He sat in a green room, quiet as the commissioner entered the stage. His family all around him, holding his hands, waiting to see him walk across that stage and see his lifelong dream finally be accomplished. As the commissioner walked away from the podium, the phone did not ring for the young man who decided to leave college early to take his shot at the NFL. Thoughts began to tumble out of his head as more and more players walked up on the stage and accepted their new uniform from their new CEO.

“Did I do something wrong? Was the media saying something about me that I don’t know? Did I have a bad pro-day? What happened? Why am I still in this green room and other players are getting to go to the NFL? Don’t they know who I am? I’m a Heisman winning quarterback. I’m Johnny Football!”

All those thoughts and voices ran through the mind of Jonathan Paul Manziel as 21 players heard their names called before NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell approached the microphone. While many scouts and reporters believed that Manziel was a day 2 pick at best, the Cleveland Browns decided to take a chance on the former 2012 Heisman trophy winner, thinking he could have the potential to be a starting caliber quarterback.

Flash forward to 2016 as a photo of Manziel appears on Twitter with him sitting at a bar, drinking a beer and watching the NFL Draft that just two years ago he was in. There was no celebration on his face, nor was their joy in his heart. There was a look of failure and disappointment on his cheeks as he finished his beer and heads towards a Justin Bieber concert

Just two years after being drafted, Johnny Manziel is now out of football and probably won’t be playing in the 2016 season. After numerous complaints, countless careless decisions and several arrests, it’s hard for a team to truly take Manziel seriously as a professional football player. Manziel on the other hand has a different excuse.

“You guys (the media) act like what I'm doing is something new. I've been the same person, doing the same things since it all started. I made plenty of mistakes along the way, and have a lot I'd do differently. To all my family and real friends who have stuck by me...THANK YOU”

It’s been close to a month since that fateful night out in Cleveland and since then things haven’t really changed for the troubled 23-year-old. After being found passed out in a ball-pit at the Coachella Music Festival, Manziel recently was documented being thrown out of a night club in Las Vegas after being involved in an altercation, an altercation he started. He’s lost weight, lost muscle, added several more tattoos (including a pot leaf) and is seen in 90% of media photographs carrying a bottle of booze rather than a bottle of water.

Now, it seems his family and friends are no longer fearing for his career in the NFL. They instead fear he will not live to see his next birthday.

"He's in a horrible downward spiral," one source very close to the QB told TMZ Sports. "He's too much of a risk. He's a good guy, but he's a f***ing mess."

Before I go any further with this story, I’ll be honest and straight forward; I have never been a fan of Johnny Manziel, both on and off the field. I’ll be the first to admit I have criticized every step of his career and trashed on his personal life whenever he has made a mistake. I have gone out of my way to say that he’s “an arrogant spoiled brat who was handed everything and took it all for granted.”

But this article isn’t about me trashing the former 2012 Heisman Trophy winner. This isn’t even about saying how I was right that he would be the worst quarterback that Cleveland Browns have had since their expansion back in 1999 (I mean it’s Cleveland, he had no chance).

This isn’t even about my thoughts on his personal life and how he’s lucky to be out in about on the streets when the rest of society would be locked behind a jail cell.

This is the account of a person who has lived in a household of addiction his entire life and knows first-hand what this terrible disease can do to you. And yes, for those people out there who don’t believe it, addiction is a real disease. It kills more than most “CDC official” diseases combined and it has a much larger effect on the members on the family than almost anything else out there.

Since I was child, I grew up around addiction throughout my household. My grandfather and uncle are both former alcoholics who would hit the bottle at quitting time and drink their issues away. My other grandfather lives attached to a bottle to Beefeaters and won’t stop drinking it until he closes his eyes and says goodnight. My grandmother loves her slot machines while my mom frivolously continues to punch in her credit card number to fuel her shopping addiction. My brother loves to eat food with higher than 50% saturated fat and continues to ignore his growing belly by hitting the gym and trying to burn the fat off. Growing up in a family full of individual’s who needed to feed their personal issues, people could say we were broken and that my brother and I never stood a chance at making it in this real world.

Then there’s me; pretty much a sample of each family member above. I don’t know when to walk away from a table even when I’ve been on a 12 game losing streak. I consistently feel the need to purchase something just because I have money and have the type of income I can spend frivolous things on. I lie all the time just to cover my ass from getting yelled at and I’ve dabbled in both the usage of drugs and alcohol throughout high school and college. I’m 22, young, stupid and have to learn from my mistakes to grow as a human; sometimes even if that’s the hard way.

Just because I come from a family of addicts doesn’t mean I’m not proud to wear the Thompson and Hester family names proud. My uncle is the hardest working man I have ever seen while my Dad makes so many sacrifices for his family just to see them happy. My Mom is the sweetest women out there with such a tender heart while my grandma always puts her family and faith before herself. My brother is the funniest person I know while my grandfather is the single-handed greatest person I have ever known. I’m just some kid in the middle of this crazy family and feel blessed to be a part of it.

