Nightcap Hour 1: Unc, Ocho & Johnny Manziel react to LSU-Clemson, Arch Manning STRUGGLING, Bama BLOWN OUT

22:24Shannon Sharpe:Right. when I look back about Alabama, the one thing Alabama could do was stop the run. You know, Coach Saban, Johnny, you had to throw. The thing that gave Coach Saban problem has always given Coach Saban problem to do a threat quarterback and the guy that can pass the football. You go back and look when they lost to Oklahoma, Trevor Knight, I think that was his name. You look at what he did to them in the Sugar Bowl. He stood back there and he threw the ball. Now, the thing that gave him the most problem is a dual threat quarterback, a guy that can throw the ball and run. You look at Johnny Manziel.

22:55Shannon Sharpe:You look at Deshaun Watson. You look at guys that Cam Newton. You look, damn, it just so happens you're talking about two guys won the Heisman Trophy. One guy was one of the better quarterbacks in the NFL before the injuries and things off the field took place. You see, but they got ran on 49 times for 230. Coach, you don't run on Bama. Bama don't let you run. They stuff your run, and then they go hunt your quarterback. They can't really hunt the quarterback. They really can't consistently stop the run. And Castellanos was doing whatever he wanted to do. Like you said, John, extremely efficient in the passing game.

23:34Shannon Sharpe:Only threw the ball 14 times. And you know Gus Mozan. You know what he wants to do. He wants to run the football. He wants to give you a lot of misdirection. He's going to run jet sweep. He's going to run his quarterback. That's what he does. Florida State almost lost, not almost lost that game, but almost let them boys back in the game too. After the second half, that second half and third quarter, everything started being conservative. Everything started being conservative. The three and outs, giving Alabama the ball back, allowing them to have a chance to get back into the game. Now, if it was the old Alabama or a team that was a little bit more competent and efficient with the ball, hell, Alabama could have came back and won that game with as conservative as Florida State played in that second half.

24:17Shannon Sharpe:Well, the old Alabama wouldn't have been behind like that. Go ahead, Johnny. No, I think you look at what Alabama wants to do in the past. They would always say, listen, we're going to go man on man. We're going to take our best versus your best, and we're going to lock you down. Times like we said in the past where they've had success against an Alabama has been when they're running man coverage, running down the field, and the quarterback's able to escape the contain and be able to get out. But this is a team that just doesn't even resemble that. Like, we're going to put our best corner against your best receiver and body him and throw him out of bounds and bully him up or we're going to take our best edge rusher and just absolutely mop you all day long.

24:57You're not used to seeing an Alabama team get pushed around, especially in the trenches.

25:02Shannon Sharpe:That's good. You've got to be concerned. Yeah, and plus, they can't run the ball like they used to. You know Alabama will get them hogs up. And I'm looking at the offensive line. They go 6 '7", 340, 6 '7", 320, 6 '6". I'm like, bro, y 'all big for no reason. why the hell you that big if you can't block if you ain't moving you got to move forward until you that big I said y 'all that big and can't block the sun I chives ain't no sense of being that big if you ain't gonna move I'm like well damn I mean 29 rushes for 87 yards Ocho 27 rushes 89 yards 3 yards a carry They look good on. I'm talking about all three levels.

25:48Up front, second level, and the secondary. I really want to know, Chad, I don't know if you guys know, if you remember Earl Little that played for the Cleveland Browns, is that his son, Little Junior? Hey, he was all over the place. He was – you're talking about the DB Earl Little, right? Yeah, Earl Little in the North Miami, down here in Miami. That – I think that's the other son. He was baller, boy.

26:12Shannon Sharpe:Nick Saban coached 230 games at Alabama. He had four losses to unranked teams during his stretch. Kalen DeBoer has coached 14 games, and he just lost his fourth game to an unranked team. Since 2007, in games in which Alabama was favored by at least 14 points, Coach Saban is 131-2. Kalen DeBoer is 4-4. They get you up out of there. You don't want to be the man. You don't want to be the man to follow the man. You want to be the man to follow the man that followed the man. So I want to be the guy that came after the guy that followed Coach Saban. I don't want that pressure. You don't want to follow Coach Bryant.

