Johnny Manziel spent two seasons starring at Texas A&M before entering the NFL Draft, but he claims his father sought a huge payday to spend more time with the Aggies.

A member of the 2011 recruiting class, Manziel redshirted before bursting onto the scene in 2012 and capturing the Heisman Trophy as a redshirt freshman. He delivered another impressive season in 2013, setting up an intriguing decision entering 2014.

“I’m leaving go to the draft, I’ll paint a picture for you. It’s the spring of 2014, December 2013 right in there and I’m getting ready to make this decision on if I’m going to the NFL Draft or if I’m going to stay,” said Manziel during a sitdown interview with Shannon Sharpe. “And I found this out 5 years later from my dad.”

Manziel went on to claim his father went to then-head coach Kevin Sumlin and requested $3 million to spend 2 more years with the Aggies. Per Manziel’s recounting, Sumlin laughed at the idea.

“My dad had a meeting with Kevin Sumlin, and pretty much went to him man-to-man and said to him we’ll take $3 million to stay for the next two years. And my dad says this is true as today as when he told him: (Sumlin) laughed,” Manziel said. “He did the same thing when Kliff Kingsbury came to him and said he wanted to be the highest-paid offensive coordinator the year before, and Kliff would’ve stayed another year with me and ran it back.”

Sharpe responded by seeking clarification on the story. Manziel acknowledged it was indeed a time in college athletics way before the introduction of NIL, but he also claims that’s the way things worked with a “bag man” at every major program in his era.

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“You do realize this is prior to NIL?” asked Sharpe. “So this is a backroom deal?”

“It went on for 30-40 years before,” countered Manziel. “Same things happened when you were being recruited back in the day… There was a bag man. There was a bag man at LSU, there was a bag man at Alabama, there was a bag man at every school around the country if you were competing for a national title. It’s just what it was.”

Here’s the full interview for Sharp’s “Club Shay Shay” with the story beginning around the 12-minute mark: