Fans pony up $99 for Johnny Manziel autograph at event outside Houston

Hundreds of fans paid $99 for an autograph from Johnny Manziel at a pre-Super Bowl fundraiser (for Johnny Football) at a mall outside Houston on Thursday night.

Stadium Signatures, which put on the event in Katy, earlier trumpeted fans’ enthusiasm for Manziel in one of the Aggie Heisman winner’s first public autograph appearances since being cut by the Cleveland Browns last March:

The store manager later told ESPN that Manziel put more than 150 signatures on various items and posed for more than 70 photos.

CBS Sports writer Will Brinson was there and said Manziel “looked clear-eyed, full heart” after being away from the NFL for a year.

“Honestly, I was kind of impressed, because it looked like ... seeing his general physical demeanor ... that he’s doing really well,” Brinson said. “You could see it. He was hugging kids, he was playing around with everybody. You could tell that he was genuinely recharged and looked like a guy who was reinvested in making his professional football life work.”

Manziel, a first-round draft pick out of Texas A&M in 2014, has a message for any NFL team that might consider hiring him, CBS Sports said. He’s taking his comeback seriously and ready to give his all.

“I just want to get back on the field,” he told Brinson. Manziel, 24, didn’t talk freely to the 25 or so reporters at the event, so Brinson and cbssports.com writer John Breech paid $99 to hear his thoughts.

Missed it? Don’t fret, you’ll get another chance tonight, at the store’s Woodlands location, 7 to 8 p.m.

Two weeks ago, Manziel posted a video on the Stadium Signatures Facebook page inviting Aggie Nation to the signings in The Woodlands and Katy, 30 miles west of Houston, site of Super Bowl LI.

They didn’t disappoint Thursday. Hundreds of fans, many in Aggie jerseys and T-shirts, lined up to shell out the benjamins for the former NFL player’s autograph. He reportedly stayed around for an hour and a half.

“He’s a legend,” Vince Sum, 22, told ESPN. He flew into Houston from Salt Lake City on Thursday.

Manziel was cut from the Browns after skipping the team’s season finale last year to take a trip to Las Vegas. His off-the-field partying and troubles — including a domestic violence charge involving his ex-girlfriend, former TCU student Colleen Crowley — have plagued him from the beginning of his career.

He told ESPN in January that he’s now managed to stay sober without professional help and that his next goal is to play football again.

This story was originally published February 3, 2017 at 12:33 PM with the headline "Fans pony up $99 for Johnny Manziel autograph at event outside Houston."