26:50Shannon Sharpe:You don't want to follow Nick Saban. You don't want to follow one of those, the Barrett Switzer's or those air procedures, one of those mythical coaches. You want to be the guy that followed the guy that followed him. Because now that's what I'm going up against. Because I've got some separation between me and Coach Saban. I've got separation between me and one of these historic great coaches. the question that I have for you Johnny is that do you believe the NIL would be the death of the SEC no I don't think so I think the South will only the SEC and that conference will only find a way to work around it and do what they need to do there's too much money there there's too much in these collectives to be able to make it to make it successful I think we'll see some more I think we'll see different programs different teams yes same georgia alabama ellen the same couple little pockets of teams that have been winning for the sec so i think it'll give some disparity in that regard but you know for the most part i think the sec is aligned for whatever moves forward in the college football nil landscape whether it's getting to bigger conferences where we only have three big conferences throughout the country or four or whatever it may be i think the sec can keep accumulating teams, more teams, and end up being, you know, the biggest conference, 16, 20 teams.

28:16You know, when it's all said and done, and this stuff kind of plays itself out.

28:21Shannon Sharpe:Ocho, what you thinking? Because you look at Underwood. I think we might touch on him. You get Larry Ellison, one of the top three richest men in the world. He underwrites it. You get Dave Poitner from Barstool. You get a Tom Brady. He says, hey, I'll personally help you out and mentor you and coach you. and you give a kid, an 18-year-old,$12.5 million, say, come on down here, this is what we got for you. It's hard when you got these deep pocket donors. You get a team like an Oregon, and you got Nike, and you got that bill of night dollars, and you get all those uniforms. So now it ain't no Dodge Chargers.

28:59Shannon Sharpe:It ain't no Challengers. These guys got Ferraris, Johnny. These guys got Lambos. These guys driving Cullinans and McLarens. 18, 19 year olds. Yeah, listen. The landscape has changed. The landscape has changed. Like I said, I said it's even the playing field. And I think it's good. I think it's good for the players. I think it's good for the players because not only are you able to obviously get money for playing a sport you love, you're able to help your family out. You're able to help your family early. As long as you can stay focused and understanding that you got this money as just a jump start for your bigger dream, for your bigger goal.

29:37but making it to that next level where the real money is, as long as you can lock in, stay focused, and do what you need to do. I think I like it because, like Johnny said, it adds some disparity, obviously, to college football in general and even the playing field where everybody gets the talent instead of one or two or three or just three teams getting everybody.

29:58Shannon Sharpe:You're right because it sure seems that way now. It doesn't look like – I mean, look, Alabama still get five-star recruits, but they don't look like the five-stars they normally get. It's seemingly Ohio State are getting those guys now. Like you said, I mean, if they're 25, 35-star, Alabama's getting one or two where they normally have two running backs, two wide receivers, three D linemen, two O linemen, a corner, the number two or three dual threat. Those guys don't look like the same caliber of player that they normally once had. Had. And I think you got the right question to Johnny. Help me out when it comes to these stars.

30:44And whoever is rating them. Yes. From the people that are supposed to be these four and five stars. When the lights were bright tonight, when the lights were bright today in general. The stars didn't come out. The stars didn't come out. At all.

31:05Shannon Sharpe:well and that's the thing which you alluded to you say when people you you tweeted what you tweeted and people say what Shannon uh they said Ochoa well it's just the first game doesn't matter if you if you are who you say you are first game second game third game first quarter second quarter third quarter it does not matter and you're chopping it I don't know you're like a pit bull on a leash when this first game comes up you're you're sitting there You're in training camp. You know, you've got bang-bang plays going across the middle and you can't touch each other and you're running by and you're barking.

31:37This is what you're doing all training camp. You're blowing stuff up. You have the sacks, the whistle are blown. You'd be like, boy, if that was in a game, we'd have tore your ass up. That's what you're doing all spring and all training camp. So now you're off the leash. This is your time to run first. Yes. First time on a field, maybe in front of the lights. Yeah, it can hit you a little weird in a couple spots, but when it comes down to it, a dog is a dog, and it's time to be off the leash. I don't know what.

32:06Shannon Sharpe:Arch Manning struggled in his debut against Ohio State. With scouts and more than a dozen NFL teams watching, including nearby Cleveland Browns, Manning was inconsistent. He completed 17 of 30 passes, 170 yards, one touchdown, and interception. A very underwhelming day for a player some has pegged as the number one pick in the 2026 NFL Draft. Now, Johnny, is this a sign of things to come, or are we just saying it's just one start? Hey, let's not make too much of it. I mean, listen, I think overall as a player, this is one of the things you start early in the season. I was talking to Jake Spavitol, who was my offensive coordinator my second year.

