules by signing autographs in exchange for payment.
There was insufficient evidence to prove this, but Manziel did receive a paltry half-game suspension for failing to prevent the commercialization of his name.
During this segment of the 72-minute documentary that premiered Tuesday, Manziel’s then-best friend/publicist/agent Nate Fitch laid out the plan that helped twist reality.
“How are you going to explain why you wear Rolexes and drive new cars and fly private jets?” Fitch asked rhetorically.
Nate Fitch, Johnny Manziel’s former friend/publicist/agent invented a lie that the Texas A&M legend came from an extremely wealthy family who made their living in the oil industry
Manziel reiterated that the myth was indeed fabricated to avoid punishment from the NCAA
“As a freshman you weren’t allowed to talk to the media, but they (the media) were allowed to talk to me,” he said, referring to the rule imposed by then Texas A&M head coach Kevin Sumlin.
“And so, the biggest spider still in existence, I came up with a story that his family was immensely wealthy.”
This misnomer of the Manziel family profiting unimaginably from oil money – in the same vein as Cowboys owner Jerry Jones – was invented by Fitch and propagated by the mainstream media.
“We sold a bit of a dream that my family had more money than they actually had,” Manziel added.
Then a mashup of several journalists appeared, illustrating how the lie became words spoken as truth.
“Here’s a kid who doesn’t need money,” a Connecticut sportscaster told News8 at the time.
“He comes from oil money,” FS1 host Colin Cowherd said in a broadcast clip.
“A kid who came out of oil money,” Skip Bayless commented as he discussed the NCAA investigation.
According to Manziel himself, Manziel’s grandfather helped the Heisman Trophy winner by giving him checks to avoid leaving a money trail for purchases such as flights.
The ex-Browns QB, known as Johnny Football or Money Manziel, became a living legend in TX.
After Manziel’s suspension was lifted, he and Fitch began to indulge in the once unauthorized activity again.
“And we went right back to signing articles,” Fitch said. “We’re not doing anything criminal. We’re just not adhering to the NCAA’s no-money statutes.”
The Manziel documentary is, at the time of writing, the number 1 trending movie on Netflix.