Johnny Manziel Admits He Misses 'College Life'

If you went to college, you miss college. This is just the way of things. 

Waking up in the late morning, throwing on some heinous T-shirt/sweatpants combo and hoofing it to class, blissfully ignorant of the debt and harrowing loneliness waiting on the other side of Graduation Gulch. It was the best.

Average college students aren’t the only ones who yearn for the days of yore and free lanyards. According to Cleveland.com’s Mary Kay Cabot, Johnny Manziel misses the undergrad zeitgeist as much as any other former college student.

The Cleveland Browns backup quarterback opened up to Cabot about his adjustment to life as Johnny Football: Working Man and how he still feels the nostalgic tug of his college playing days at Texas A&M.

"

I don’t think I miss school, but I miss those guys in the locker room. I miss Coach Sumlin. I think it’s fair for me to say that I miss college life, but this is the decision that I made. And I knew very well going into the draft last year that it was going to be different for me and going to be a time for me to grow up. That’s the path I chose. And if I wanted to stay in college and sleep in and go to class and horse around like I was doing the past couple years, then I should have stayed.

"

Manziel admitted that camaraderie in pro football manifests itself in different ways than at the college level. 

"

It’s just different. Guys [in college] can come in with a 25-person class that you’re with there for four or five years. Here you get a different mix of rookies coming in. It’s a little smaller class. Everybody here goes home to their families. ...

In college, you’re in the same class with some of the guys, you’re doing the same things on campus, you’re doing the same things outside of football, too. I feel like you’re a lot more of a tight-knit group in college, but at the same time, there’s still a lot of love in this locker room and a lot of that in an NFL locker room I still feel.

"

I’m of the opinion that Manziel—no matter how successful or unsuccessful his pro career turns out to be—will end up back in College Station at some point. If you can’t picture him opening a bar called “Johnny Football’s” and holding court at a big booth in the corner, you haven’t been paying attention.

As for Manziel’s assimilation into what college students refer to as “real life,” it’s a somewhat comforting realization. Even model-dating, sports car-driving superstars miss the days of free pizza and Natural Light in the shower. It’s not just you.

Follow Dan on Twitter for more sports and pop culture news.

Follow @Dr_Carson_