So he was pooping himself.
Former Texas A&M quarterback (and NFL bust) Johnny Manziel was scheduled to be in College Station over the weekend to serve as the guest picker for ESPN’s College GameDay.
But he never showed up.
On Friday, the GameDay crew was teasing the appearance of the Aggie legend on their show. Then Saturday, they made no mention of Manziel, and instead announced that former Texas A&M basketball player and current NBA star Alex Caruso would be the guest picker.
Hmm… what happened there? Should we ask the internet?
Social media sleuths quickly developed their own theory. As it turns out, Manziel attended the Jake Paul-Anthony Joshua fight in Miami, Florida (where Paul got his jaw broken), and let’s just say it didn’t look like he was sticking to water. The drinks – and potentially other things – were flowing, and Johnny Manziel provided all of that proof through his Instagram story:
So yeah, nobody was really surprised that he didn’t make it. And the internet let him hear about it:
Aaaah ur tweet makes sense now lol. Welp, so much for Johnny Manziel being a changed man narrative he’s pushed in recent years lol https://t.co/DZ19nMGAke
— Mayo (@YDKI007) December 20, 2025
Johnny Manziel missing College GameDay because he was out in Miami the night before is the most Johnny Manziel thing ever. Twelve years later, and nothing’s changed
— David Ramirez (@DavidRamirez54) December 20, 2025
Way to represent your university!
— Te Wu (@mbroncotwd) December 20, 2025
Johnny Manziel jinxed Texas A&M today#CFBPlayoff pic.twitter.com/Tnm0dTedDU
— Talkin’ Football (@Talkin_Football) December 20, 2025
Michael Irvin made it to the game from the Jake Paul fight
Johnny Manziel didn’t
That was the difference in the game
— Dalton Wasserman (@PFF_Dalton) December 20, 2025
But Manziel is blasting the “fake narrative” that he was hungover for his scheduled appearance, and is instead blaming it on a stomach bug…
Yeah, I’ve used that excuse when I was hungover too.
According to 247sports, Manziel’s camp contacted GameDay on Saturday morning and told them that he had contracted norovirus and would be unable to make the show, which is when they pivoted to Caruso. And apparently it was pretty last minute, because Caruso’s wife Haleigh shared a video of them rushing to get to the set on time.
@haleighcaruso This morning was CHAOS. #gigem #goaggies #texasaggies #gamepick #espn #espncfb
Manziel also released a statement, apologizing for his absence but saying that it was out of his control:
“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 on me I cannot thank you enough. To ESPN, Pat, Coach, Desmond, and the entire crew on gameday I apologize 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 the 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 to get back to normal. Much love.”
Now, just in case you’re not familiar with norovirus, it’s basically a stomach bug with symptoms that include nausea, vomiting and diarrhea…which are also symptoms of a hangover. I’m not saying that Manziel DIDN’T get a stomach bug in the 8 hours between the fight and GameDay, but this is a guy who was benched by the Cleveland Browns for partying during a bye week and flew to Vegas the night before what turned out to be the final game of his NFL career.
You can see why people think he might have missed GameDay because he partied too hard the night before.
