Johnny Manziel will return to the football field once again. The 28-year-old quarterback will be playing for a new startup league called the Fan Controlled Football.
The FCF is a new football league that will focus on the 18-35-year-old demographic. To do so, the league will add elements of eSports into football, allowing greater fan interactions. Fans will have the ability to set team rosters and actively call team plays during games. In addition, games will not be as long, clocking in at one hour. FCF co-founder and CEO Sohrob Farudi explained, “The younger generation isn’t sitting through a three-hour game anymore. Part of our concept is, ‘Let’s give it to them quick and easy.”’
This hybridization is what appealed to Manziel and ultimately convinced him to play football again. “They’re going to let the people [who] join this league be who they are and have fun with it and be a little bit freer than what football is sometimes,” Manziel said. “That’s definitely what appealed to me.”
Manziel was seen as a talented quarterback when he was drafted by the Cleveland Browns in 2014. However, he damaged by off-field controversies and focusing on partying instead of improving his game. He only played two seasons with Cleveland before being released. Three years after his release, he had a brief stint in the Canadian Football League before being released and barred from the league. Following his CFL release, he joined the Alliance of American Football before the league folded in 2019.
Since then, he moved to Arizona where he enjoys playing golf and watching football. However, he was able to connect with Farudi about the league before deciding to join. Manziel has hyped the league. “It’s going to be very fan-oriented and something I could get behind without being extremely, extremely, extremely serious, the way that my football career has been in the past,” he said. Farudi supported what the former NFL QB said with his own statement, “He got into these other leagues and, I hate to say this, but it’s like the handcuffs were put on, you had to act differently, you had to walk and talk differently.”
The inaugural season is set for February and will feature seven-on-seven games. The league will only have four teams. Each team will have celebrity owners such as Richard Sherman, Austin Ekeler, Marshawn Lynch, Quavo, Mike Tyson and Menery. Teams will play a six-week schedule, games will be broadcasted on Twitch. The field will be a 50-by-35 yard with a 10-yard endzone. Teams will play in a leased Atlanta facility.
“It’s a one-hour game, it’s interactive, you’re watching and interacting at the same time,” Farudi said.
