The Johnny Manziel period has formally begun within the podcast trade.
On the tenth anniversary of Manziel’s notorious NFL rookie 12 months, the once-great school soccer star quarterback is attempting to revisit the glory days. His new podcast, “Glory Daze,” launches Thursday, alongside Nearly Friday Media. Manziel is now on a mission to land attention-grabbing friends for his episodes.
And there’s one determine particularly that Manziel admits can be his “dream visitor:” hip-hop artist Aubrey Drake Graham, aka Drake.
“I have been pals with Drake for a very long time, so it will be actually cool to take a seat down and have him on and speak about a few of {our relationships} and a few of his life a bit of bit, so I feel that may in all probability be a dream visitor,” Manziel instructed Fox Information Digital in an unique interview.
Drake has been a number one determine within the style for effectively over a decade. However this previous summer season, his popularity modified within the eyes of some followers.
Drake performs at a live performance in St. Louis. (Prince Williams/Wireimage/Getty Photos)
Drake has been on the middle of the largest rap feud of 2024, and arguably, the largest in recent times, with a back-and-forth sequence of diss tracks between him and rival Kendrick Lamar. The feud resulted in a complete of 9 diss tracks between the 2 rap stars this previous summer season.
Drake was on the receiving finish of one of many diss tracks that soared as excessive as another within the style’s historical past, when Kendrick launched “Not Like Us” on Might 4. It has already accrued over one billion whole listens throughout a number of platforms.
By Aug. 25, “Not Like Us” had over 700 million streams on Spotify. It was the quickest rap music to succeed in the milestone, taking solely 112 days. In its first 24 hours on YouTube, the music video peaked at 1.5 million views per hour.
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Lamar and his hit music, on account of its content material, loved all that publicity at Drake’s expense.
But when Drake does find yourself agreeing to go on Manziel’s new podcast, he says he would not even hassle mentioning the feud with Lamar, not even to get Drake’s facet of the story.
“I’d keep away from all of it collectively, it is such a small level,” Manziel mentioned. “It is one thing individuals have made an enormous level out of, however within the grand scheme of issues it is such a small blip on his life and his profession and what he is completed. So I in all probability would not.”
Nonetheless, Manziel admits that he is adopted the state of affairs very intently this 12 months.
Johnny Manziel of the Texas A&M Aggies takes the stage after he was picked by the Cleveland Browns throughout the first spherical of the 2014 NFL Draft at Radio Metropolis Music Corridor, Might 8, 2014, in New York Metropolis. (Elsa/Getty Photos)
“It was type of a viral factor that went for a few months there, for some time, so you recognize, I undoubtedly was following it a bit of bit,” Manziel mentioned.
The recognition that Lamar has earned from the feud, as many have declared him the winner of the rap battle, will culminate within the efficiency of a lifetime in early 2025. On Feb. 9, Lamar will carry out the primary Tremendous Bowl halftime present of his profession on the Caesars Superdome in New Orleans.
Followers can be clamoring for him to carry out “Not Like Us” throughout the present, a present that can be watched by effectively over 100 million individuals.
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“I feel it is cool, clearly it is an incredible [thing] for him, and it will likely be an incredible efficiency and the Tremendous Bowl at all times has a tremendous halftime present,” Manziel mentioned of Lamar’s inevitable efficiency.
Manziel has an in depth tie to Drake, courting all the best way again to the height of the previous quarterback’s stardom within the early-to-mid 2010s.
Drake was certainly one of Manziel’s largest supporters when he was popping out of school at Texas A&M and getting into the NFL Draft. Drake’s endorsement went to date that he launched a single titled “Draft Day” devoted to Manziel, a 2014 first-round decide by the Cleveland Browns. The music even headlined a soundtrack to a serious movement image of the identical identify, and performed throughout the credit after a fictional story of a star quarterback who ended up falling within the draft, like Manziel did.
However Drake’s endorsement of the previous professional and 2012 Heisman Trophy winner didn’t do any good for the rapper’s credibility.
Drake greets Johnny Manziel throughout the NCAA Males’s Ultimate 4 Semifinal between the Kentucky Wildcats and the Wisconsin Badgers at AT&T Stadium, April 5, 2014, in Arlington, Texas. (Ronald Martinez/Getty Photos)
Manziel’s NFL profession ended after simply two disappointing seasons earlier than a sequence of private points affected his life for a few years to return. These points included substance habit and melancholy. Some theorized that Manziel had fallen sufferer to “The Drake Curse,” which is a virally-recorded sample of Drake’s interactions with star athletes and professional sports activities groups previous unlucky failures.
Different theorized victims of the Drake curse embrace Serena Williams on the 2015 U.S. Open, the 2015-16 Golden State Warriors, and MMA fighter Conor McGregor after a humiliating loss to Khabib Nurmagomedov in October 2018.
Nonetheless, Manziel mentioned he hasn’t checked out it that means. The previous quarterback takes accountability for his personal actions leading to how his profession panned out, and believes all of it got here all the way down to him. The truth is, Manziel has even gone out of his approach to apologize to Drake for crashing out of the NFL so badly whereas representing the hip-hop star.
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“I don’t suppose I handled Drake the best way that I ought to have, with [him] representing the garments that I used to be sporting and his OVO model and his label and the whole lot. At that cut-off date, I used to be so egocentric that I used to be dragging all people that was tied to me by means of the mud,” Manziel beforehand mentioned on Shannon Sharpe’s podcast in February.
“I owe these individuals an apology and, hopefully, in the future down the road, I’ll be capable to have the chance as a person to have the ability to look him within the eye and be capable to do this.”
Former NFL stars Antonio Brown and Le’Veon Bell depart the stage after Brown spoke in assist of Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump throughout a marketing campaign rally Saturday in Latrobe, Pa. (Win McNamee/Getty Photos)
Now, Manziel is hoping for future interactions with Drake on an episode of “Glory Daze.”
The podcast is Manziel’s newest enterprise into the media trade after being the topic of a critically praised Netflix documentary targeted on his soccer downfall and struggles with habit.
Manziel is getting into a aggressive house of sports activities podcasts run by well-liked former athletes. However his strategy to standing out is to focus on the darkish facet of sports activities and customary psychological well being points for athletes, simply as a lot because the enjoyable and wins.
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“For lots of people, it isn’t essentially simple while you’re completed enjoying soccer and the struggles that comes together with it,” Manziel mentioned.
Along with Drake, one other visitor that Manziel says he might be concerned about having on the present is former NFL star Antonio Brown. Brown, like Manziel, has made an try and leverage a high-profile and controversial picture to carve out a popularity on social media.
In varied podcast appearances of his personal, Brown has acknowledged that he is likely to be coping with CTE and has expressed his ardour for sharing tales of athletes’ previous traumas from their sport.
“He is undoubtedly a man that is had an attention-grabbing soccer profession and, now in his life off the sphere, continues to be advocating for that, so I might undoubtedly see [myself] sitting down with AB and speaking a bit of bit about that,” Manziel mentioned.
Brown has additionally taken a heavy hand in politics this election cycle, as he is had an lively hand in campaigning for former President Trump in the important thing swing state of Pennsylvania.
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However like Drake’s feud with Lamar, Manziel mentioned he has little interest in exploring political matters on the present at any level.
“Politics might be one thing I’ll by no means become involved in,” Manziel mentioned.
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