32:44He plays at Baylor. I'm talking to him about the game the night before, and he's just like, fuck, man, we can't run the ball. And there's certain things early on in the season where you need more reps and more game reps and more live speed reps. And this is something that's always been a question with Arch, which is, has he played enough? Has he got enough reps enough to be able to come into a game like this and be prepared and ready to go? And today, it didn't look that way. I think, as you saw their nice drive they had in the fourth quarter where they went down and scored, he has that capability, right?

33:14But to do it from the first snap all the way throughout the game and be consistent with it, this isn't Louisiana Monroe. bro. This isn't the teams he's popped in last year and played against. Like this is the defending reigning, really good Ohio state football team. Mike, you're not that red dot. That he said that they were swinging at everybody else. I'm a fucking must be broken or something because that did not look like the number one team in the country today at all. And it was an all time quote. I'm cool for it. But if you're going to walk out like that with the gap,

33:50Shannon Sharpe:you better back it up yeah yeah and and the thing is what look everybody keeps saying that he's a generate bro we've got to start with this generational stuff everybody is not generational just because they have one or two good games that does do you understand what a generation is do you understand what transcendent mean do you know what transformative mean we we just be you we just be using stuff because it sounds good. Stop saying that. He's not. He might be that. But if you look at Arch Manning and you say he's transformative, he's generational, you're lying. He's not. Because guess what? They shut down the run, and then it's like, okay, go win the game.

34:38Shannon Sharpe:And like you said, Johnny, the thing what happened is that when Ewards were hurt last year and he's playing substandard teams and he looked really good well they should go to arch they should go to arch they should go to arch bro but when you go step up at ohio state and you face the uh the texas and you face the alabamas no bro that that's not good enough that's not good enough and he's gonna have to be much better because if you looked at him and it starts and when he's played had to step up in competition if you can look at him and say well he's generational. I just, I, well, I've got a, we've got different definitions of what generational is.

35:17Shannon Sharpe:Go ahead. I mean, this, this is part of the media's fault. Honestly, this is part of the media's fault and crowning him a generation telling crowning him the next big thing, obviously because some of the games he played in last year, he looked decent when he, when he, when he came in, when Evers went down and was hurt. But again, you come in week one, you plan against them boys. What did Johnny say? A dog is going to be a dog regardless of circumstance, regardless of whether it's week one, week two or week three. So now sometimes things look funny in the light. Sometimes things look funny in the light where the media has propelled and been propped up an individual that they are this generational talent supposed to be the number one pick in the draft.

36:02And so we're expecting to see just that. It was it was it was it was a bad day. It was a bad day for us. It was a bad day. I think it's going to be all right. I think it's going to be all right. But based on what we saw today, nah, that ain't it. That ain't it. I think it's a little thing. They couldn't score. They couldn't even score. They couldn't score. They couldn't run the ball. So if you can't run the ball, you can't score. And our offensive coordinator wants to be able to say, you know what, Arch, I need you to win it with your arm. I need you to win it with your arm. And they couldn't do that.

36:35Go ahead, Johnny. What do you want to say? For football guys, especially you guys playing tight end receiver position, one of the first things you ever do is just mesh, right? Texas runs a lot of mesh throughout this game. And they're just those little, for a quarterback, just easy little throws, completions, just pitch and catch type of stuff. There were just so many times throughout the game where he's just a little off balance. These are the ones where you step, you cut them off, you lead them on right in front, easy pitch and catch, confidence boosters that Texas didn't really have throughout the day.

37:07And when you get stagnant and you're getting there late in the third quarter, fourth quarter, you have no points on the board. You keep coming back to the sideline, taking your helmet off, and you're like, damn, we can't get anything going. For Arch in those situations, those are the ones you just have to go back to the very basics of what you do, day one, install, whatever it is, take a little three-step drop and just throw the shallow real quick. Whether it's bang, bang, get tackled or whatever, you got to build on some momentum and be able to get yourself in a spot because look, the talent is there.

37:38I think he will get to a point where he's good enough. And this is the thing that we've said all season. The media puts a lot of hype on him. It's his turn. You have the chance at every opportunity you want. Everybody watching, all eyes are on you. Go do it. So one game is not make or break, but it's a true test of where Texas is and they are not the number one team in the country. That's for sure. Yeah. You wanted to – Go ahead, Osho. One more thing. It's really small. It's really small. Just watching the game where Arch managed today, obviously, the receivers. The receivers over there in Texas, it's supposed to be some boys over there.

