Brian Hoyer has a different recollection of how things went down between him and Johnny Manziel in 2014.
Hoyer responded to Manziel’s recent comments on Shannon Sharpe’s “Club Shay Shay” podcast that the veteran did not “help” Manziel when he was a rookie because it was Hoyer’s chance to finally be a starting quarterback.
“I’m on my vacation last week in Florida and I get a text from Mac Jones and he goes, ‘Hey, funny I didn’t get this treatment as a rookie,’” Hoyer, who was with the Patriots during Jones’ rookie year in 2021, said Tuesday on NFL Network’s “Good Morning Football.”
“Look, I’ll be honest, Johnny’s right, that was an opportunity for me to go out and be the starter for my hometown team, but I was kind of apathetic toward him I would say. I didn’t go out of my way to be a jerk to him, but in the same sense, I was trying to win this job and go out and perform the best I could. I feel sorry that he feels that way about it.
“I always looked at it like, I never had any animosity toward Johnny. If anything, it was toward the owner and the GM who were always trying to push him ahead of me when clearly he wasn’t ready and I was gonna be the starter. It’s unfortunate that that left a bad taste in his mouth, but like I said, never had any animosity toward Johnny. I feel bad that he feels that way, but I don’t really recall it being that way, either.”
Hoyer, who grew up in the Cleveland suburb of North Olmsted, Ohio, spent his first five seasons as a backup with the Patriots, Cardinals and Browns after going undrafted out of Michigan State in 2009.
In his second season with the Browns, Hoyer, now 38, was named the team’s starting quarterback in 2014 after it selected the flamboyant Manziel No. 22 overall that year.
Manziel, now 31, won the Heisman Trophy with Texas A&M in 2012 and became a household name with his “Johnny Football” persona.
“My quarterback room was not a home for me because of Brian Hoyer,” Manziel told Sharpe. “Brian Hoyer had been waiting on an opportunity to go really provide for his family, get an opportunity and he saw how much of an upper hand he had on me, and he didn’t hold back when it came to that.
“There were instances in the quarterback room early on where I would ask the same question a couple of times, and he’d be at the head of the table and go, ‘pfft, again? We’re doing this again? Keep him out of it. Cut that off.’ And I don’t have a bad word to say about Brian Hoyer. That is just fact of what happened in that room.”
Poor play, questions surrounding his commitment and domestic violence allegations led to the Browns cutting Manziel after the 2015 season, and he never returned to the NFL.
He spent time in the CFL, Alliance of American Football and the Fan Controlled Football league.
Manziel admitted to Sharpe that he lost 40 pounds after he was cut by the Browns because of cocaine use; he also used OxyContin and Percocet.
“A strict diet of blow,” Manziel said.
Hoyer made 14 appearances (13 starts) for the Browns in 2014, throwing for 3,326 yards, 12 touchdowns and 13 interceptions with the Browns going 7-6 in his starts; they finished 7-9 and missed the playoffs, with Manziel going 0-2 in his starts.
Hoyer has since bounced around with the Texans, Bears, 49ers, Colts and multiple stints with the Patriots before spending last season with the Raiders.