Buccaneers WR Mike Evans: ‘Very noble’ of Johnny Manziel to reveal mental health struggles in documentary
Johnny Manziel opened up about his mental health, bipolar disorder and his plan to end his own life in a new Netflix documentary
Content warning: This article includes mention of suicide. If you or someone you know is having thoughts of suicide, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is available 24 hours a day at 988.
Tampa Bay Buccaneers wide receiver Mike Evans, like plenty of others this week, watched Johnny Manziel’s new documentary on Netflix. He not only wanted to check in on his friend and former teammate, but Evans actually made an appearance in the documentary.
But when Manziel started talking about his mental health struggles, including that he had attempted to end his own life, Evans was stunned.
“I knew he was in a very dark place, I didn’t know about that,” Evans told ESPN’s Jenna Laine on Wednesday. “I care about him, but you know, I didn’t know about his suicide attempt. That was news.”
Manziel and Evans played together at Texas A&M for two seasons from 2012-13. They both then entered the NFL Draft in 2014. Manziel, who won the Heisman Trophy in 2012, went No. 22 overall to the Cleveland Browns. Evans went No. 7 overall to the Buccaneers.
In Netflix’s “Untold,” Manziel revealed he planned to end his own life in 2016, shortly after he was released by the Browns. He said he was using drugs, lost about 35 pounds in less than a year and went on a “$5 million bender.” Manziel even revealed he purchased a gun, but the gun malfunctioned.
“Still to this day, don’t know what happened, but the gun just clicked on me,” Manziel said. “I couldn’t fix what I had done with … the NFL, with [Texas] A&M, everything. At that point in time I didn’t have that much of a relationship with my family. The ride was over.”
Manziel, who was later diagnosed with bipolar disorder, is now thankfully in a much better place.
"I thought it was very noble of him to do what he did, cause it takes heart to, like, admit a lot of that stuff," Evans said, via ESPN.
Evans is set to enter his 10th season in the league this fall. He had 1,124 receiving yards and six touchdowns last season in Tampa, his ninth straight season of at least 1,000 receiving yards.
‘People know, I mean he’s a super-talented guy,” Evans said, via ESPN. “I mean, obviously his time, it came and gone — gone real fast — and that’s hard for people to deal with. Especially, he’s like the first of his kind — a rock star quarterback who’s hanging with all celebrities. Like, that’s like the first of his kind, so he was in a tough spot early on.”