38:15It's supposed to be some dogs over there. It's supposed to be – one of the plays early in the game where Arch threw an interception, and I'm looking, they got the bun split, right? They got the bun split. And the DB – I mean the DB, the receiver, he got the seven route. He got the seven route. but the goddamn corner's staying way upfield. He's staying high on his inside shoulder. So the first thing you do, I'm like, well, what is the receiver doing? Man, just break it off and run it like a deep ass. He's flattened it off. He's running like a big ass, deep ass out. Man, the DB, I mean, I don't know what the receiver's doing.

38:49There was an interception. But I'm like, no, arch through the ball in the right place. The receiver got to know, well, hell, if the DB want to keep running to the goddamn pylon, I'm going to just break it off for what, 15, 18 yards and just have a big chunk catch.

39:02Shannon Sharpe:Yeah. And it's just stuff like that. If Arch is not playing well, that means the receivers have to be on point on the outside. They got to be on point. They got to help them out. You got to bail them out in that situation. It didn't help that you're playing the team that won the national championship, the opening game, on the road, in their building. We know what Ohio State represent. We know how that crowd is. And they got a they got an NFL, former NFL defensive coordinator coordinating that defense. Normally, NFL defensive coordinators, when they go to college, they have a lot of success because they can get really exotic and can confuse because, you know, if they can confuse NFL quarterbacks, that's been quarterbacking for a number of years at that level.

39:46Shannon Sharpe:They should have some success against a college quarterback in his real first true year of starting. So I'm going to give Arch a little leeway, but there are some throws that I expect him to make. If you're what they say you are, it doesn't matter who you're playing. There are certain throws you should be able to complete. And we didn't see enough of that today. But like you said, this was the worst case scenario for Arch. Starting on the road, your first game as the true leader on the road in the horseshoe. that's uh you're asking for a lot but we got to stop throwing around generational we just got to just let's just calm down let him play we want him to be Peyton and Eli oh he gonna be number one overall pick just let him play oh I would agree to say when you when the way they throw him around the way they advertise him the way the media talks about him so regardless of whether you playing in the horseshoe regardless of what you play in Ohio State regardless of whether it's week one, we are expecting to see exactly what the media says you are.

40:53But anyway, that's, he didn't play well. He didn't play well. I'm sure he'll rebound next week. I'm not sure who I'm not sure who Texas played next week. Who did play next week? San Jose State. Oh, there we go. There we go. Hey, listen, he might throw for 700.

41:10Shannon Sharpe:Well, you, hey, ideally, Johnny, you want San Jose first, then go to Ohio State. You, hey, I want to get my I just don't want to, if you notice guys when they're swimming, they put the water on their body. They want to pee a little water a little bit. They just don't jump in cold. Hey, let me, sometimes, you know, they jump down in there and get a little bird bath on. But like I said, I just want the people to just stop using that word. It seems like every time we get a decent player, oh, he's generational. Bro, y 'all need to understand what generational means. And I don't think you do because it sounds good.

41:46Shannon Sharpe:Oh, he's a generational talent, bro. I mean, his uncle was a generational talent, the one at Tennessee. Cam Newton was generational. We never – we didn't – oh, man, Cam, oh, he played Alabama or he played LSU. We didn't make no excuses for Cam. We didn't make no excuses for Peyton. But now we want to make excuses. Remember when Peyton couldn't beat Florida? We made no excuses. So we're not going to make no excuses now. He's going to have to play better in order for Texas to get to where they want to go. He will have to play better. Johnny, let me ask you this. Do you think with Patricia orchestrating that offense, Jeremiah Smith, Ocho, they did a great job of covering him.

42:39Shannon Sharpe:You can see the frustration at the start of the bill. They're going to put three guys on him. Do you think they should be title favorites again to repeat, Johnny, Ohio State? Yeah, I think so. I think you're going to see that the way they're going to defend Jeremiah Smith all year, you're going to get a lot of that. He's going to be extremely frustrated, but at the same time, that should let wide receiver two, wide receiver three, and even a running back out of that team be foaming at the mouth for the opportunities they're going to have at the backside of some of these plays and some of these schemes.

43:08Because as they go on, I think Ohio State is extremely well coached. and Patricia leading that defense. I think that's exactly what you said. Having a guy who's been in the NFL for so long, being able to come back and do this at the college level, should be able to put in some different looks. He's sitting there watching film, and it's such a different look from everything that he's accustomed to in the past and just has to be sitting there with a plethora of ideas of what he can bring to it. And as long as you have a good experienced group of people in that room and guys who are all together communicating it, You can put all this stuff in in college.