You want to know why I’m proud to say I’m a Thompson; because we admit to our own faults. Each member of my family has come out and said “I am an addict in this way and I need help”. No one grabbed them by the hand and told them to maybe seek help, that doesn’t work for addicts. Through faith, humility and the ability to recognize our faults, we have grown to become a closer and better family because of it.

And there’s where Johnny Manziel falls short…at least for the time being.

His family and friends, the ones who have stuck through with him through it all, now beg him to enter rehab and think of his life choices so he can live to see his next birthday. Manziel believes there’s nothing wrong with his actions. Almost every NFL franchise has come out and said they will not take a chance on the former quarterback due to his off the field behavior. Manziel thinks that he still has a shot to play in the NFL come September. He believes that his behavior and actions are just something anyone his age would do.

There’s a difference however between what Manziel has done and what any other normal 22 year old kid would do. If I was to hit my girlfriend, be thrown out of a bar, constantly be seen on drugs and drinking, companies would never give me chance to write for them. I would be dealing with police and criminal charges, paying thousands of dollars in lawyer fees while trying desperately to overcome my own mistakes. Meanwhile, Manziel is not sitting in prison or dealing with his assault charges, but rather hoping on a plane to the next party where he can be seen making yet another mistake.

Let this also be clear; we have to take some responsibility as fans of the sport for his actions. A young 19 year old kid comes down to Tuscaloosa and defeats Nick Saban in his first year in the SEC…we put him on a pedestal that only continues to rise with his next accomplishments. Any 19 year old kid would have done the same if the fans of college football treated him like a God or the second coming. The fact of the matter is we as fans took a kid who came to better his craft and turned him into a public figure overnight. The issue is now that he’s crashing and falling back to reality; we turn the other cheek and allow him to fail on his own.

The first step of fixing any problem is admitting there is one. For the time being, Manziel is too far gone to be saved. I don’t mean saved from going to prison or losing his sponsors. I don’t mean losing his money or his possession. I don’t even mean losing his fame, both positive and negative.

Johnny Manziel is too far gone to be saved from himself.

It’s hard to say this due to the backlash I could receive but it needs to be said. I don’t care what happens to Johnny Manziel when this is all over. It’s not because of jealousy and it’s not because of my personal thoughts of the guy; it’s on from what I’ve seen in my lifetime. A person is told the only way we continue to grow is if we learn from our mistakes, Manziel hasn’t. In fact, not only has he not learned from past failures, but continues to make the same mistakes over and over again. Not only does he not want to fix his mistakes, he doesn’t even notice they exist.

It might be growing up around addiction that has made me this way but the fact of the matter is this is no longer his family’s fight. This is no longer his friend’s fight. This is no longer our fight as fans or anti-fans. This fight now stands between himself and his personal issues. If he doesn’t want to seek the help, he won’t. That’s the problem with addicts who are blinded by their disease; they never seek help because they believe the never need it. Sometimes they end up on top, other times they end up six feet deep. Only they can decide which path they choose to take.

To the friends and family and fans of Manziel, I ask you to understand what I’m about to say. It’s not going to be nice and it’s not going to be pretty. It’s going to be hard to do but this might be the only way to save his life.

Stop supporting him.

Release all contact from him and let him be alone. It is when we reach our lowest points on earth, there’s nowhere to go but up. Manziel still has not reached that point just yet. While he’s close, the support cast surrounding him is a crutch to keep him afloat. No one can grab him by the hand and say “Now Johnny, you have to apologize for what you’ve done”. He’s not three; although by his actions you’d never be able to tell if he was.

Any single time someone reports on him, that adds fuel to an already burning fire. No one is helping him by sticking by his side, they actually doing damage. When people are around other who won’t nip the destruction in the butt, they feel as if their actions are allowed in society.

Johnny Manziel must now be held accountable for his actions and the best way to show it is by not reporting it. Don’t cheer for him, don’t give him praise, don’t wear his jersey…don’t even say hello. If maybe he truly felt like no one was around him and able to help him out of trouble, maybe progress will come of it.

Addiction is the biggest killer in today’s society, yet it’s treated like just another run of the mill thing. If you or anyone you know is battling addiction, please seek help throughout your family, friends or call 1-800-662-HELP for more information.

As for Johnny Football, I wish him the best in life and hope that one day he will learn from his mistakes. However, knowing what an addict’s attitude is like, it’s hard to see him come out of this on top right if he can’t admit to his own fault, get off his high horse and seek both personal and physical help.

Johnny Manziel has been an underdog his entire life in every aspect of his career. Many, including myself, have believed he could never overcome the obstacles in his life that have held him back.

For once, I hope this time he will prove me wrong.