Johnny Manziel didn’t plan the infamous trip to Tampa. His dad did. Fresh out of rehab and trying to rebuild both his life and his football career, the former Browns quarterback got a call that caught him completely off guard. “Yo, I booked you a flight to Tampa,” his father told him. Manziel had no idea why.
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“What the f*ck are we doing in Tampa?” he remembers asking. The answer was even more surprising: Jon Gruden had invited him to stay at his house for a week.
“My dad had always had a good relationship with Gruden since we did the QB School before the draft,” Manziel recalled on his podcast. “They hit it off, they would text, check in on me, and things. So my dad’s like, ‘You’re going to go live with Coach Gruden for a week. Bring your f**king playbook. You get on the flight tomorrow.”
And just like that, Manziel was on his way to Florida for an intense, eye-opening crash course with one of football’s most obsessive minds. Manziel expected film sessions and chalk talk. He didn’t expect the schedule.
After arriving at Gruden’s house and spending the first afternoon breaking down tape, the two had dinner and prepared for the next day. Gruden casually asked what time he wanted to start.
“I’m thinking, okay, this is legendary Coach Gruden… I’m like, 7:30?” Manziel said with a laugh. Gruden’s response stunned him.
“He’s like, ‘I’m in there 4:30, 5:00 every morning.’ I’m like, you are not even coaching right now, and you’re just grinding film every day?”
Manziel woke up at 5 a.m. the next morning, so Gruden wouldn’t have to come pick him up. For five or six days, that became their routine: film, mechanics, football talk from dawn until night. No cameras, no media, just a former Super Bowl–winning coach pouring knowledge into a struggling young quarterback.
The Tampa visit came during a critical crossroads in 2015. After an ineffective rookie season filled with off-field issues, Manziel had spent 10 weeks in a treatment facility and was trying to change his image. Working with Gruden, an ESPN analyst who regularly tutored quarterbacks on ‘Gruden’s QB Camp,’ was part of that reset.
Reports at the time confirmed the two focused on film study and mechanics, an effort to help Manziel put his disastrous first year behind him before Browns camp opened. Whether the NFL comeback ever fully materialized is another story. But for Manziel, that week in Tampa remains one of the most important stretches of his football life.