43:44You just have to have the right guys to be able to do it. So it looks so far after what you've seen today. And granted, it's only week one. And we're in a college football era now where you can lose twice, maybe even three times and still go on, you know, to get into the playoff and be a national champion. So it's hard to not – you don't want to overreact too much after week one. But Ohio State has a really good team. We'll see if the QB play can continue to expand throughout the season because that's what it really comes down to. Another thing too, Unk, when it comes to Jeremiah Smith, they got to be more creative.

44:20They understand the stat line he had last year when they played against Texas. It wasn't that good. So what do you do? You come up with a game plan. You come up with a game plan to move Jeremiah Smith around. You don't just have him on the outside to the left. You don't just have him on the outside to the right. You put him in motion. You condense the splits, forcing the DBs to get off. There's so many – have him coming out the backfield. There's so many ways of giving the ball. Whatever you want to do. Yeah, I know he had some drops today, but he's the best player on the field by far on either team.

44:48It doesn't matter. So there's so many things you can do with him to make sure you can get him in rhythm and get him going. There are no excuses. No excuses.

44:59Shannon Sharpe:All I'm saying is this. I don't give a damn if Jeremiah Smith got a trench coat, a disguise, a mustache, and a hat. That guy in the disguise and the mustache and the hat, he's not beating us. So I don't give a damn what you do with him You can put him in the backfield You can punch him You can stack him I don't care where you put him Somebody else beat me He not beat me Because you know why? I know he can beat me I'm not sure these other guys can So I don't care what you do with him You can have him out there looking like a specter gadget With a trench coat and everything He ain't beat me So I'm just saying I'm just saying The guy with a trench coat Coach he ain't nobody Don't worry about it You cover that nobody and you help him over the top of that nobody.

45:40Shannon Sharpe:Johnny, Marcel Reed threw a career-high four touchdowns as the 19th-ranked Aggies rolled over in the season opener, 42-24 over UT San Antonio. KC Conception had a touchdown reception, returned a plump for another score in Texas A &M debut. Johnny, is this the year for your Aggies? Y 'all going to do something? Man, I try to sit here and not jinx us, not try and put too much. It is a gauntlet of an SEC run, right? We still got to go see everybody. But look, I think last year, whenever Marcel comes in against LSU, that second half of that game last year and does what he does, unbelievable ability to be able to run the football as a quarterback and be able to move like that and has great speed.

46:23The one thing that we've been waiting for with him is really to see him expand the passing game, move the ball downfield. I think at the end of last season, we were one very one dimensional. We know we're going to be able to run the ball and that's what we want to be able to do. But for him to be able to come out in the season opener, have four touchdowns, be 22 of 34. I spoke to him probably three or four weeks ago and I was watching a lot of stuff and routes on air and just seeing certain things. And I was kind of like just looking at it. I didn't exactly love what I was seeing, to be honest.

46:58So like I was in the UK somewhere and I pick up the phone, I called them and I'm like, man, I got to drop this little tip on you that me and Mike Evans started working on after our first off season, where you just like in routes on air and you're running down the field, just get your receivers to stick their hand up and stare at that middle finger. Like just stare at the middle of their finger the whole time with your eyes and start to train your eyes that when you don't even need to see the ball release out of your hand or anything, but just start staring at fingertips and just start starting to give him a little bit of some things that I think will be able to help him.

47:32Cause if he develops his passing game, the sky is the limit for us. We have a good defense, solid run game. I like what Elko is doing, but it's too early to say against the UTSA team that this is our year, but we'll see. We got a Notre Dame game coming up pretty soon. That'll, it'll be a good test for us that we didn't play very good against last year.

47:55Shannon Sharpe:Y 'all did have a give a guy 177 yards on 16 carries with two touchdowns, Johnny. So you can't be pleased with that. One of those was 75 yards. So you can't be too pleased with that. Yeah, sure. But I agree with you. Reed, like, we know he got legs. But in order to take your game. So if you're trying to take your game to the next level and they know you got it's your arm. is that Lamar went to another level once his arm started catching up with his legs. Josh Allen, when his arm started catching up with his legs, Patrick Mahomes had the arm. And now Mahomes would put that thing up on his arm and tuck it.

48:38Shannon Sharpe:He'll tuck it and take off on you. And they're like, hold on, wait a minute. You ain't never showed that. Don't worry about it. You see it now, though. And so that's what Reed, if he wants to get to that next level, he wants to be in Texas A &M where Johnny football was, he's going to have to be able to throw it, Johnny, consistently. It's hard. I don't believe now at any level, maybe high school, that you can just win with a running quarterback. They're going to force you to throw it. They're going to force you to throw it. At the end of the day, you can always stack the box, put a bunch of people up there, man up, and say, you know, that fade route doesn't always get beat off the line of scrimmage and you just see him over the top and you let it go.

