Johnny Manziel's ex opens up - 'I was lucky to have survived'
Johnny Manziel’s former girlfriend told the New York Post in an exclusive interview that she feels “lucky to have survived” her relationship with the former NFL quarterback, while describing the abuse she endured from Manziel during their two-year relationship.
Colleen Crowley, now 25, said she constantly felt like she had to protect Manziel during their time together, especially after police stopped the car the two were riding in along an Ohio interstate in October 2015.
Crowley initially told officers that Manziel had “hit her a couple times” and “shoved her head into a window” prior to the authorities arriving on the scene, according to a police report. Crowley told the Post that was the first time Manziel had been physically abusive with her.
But Crowley also said her “protective instincts” kicked in and she told the officers she did not want to press charges.
“Your instinct is to be like, ‘What do we need to do — what do I need to say — to get him out of this?’” Crowley said. “I constantly felt like I had to protect him.”
Crowley, who was a student at Texas Christian University, and Manziel, a Heisman winner at Texas A&M, met in 2014 through some mutual friends. After being drafted by the Browns and getting an apartment in Cleveland, Manziel invited Crowley to move in with him.
Crowley said less than a year later, Manziel “came to me crying, saying ‘I need to go to rehab.'”
In April 2015, Manziel had completed a 10-week stint in rehab and bought a home in suburban Cleveland. Crowley stayed with him. “If he was going to stay on the right track, I was going to have to go up there,” she told the Post.
Crowley claims Manziel seemed to have his life under control until he wasn’t able to hold down the Browns’ starting quarterback job in the first half of the 2015 season. She described Manziel as being “depressed” and “closed off,” even turning down invitations to dinners with LeBron James.
The much-publicized domestic abuse incident along the highway happened that October. Crowley says because the two had been drinking prior to the altercation, some people — including some of Manziel’s teammates — used the incident to blame Crowley for the problems in their relationship, calling her a “party girl” who was a bad influence on someone who had been in rehab.
“People thought I was this party girl — crazy,” she said. “I read things about me that were just not true.”
Crowley admitted that she was “addicted” to the relationship with Manziel. Even after he first hit her, “I didn’t want to believe it. I remember being convinced I was drunk and nothing happened.”
But it wasn’t the first time Manziel lost his temper around Crowley, she said, and it wasn’t the last. She claimed when he would get angry, she would lock herself in a closet or a bathroom just to get away from him. She also claims Manziel “smashed” four cell phones belonging to her during the time they were together, primarily to prevent her from calling her parents.
“It was a controlling thing. He didn’t want me to contact my parents,” she said.
By January 2016, Crowley tried to break off their relationship. They were together after a party in a Dallas hotel, and Crowley told Manziel she would not be spending the night with him.
Manziel, according to a statement Crowley gave Dallas police, then “restrained” her and led her downstairs, where he forced her into his car. Then he drove to a bar where her car was parked and the two switched vehicles “against my will,” according to Crowley. As Manziel was backing out, she “jumped from the car.” He “grabbed me by my hair and threw me back into the car,” according to the statement, then “hit me with his open hand on my left ear.”
Crowley told the Post the blow made her “completely deaf in one ear for three and a half months.”
On the drive to her apartment, Manziel threatened to kill them both, Crowley told the newspaper.
“I think there was some mental breakdown because the way he was acting, it wasn’t anything like drugs or alcohol would affect a person,” she said. “This was more deep-rooted.”
Back at her apartment, the arguing continued for several more hours.
“Out of fear for my life, I pulled a knife out of my knife block and advanced toward him,” she said. “He ran out of the apartment.”
A week later, she filed a written complaint with Dallas police, and a judge ordered Manziel to stay away from her for two years.
“I was lucky to have survived,” Crowley told the Post. “I fought for my life that night.”
Manziel was eventually indicted on assault charges, although the charges were dropped after he attended anger-management classes and participated in the NFL’s substance abuse program.
Manziel has recently become engaged to model Bre Tiesi. He said last month he has been diagnosed as being bipolar. He also said he hopes to return to pro football and has reportedly told NFL teams he is willing to earn no salary while being on a team’s practice squad.
Crowley, who now lives in New York with her new boyfriend, said she wanted to tell the Post her story to help others who are trying to move on from abusive relationships.
“Immediately after (an assault) you feel so powerless — you’re stripped of your dignity, your self-worth,” Crowley said. “Trying to get back to that place where you really know yourself is a journey.”
Neither Manziel or his representatives responded to requests from the Post for comments about Crowley’s statements.
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