Johnny Manziel Refuses to Take This Path for NFL Comeback

Does the UFL need Johnny Manziel? Perhaps, but apparently that idea isn’t being reciprocated.

Manziel wanted back in pro football last year with a goal of possibly returning to the NFL. The UFL, objectively, would have given the former Heisman Trophy winner from Texas A&M and first-round pick of the Cleveland Browns the best shot at returning to the pinnacle of the sport.

The UFL has sent several players to NFL training camps since the end of the 2025 season, but that’s not a path Manziel was willing to take.

“I asked myself this question last year probably at some point in time and … got myself into a mindset of like, okay, I’m going to like go start working out again, throwing the football around,” Manziel said recently on Logan Paul's “Impaulsive” podcast. “Let’s like see if I can still like get myself in shape and compete at that kind of level or just like see myself on a football field making the throws that I could have at one point in time. And I remember calling my agent and being like, ‘Okay, this is something I think I think I’m gonna try and make like a comeback.’”

How could Johnny Manziel could grab attention of NFL teams?

Manziel has bounced around in other football leagues since his NFL career ended in disgrace in Cleveland nearly a decade ago. There’s been short stints in the CFL, AAF and Fan Controlled Football, but nothing close to what Manziel experienced during this “Johnny Football” heyday.

His agent suggested a similar comeback route of playing in another league to get the NFL’s attention. That didn’t work for Manziel.

“I’m just sitting there thinking like, ‘Bro, there’s no way I’m going back to f---ing play in one of these like early leagues … UFL, XFL, anything like that, and go do that whole thing again,’” he said. “You know, after I got cut [by the Browns], I went and played in Canada for a year. I did some of these like smaller leagues to try and like work my way back into getting into the NFL and it just it wasn’t never going to happen.”

Manziel didn’t exactly light it up in the CFL. He never got on the field for the Hamilton Tiger-Cats in 2018 after signing a two-year contract, but after being traded to the Montreal Alouettes in season, showed some promise. That came crashing down after the season as he was released and barred by the league from signing with another CFL team.

Manziel got another shot in the AAF with the Memphis Express in 2019, but the league folded. The indoor Fan Controlled Football league followed, with Manziel last stepping on a field in a competitive environment in 2022.

Still just 32 years old, a return to the NFL seems virtually impossible. And especially if Manziel wouldn’t consider a league such as the UFL, despite once expressing his admiration for league co-owner Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson.

“I’m not going back into these leagues to go try and have like a three- or four-game stretch where you like show yourself that you’re maybe able to be able to get invited to a training camp,” Manziel said. “So, you know, as much as I would like to think that that’s something I could do, I think at 32, my chances are probably pretty chalked.”