49:20Sometimes you're going to have the back shoulder. You're going to have to put it in different areas. You're talking about the corner earlier being high over the top and you've got to throw him flat. These are a lot of things you have to learn, and you learn in a college game as a passer. The one thing about Marcel Reed is people were asking me about him this offseason. I go, what he needs to do in the offseason is go work nothing but half-line routes on air and just see different half-line coverages, half-side of the field coverages, see what it looks like and just get more use to game rep speed of zone and coverage looks.

49:54And I think, look, it's a great start. He needs to continue to be able to throw the ball because we're going to see teams, you know, this year on A &M schedule. We'll see it in two weeks versus Notre Dame where they're going to load it up, make sure we can't run it. You're going to have to go make some plays with your arm or you're going to be stagnant.

50:11Shannon Sharpe:Because at the end of the day, you got to throw the football to win. In today's game, the way it is, you got to throw the football to win. But you got to be happy with that. Johnny, we're going to get you out of here on this one. This clip from your Glory Days podcast has gone viral. Let's show the chat. Oh, boy. When you're teeing off and your clients are watching, it's on. When the game goes to overtime and your squad is right there with you, it's on. When you swap out that other nicotine pouch for something softer and feel the difference right away, it's on. On plus nicotine pouches with Niko Silk Mesh.

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52:44Shannon Sharpe:Here's to the calloused hands of freedom. Copenhagen, saluting American grit, proven since 1822. Warning, this product is not a safe alternative to cigarettes. In my draft class, the Browns had two picks. With the sixth pick, we took Justin Gilbert from Oklahoma State. And I get the most wave of shit for being a bust in this and that. But I wasn't even the biggest fucking, and respect to Justin Gilbert, I love him as a human being, but we both flamed out. We both fucking struggled. And he went 14, 15, 16 picks before me. So, like, I'm not even the biggest bust in my class from the Browns. Damn, Johnny.

53:32I was feeling some type of way that day clearly

53:40Shannon Sharpe:y 'all killing me but look what about the guy that went top 10 I mean I wanted to be in that pick like that's if we were talking about going to Cleveland I wanted to go to Cleveland at 6 I wanted to go to Cleveland at 4 whatever the pick was like if you're gonna send me to Ohio at least send me with 20 million instead of 8 like what the fuck damn uh all love to justin gober look i think you know from from a browns draft perspective from that year you know joel batonio is still playing and doing well for cleveland right right now but uh all around miss you know i think i will always be looked at and viewed at because of how much hype and uh you know media and everything that was around me and the city of Cleveland expecting me to be great and that ultimately not panning out.

54:32Listen, you know, I sit here today and I go back and forth with, man, am I going to let Cleveland off the hook and just like let it go? Or am I going to sit here with hate and animosity in my heart for the rest of my life? And I finally sit here today. I'm like, fuck it. I think I'm going to be pissed at him and hate him forever. So it is what it is, man. No, no love for the Browns. I'm rooting for 0-16 seasons every season.

55:01Shannon Sharpe:Damn. John, let me ask you this. As you sit here today and after all the things you've gone through, we sat down a little over a year ago and we had a conversation, had a great conversation and I think a lot of people got an opportunity to see you in a different light. Knowing what you know now, you're back in that situation, but you know what you know now. What would you have done differently? Would you have done anything different leading up to the draft? Would you have done anything different in college what are some of the things that johnny would have done differently to make sure this outcome that we're talking about never happened look there was a moment in time and we spoke about it on the podcast was was you know after that oklahoma cotton bowl game you know things changed for me and i went from johnny manziel to johnny football and like looking back on it now and people ask me if you could go back in time and do it differently there is that split moment in time like in the locker room after that game where my focus would have shifted to let's get to national championship the next year let's get to san diego and start training again and like get ready and geared up for this season because we got mike evans returning we got a bunch of guys on this team who can come back and make a real run and that's one thing that just never sits right with me to this day um just like the untapped potential of the whole thing and the real opportunity if i want to see texas a &m win a national championship well that was a real real opportunity for us.

