CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Johnny Manziel's association with LeBron James and Maverick Carter has already begun to pay off.

Before leaving town for his summer break, Manziel spent Sunday afternoon filming his first commercial as a pro at Collinwood High School in Cleveland.

The day-long shoot involved Manziel completing a pass to his go-to guy, a silver Nissan Altima.

The endorsement for Collection Auto Group was arranged by Carter, James' childhood friend and partner in LRMR, the marketing firm that James and Manziel.

"The connection actually started with Lebron and Maverick Carter,'' Bernie Moreno, owner of Collection Auto Group told cleveland.com. "They've been phenomenal clients of ours for the last nine years, even after he moved to Miami -- not only LeBron but his friends and associates. He's been a super-loyal client and it was a natural for when they got Johnny to really present it to us and give us that opportunity.''

So, will Manziel and Moreno conspire to bring James back to Cleveland?

"If we only had that much power,'' Moreno said with a laugh. "I think it would be fantastic (to have both in town). I think there would be nothing better than that.''

Carter spent the day at Collinwood with Manziel during the shoot, sometimes tossing the football around with him on the football field and beating the heat on a 90-degree day. Neither was available for interviews, but Moreno couldn't have been happier with how the day went.

"We're really excited,'' he said. "To have Johnny be able to do his first commercial in Cleveland with us, with our company, he's a really, really nice guy and he's doing a great job. He really cares about doing things well, and I think that if that translates it into his other job. I think he brings a credibility. We couldn't ask for a bigger endorser than that.

"He's raising our entire community's level of expectations. I moved here nine years ago, and what I found is that Cleveland's esteem maybe needed to be raised and the reality is that Cleveland is a great city, a great place to live. What Johnny's doing is getting us all to realize, this isn't a second-rate city. It's really a great place to live.''

After spending the afternoon with Manziel, Moreno was struck by what a regular guy he was.

"He has a lot of charisma,'' said Moreno. "He's a naturally nice guy. He cares deeply. Despite some of the fringy things you see out there, I think in his heart he's a really good person, the kind of person that just wants to win and bring a championship to Cleveland, there's no question in my mind about that.''

Manziel will do a few other marketing deals for Carter during his six weeks off and also spend time back home in Texas before returning to Cleveland for the start of training camp July 26.