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Vanderbilt quarterback Diego Pavia is turning to a controversial football figure for advice ahead of the upcoming NFL Draft.
The polarizing quarterback revealed that he is connecting with former Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Johnny Manziel — who’s had his own run-ins with controversy — for advice and mentorship as the draft inches closer.
“He’s giving me what to look out for, what it’s like, how to stay in the process,” Pavia told reporters at the NFL Combine in Indianapolis on Friday, February 28. “And, you know, he’s given me some good advice, for sure.”
He continued, “And he always reaches out, too, checks up on me, makes sure I’m good, and he just, like, he’s just a friend to me, you know? And so he’s giving me some mentorship. He’s been around me, he’s been around my family. He’s just a great person for those that really don’t know him.”
Pavia finished second in this year’s Heisman Trophy voting — behind Indiana quarterback and national champion Fernando Mendoza — after putting up impressive numbers in his final year at Vanderbilt. Pavia led the Commodores to a 10-2 season with 3,192 passing yards, 27 touchdowns and only eight interceptions. He added 826 yards and nine touchdowns on the ground.
Similar to Manziel’s story, Pavia’s career has been rife with controversy, boiling over at the Heisman Trophy ceremony when Pavia posted disparaging messages to Heisman voters and the Indiana football team on his social media. He later apologized for the posts.
Pavia said on Friday that NFL teams have not asked him about those eye-opening social media posts.
“Nope, they haven’t,” Pavia told reporters. “I just think, not that they don’t care or whatever, but they kind of know the situation already.”
Diego Pavia speaks to the media during the 2026 NFL Draft Combine Michael Hickey/Getty Images
He continued, “One thing about me is I don’t care what people think about me. God has a plan for me regardless. But the way the media is, they’re supposed to put out clickbait and things like that. That’s how people get views, and that’s how people make money. I understand that. And so people will twist a story and try to put out bad media to get clicks, good media to get clicks. That’s just today’s world that we live in. So I’m just adjusting to the new world.”
Manziel had his own string of trouble throughout his college career and into his brief NFL career.
His time at Texas A&M was marred with controversy leading up to the 2014 NFL Draft, where he fell all the way to the No. 22 pick by the Cleveland Browns after he was projected to be selected in the top five.
He played just 14 games in the NFL — all with the Browns — and was cut by the team after two seasons due to personal issues, including substance abuse.
Manziel has been open about his struggles with mental health and substance abuse, speaking on the topic in the 2023 Netflix documentary, Untold: Johnny Football.
“When I had gotten everything I’d ever wanted, I think I was the most empty that I ever felt inside,” he said. “I think I was trying to suppress how I felt and get out of being Johnny Football. [I] had bought a gun that I knew I was going to use. I had planned to do everything that I wanted to do at that point in my life, spend as much money as I possibly could, and then my plan was to take my own life.”
If you or someone you know is in emotional distress or considering suicide, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255).