56:22And it just didn't come to fruition. And, you know, I sit here today and a lot of people will hear me speak. And as I tell stories and, you know, I'm doing the podcasting stuff, you know, people will always be like, you know, I'm blaming stuff on other people or I'm not accountable or anything like that. But listen, at the end of the day, everything that I've got in my life and that's happened to me throughout my football career is only because of one person, myself and the decisions that I've made as a man in this life. So was Cleveland the best situation for me to go to? Did they help me knowing all the things that they knew about me with all the research and everything?

57:02Did they put me in the best situation? Absolutely not. It was not the right situation for me. But when it comes down to it, you take all of that aside, you throw it away and you look in the mirror and you say, I've let an amazing opportunity slip. It's on me. I'm the one that has to sit with myself every single night as I watch college football or watch NFL football and be like, damn, I would be in my 12th year. I would be X, Y, and Z. I'm the one that has to lay my pillow down, lay my head on the pillow every night and be like, that coulda, woulda, shoulda, but it wasn't. And at the end of the day, a lot of my life as I've been out of football has been like, what am I going to be able to do to find a spark, to be able to be happy, to be able to give me something like football did give me.

57:48And you know what? Maybe it wasn't meant to be for me. I didn't put in the time and the effort and determination that you need to be great that both of you guys did for the sport. And that was just maybe my stupidity, my youth, or what it was meant to be. But nevertheless, you know, I take accountability for everything and what it is, you know, I really didn't harm anybody other than myself when it's all said and done. So, you know, we're still sitting here today rocking, rolling, happy. We're on the nightcap show now, baby. Every Saturday, let's go.

58:22Shannon Sharpe:That's what I'm talking about. Johnny, did it come too easy? Did football come too easy to you? You look at what you did. You went down to Tuscaloosa and you became a household name. Everybody knew who you were after you went in there and did what you did to Coach Saban. Did football come too easy for you after that? Man, I don't know. I think I started to – you start to get a little bit of ego on the football field, right? You start to see what you're doing in practice and how you're playing and, like, making certain throws and the scrambling where you, like, you're just doing certain things that are just, like, jumping off the page and you're noticing them too.

58:56So it gives you a bravado and a confidence. And when people on a college football field – I think this is why I wanted to go to the NFL so bad, because as I'm going and playing on Saturdays, I'm like, these dudes can't fuck with me. Like, they really can't. They want to. And even guys who are good from opposing teams, you'll come up to each other after the game, and they'll be like, damn, you're everything we thought you were going to be. You're cold. So, like, as you're getting respect from your peers on this level too, it does heighten your sense. It does give you a sense of ego and bravado.

59:32And, you know, you add the social media wave and, you know, at that point in time, sports center every single night and you're taking over the world. You know, it does make you feel invincible. So I know there was a lot of hard work that went into everything that happened. And the reason that I played as well as I did on the field is because I did work my ass off from the time I was in high school to college and it all played itself out. I think you start to see the down you know the down slide and everything else when the hard work takes itself out so you know that's what I always tell kids nowadays who ask me and look at my story and look at everything it's like listen I had all the talent in the world you can go run a go route put your hand up and have a guy draped over you I'll drop it in the bucket you can go meet me in the A gap and really think you have me covered a tackle and I'll mix you out of your shoes but when it comes down to it you gotta you gotta work hard and you gotta consistently do it day in and day out, even when you don't want to.

1:00:27And if you don't want to do it, guess what? There's somebody right next door or somewhere else that wants to take your spot and wants to trade places with you. And look what happened to me. You know, the NFL is a game where you get replaced like this.

1:00:42Shannon Sharpe:Johnny, thanks for joining us tonight. Welcome to the team. Make sure you go subscribe to Johnny's podcast on YouTube, Glory Days with Johnny Manziel. Johnny, thank you for joining us, man. We'll see you next week, bro. Have a good time. Enjoy. Much love. All right, bro. Yep. That's Johnny Manziel, ladies and gentlemen. He will be joining us. He'll be our special guest on Saturdays during the college football season and in the college football playoffs. So thank you, Johnny, for joining us. Enjoy the rest of your time. He's away. I mean, it's 5 o 'clock in the morning where he's at. It's 6.30 now.

1:01:18Where we at?

1:01:21Shannon Sharpe:So he's in Milan. Oh, that's what I got on, too. Oh, okay. AC Milan. Tell me, you know who this is?

