Manziel says he’s mostly done with football

No more football for Johnny Football unless it’s just for kicks.

After a self-destructing pro career that never came close to fulfilling his enormous potential, Johnny Manziel says he’s done with the game that gave him his catchy moniker — even as he’s dabbling in a fledgling, fan-controlled arena league that was set to begin play Feb. 13 in suburban Atlanta.

This is simply a fun little sidelight, Manziel insisted, giving him a chance to take a few snaps in an intriguing new venture and perhaps help some up-and-comers get a look from the NFL.

“This is not my redemption tour,” Manziel said in

an interview with The Associated Press

These days, he’s more interested in working on his golf game than prepping for another football comeback.

The gridiron is firmly in his rearview mirror.

“If I got an offer to go back to the NFL ... or any other league that plays serious, competitive football, I have zero interest, zero desire,” Manziel said. “My heart’s not in it anymore. I don’t love football the way I used to love football. Over the course of the last year, I’ve come to peace with that.”

It’s not like he had a bunch of folks knocking at his door, anyway.

His glory days at Texas A&M, where Manziel was one of college football’s most electrifying dualthreat quarterbacks, seem like several lifetimes ago, though he’s 28 years old — an age when he could have been entering the prime of his career.

Asked if he’d like a chance to turn back the clock, somehow find a way to make people forget all the antics and arrogance and immaturity, Manziel said he’s moved past that stage of his life.

“I beat myself up about what could have been and what should have been and what I did wrong,” he said. “I had a very promising football career, but it all got bungled by the perfect storm of everything that happened and what my life became. It clouded my judgment of who I was as a person. I almost resented myself a little bit. Now I’m good with myself and good with what happened. I’m at peace.”

WADE PAYNE — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Memphis Express quarterback Johnny Manziel celebrates as he leaves the field after a 2019AAF football game at Liberty Bowl.