SiftPop

by Samuel Nichols, Contributing Writer

Netflix knows how to pick interesting topics for their Untold stories, I’ll give them that. Johnny Manziel was an absolute sensation during his college years at Texas A&M with his out-of-pocket throws and runs which helped lead a program to national relevance. But then controversy began to unfold around him with his partying and how he was making money behind the NCAA’s back. When he finally got to the NFL, he was nothing like what the Cleveland Browns expected him to be when he was drafted. There is so much to tell about this man that it becomes hard to find a place to focus. I mean this in more ways than one, but what a mess of a story.

Look, there’s no point in me trying to divulge the entirety of Manziel’s life here. There are whole Wikipedia pages about individual seasons he had in college that a recap would be pointless. Know this: He was a phenomenal college football player who was as talented on the field as he was divisive off of it. He’d throw laser-like passes for scores and the next day be in the club with Drake neck deep in liquor. Then when he got to the NFL, his lack of work ethic showed through, and he couldn’t succeed in the same way he did in college. The off-the-field drama outweighed his on-field potential, and he has not been back to the NFL since Barack Obama’s second term.

What I love about watching this documentary is that it reflects how fast Manziel played with the pigskin. My guy was running around pockets and tripping linebackers with his fancy footwork like few players did. In the same way, you can get tripped up watching this documentary if you are not paying attention. We move from his high school days to his early days at Texas A&M quickly, and jump from game to game like kids playing hopscotch. Just as quickly, we’re following stories of Manziel going to clubs and parties within hours of important games. It’s like being on a rollercoaster there are twists and turns around every bend.

But therein lies the problem. This whole movie is just the rollercoaster at Disneyland, and does not include the scenic walk down Main Street, USA. Reflection and quiet moments don’t happen, because this movie is 80 minutes long. His time at Texas A&M was quick, so it makes sense for that part of his story to reflect that. But there have to have been moments in Manziel’s life when he wondered about everything that he had done, and what all had happened to him. We are not given the opportunity to ponder his life in an any major way.

I wonder if the reason why we didn’t get more discussion around that was because of Manziel’s resistance to the idea of opening up, or if Netflix left it on the cutting room floor because they did not have time. I hope it’s the latter for Johnny’s own sake. However, I wouldn’t put it past Netflix to just ignore what actually could have made this documentary good.

While I do appreciate the openness of everyone involved to talk about what a hurricane it was being a part of Manziel’s life (including himself), there is not enough time with any one person or any one period to really relay to us what the lows of his life were like. The highs are explained in great detail, and stories are told of his athletic process frequently, but the counterbalance is mostly absent. We rarely get any in-depth conversation with him or his loved ones about how his rise and fall affected them personally.

There is a brief moment when Manziel mentions a plan to kill himself after he had pissed away all of his money, but it is never returned to. It’s such a big statement that has no payoff and no further influence in the rest of the story; it seems like leaving meat on the bone. There’s no discussion about his time in other professional football leagues. His domestic violence allegations are glanced over like a kid walking past the produce section for the candy aisle. Manziel’s life was so much more than just what he did in college as a football player. Why does Netflix refuse to acknowledge that? There is not even a mention at the end of what Manziel does now that his playing days are behind him. Does he own a business? Is he a coach? I know I could google this, but one of the the jobs of a filmmaker is to give us an ending, and there isn’t one here.

Maybe there was not time. Perhaps Netflix pressured the people behind this documentary into reducing the story into an 80-minute frame. Maybe the filmmakers could not get ahold of all the people who could have gone into detail with Manziel’s life. I do not know. But this feels like a half-finished puzzle to me. You can tell what the picture is supposed to be — a broken man with incredible talent who did not live up to it — but not all the pieces are there.

Rating: It’s Just Okay

Untold – Johnny Football is currently streaming on Netflix

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You can read more from Samuel Nichols, and follow him on Twitter and Letterboxd