1:01:33Shannon Sharpe:No, I don't. Rod Smith. You know who this is? Man, I don't know who that is. What? Yeah, what you mean you don't know who that is? You for real, or you just playing? Man, I ain't the soccer aficionado. Even if you're not a soccer aficionado, you got to know who Ronaldinho is. The greatest. I know who he is. I know he's a Brazilian. You never seen him play? I have seen him play. Okay, okay, okay. Okay, I don't want to give you a, okay, just, but don't upset me like that. You almost used to know. I saw him play. I saw Kaka play. I saw Hulk play. Kaka, okay. I'm just saying. There we go. Okay. Tulane football wore all green uniforms with blank green helmets today to recognize the 20-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina.

1:02:28Shannon Sharpe:Green Wave head coach John Summerall said the program was set to honor the victims even further, but Tulane's request to Northwestern to wear white jerseys, which is what program wore the first game after Katrina, was declined. After the game, coach said, I'm not trying to take a shot, but we requested to wear white jerseys because that's what the team wore. It got denied. That's their prerogative. But when you disrespect the city of New Orleans, that's what's going to happen to you. You're going to get the run to a team that had a chip on their shoulder. We might've used that for a little motivation to represent the city.

1:03:03Shannon Sharpe:Don't disrespect the city of New Orleans. Ever. But Ocho, what you think? Respect New Orleans, man. What you talking about?

1:03:15Shannon Sharpe:yeah I've been watching that documentary man I didn't see the documentary it's it's tough for me to sit through that it would be tough for me to sit through that and have to watch that and realizing this is this affected people's lives people had to uproot people lost their lives and the fact that the response in knowing it was coming and the response and people in positions of power coming to help not being what it should have been no you know i i can't i can't i can't i can't stomach that i can't yeah i i haven't gotten all the way through it but they have people that was you know little girl i think she was probably 14 at the time and she's telling the story now about her and guys was telling the story how his grand his granddaughter she went under never saw again his mother went under I can't do that.

1:04:12Shannon Sharpe:I was like, oh, my goodness. I mean, you know, you saw it. I mean, you know, you saw it from a distance. But to hear people share their stories and to see all these people, man. It almost seems surreal. It doesn't seem real. Like something like this can happen. There ain't no way something like this can happen. Wait a minute. And then we have the response that we have. I was just getting ready to say that we talk about America. We talk about a catastrophe of that magnitude. Do you understand? Depending on what it is, on how important something is, you mean we can resolve another country's issues in a week's time?

1:04:52And you mean you tell me you can't go down there to the boot and make sure? Man, don't get me started, man. No, no, man, don't get me started.

1:04:59Shannon Sharpe:It was it was the perfect storm, Ocho, because you think about you got Lake Pontchartrain on the front. you got the Mississippi River on the back and you got a city that's below sea level. That water gotta go somewhere. And you got a category 5 with winds pushing 150, 160, 170 miles an hour. Pontchartrain to the front, Mississippi to the back and you're below sea level. That water gotta go somewhere. Guess where it's going?

1:05:31Shannon Sharpe:Where they don't have levees. now it ain't going to the oak it ain't going over there yeah yeah over here it's funny it's funny you bought a sofa you didn't have to assemble a suit someone measured just for you and now you're taking a guy's trip that actually matters you've upgraded a few things in life so why are you still running with rough nicotine pouches on plus nicotine pouches with nico silk mesh No corners, no rough edges, just the softest pouch on the planet. You've evolved, and this is what's next. On Plus Nicotine Pouches. Not all varieties available in all geographies. Warning, this product contains nicotine.

1:06:14Nicotine is an addictive chemical. Hey, Portlandia fans. Carrie Brownstein and Fred Armisen here. The dream of the 90s is alive in podcast form. We're launching Podlandia AO Rewatch, our brand new podcast where we revisit every episode of Portlandia together, breaking down sketches, going deep on our iconic characters, and pulling back the curtain on how it all got made. And we'll also be joined by the people who helped bring it all to life. Guest stars, collaborators, and friends, including director Jonathan Kreisel, the mayor himself, Kyle McLaughlin, legendary musician Amy Mann, and many more.

1:06:45Kyle is going for it here. You fully improvised not just words, but a song. Well, I thought you were all going to write a song. I remember you thinking that. Listen to Podlandia, AAO Rewatch on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

1:07:24Shannon Sharpe:Danny McBride, Riz Ahmed, and Mary Steenburgen. Listen to Hollywood Handbook on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Strong hands built America and kept it running for 250 years. Strong hands also keep Copenhagen moving today. Here's to the bravery of linemen, the endurance of truckers, the skills of welders, the traditions upheld by farmers, and all American tradesmen sharing in our work ethic. Copenhagen, celebrating American craftsmanship. Proven since 1822. Warning, this product is not a safe alternative to cigarettes.