NFL
Johnny Manziel Once Spent $35,000 On a Four-Day Birthday Celebration
Joe Kozlowski began his career as a sports journalist in 2013 and joined Sports7 in 2019. He covers the NBA and soccer for Sports7, with specialties in legacy NBA players such as Michael Jordan and Premier League club Arsenal. Off the clock, he's a Kansas City Chiefs fan and a hockey goalie. Growing up loving Shaquille O'Neal and reading everything he could about the great big men throughout NBA history — likely because he was still tall enough, at least relative to his peers, to play center — he's continued to love learning about and exploring the historical and story-based sides of the basketball archives. As for Arsenal, Joe spent a year living in London and latched onto the local support of the club. He's barely missed a match since, loving Arsene Wenger, enduring the Banter Era, and following along through rebuilds. The Premier League interest developed into a passionate following of the Champions League, Europe's big five league, and international soccer as a whole when played at the highest level. Regardless of the sport, Joe is captivated by the stories of athletes beyond the box scores and how they push the envelope — both in terms of what we think a human is capable of accomplishing and how they find new competitive tactics to win.
Get to know Joe Kozlowski betterUpdated17 Nov 2020
As Spiderman's Uncle Ben famously said, “with great power comes great responsibility.” While that cliche was theoretically made for superheroes, it also works for professional athletes. When you're earning millions of dollars and living under the media microscope, there's a high standard to uphold. Johnny Manziel, however, apparently missed the memo.
During his time in the NFL, the quarterback was arguably better at partying than he was at playing football. In fact, Johnny Manziel once spent $35,000 on a four-day birthday celebration.
Johnny Manziel let partying get in the way of playing football
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When he burst onto at Texas A&M, Johnny Manziel seemed to have the personality of a star player and the talent to back it up. Unfortunately for the quarterback, things never came together at the NFL level.
Manziel, of course, joined the Cleveland Browns as the 22nd-overall pick of the 2014 NFL draft. He started eight games over two seasons before losing his job after an impromptu trip to Las Vegas. He then landed in the Canadian Football League, where he eventually wore out his welcome and briefly suited up for the Memphis Express in the Alliance of American Football. He’s since retired from the game.
The quarterback, unfortunately, never seemed able to move on from being the big man on campus. Having fun came before football, and Manziel paid the price.
“Listen, I’m 18, 19, 20, 21, 22 years old with the world at my fingertips, and I raged,” he explained on the Subpar Podcast. “Like, sue me. I had a lot more fun going to a nightclub and walking out with two girls than I did putting the pads on and going and grinding it out. And the thing that I’ve learned over time is you get out of the game that you love what you put into it.”
Spending $35,000 on four days of birthday celebrations
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Johnny Manziel's NFL career came to an end in March 2016. That reality and his move to the CFL, however, didn't stop the quarterback from partying.
In December 2016, Manziel turned 24 years old. If you know anything about Johnny Football, then you can probably assume how the celebrations went.
According to a Page Six report from the time, Manziel birthday festivities took place in Miami. Things started out at LIV nightclub, where the former Cleveland Browns QB apparently spent $5,000 on Champagne.
On Thursday and Friday, Manziel hit Rockwell, another club. There, he reportedly sat “at a table with a $10,000 drinks minimum, ‘ordering parades of bottles of Champagne.”
“Then on Sunday night, insiders say he paid $10,000 for a table at LIV during DJ Khaled’s birthday party,” Oli Coleman continued. “And that’s all before he even begins a big planned celebration on Monday night for his 24th birthday.”
If those estimated numbers are accurate, then Money Manziel spent $35,000 on birthday celebrations over four days.
Despite those spending habits and his NFL failings, Johnny Manziel still has a sizable net worth
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Based on his lack of on-field success and his free-spending ways, you might think that Johnny Manziel is scrapping the bottom of his bank account. As far as we know, though, that isn't the case.
Based on Sportac's contract data, the quarterback made more than $7 million in salary during his time with the Cleveland Browns. It seems like that money is still going strong today; CelebrityNetWorth reports that Manziel's fortune clocks in at approximately $6 million.
That could buy a whole lot of Champagne.
