Before Texas A&M’s 10-3 home loss to Miami during the first round of the College Football Playoff, former Texas A&M Heisman-winning quarterback Johnny Manziel was scheduled to be the guest picker during ESPN’s “College GameDay” program that made its way back to College Station for the first time since the end of the 2024 regular season.
An hour or so before the GameDay panel, made up of Desmond Howard, Nick Saban, Pat McAfee, Reese Davis, and Kirk Herbstreit, it was revealed that former Texas A&M guard Alex Caruso, who is also a two-time NBA Champion with the Los Angeles Lakers and the Oklahoma City Thunder last season, filled in for Manziel at the last minute.
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The reason for Manziel’s sudden exit was not explained during the show, but 24 hours after Texas A&M’s loss, the former star quarterback posted on Instagram, offering a brief but slightly cryptic explanation for his disappearance from the show:
“I will have plenty more to say about what transpired yesterday. There is almost nothing on this earth that would have made me miss that game. To all the people that genuinely reached out and checked in onme I cannot thank you enough. To ESPN, Pat, Coach, Desmond, and the entire crew on gameday lapologize it was out of my control. To the Aggies and A&M fan base I’m sorry. I will continue to let everyone out there run with a fake narrative and at the end of the day perception always wins over reality. I love all of you who genuinely support me through good and bad like you’ve all done for years. I have no doubt Texas A&M and the Aggie football program will be in that position again. I’m recovering and feeling about a 3/10 going to rest up and try and get back to normal.”
Given the circumstances of Saturday’s game, those of us in the media did not place too much importance on this story, waiting for Manziel himself to explain why he dropped out at the last minute. All that matters is that he is stable and recovering from what occurred the day/night before.
Manziel is a Texas A&M and college football legend, and in just two seasons, he finished his career with a record-setting 7,820 passing yards and 63 touchdowns, and 2,168 rushing yards and 30 rushing scores.
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This article originally appeared on Aggies Wire: Johnny Manziel explains his missed ‘College GameDay’ appearance