Heisman Trophy winner, former NFL quarterback, and potential future CFLer Johnny Manziel was on Overdrive on TSN Radio 1050 Tuesday to talk about his ongoing efforts to make a comeback to professional football.

Manziel, who is currently participating in the two-week long Spring League, said he is enjoying being a football player again.

“I get to go into a locker room, I get to talk crap with the boys, I get to be around the guys,” Manziel told Overdrive. “I get to have fun doing something that I’ve missed doing for two years and I appreciate it.”

Manziel, who earlier this year opened up about his struggles with depression, said working towards a goal on the football field has been positive for him.

“I wake up every day and go to UCLA and I throw and then go straight to the gym … that makes me happy. That wakes me up with a smile on my face and gives me something to look forward to the next day, rather than sitting on the couch and watching Netflix like I was doing for two years. It helps me get out of the depression that I’ve been in.”

From a physical standpoint, Manziel said he feels strong and feels he still has a lot of good football ahead of him.

“I’m sitting here at 25-years-old. I’m not 32 trying to make this trek. I’m still a young guy and still feel like maybe some of my strongest years are still ahead of me.”

“This is the best shape I’ve been in since my freshman year before I started at Texas A&M.”

The questions regarding Manziel this off-season are, of course, more about his past behaviour off the field rather than his talents on it. Manziel said he isn’t hiding from them.

“I have nothing to hide. My past and what I’ve been through has been well documented. I was a person that reached an extreme height of fame and popularity at a very young age and it got to a point where … I shifted my focus to more what football had done for me off the field.”

Manziel said he feels he’s now at a point in his life where he can focus solely on football.

“The biggest thing for me was cutting off dead weight; excess people around me that were in it for the wrong reasons that, at the end of the day, didn’t have what I had to lose every time we would go out. My dad told me from a young age, you are who you hang out with and I got around a crowd of people who didn’t necessarily care about me as a person but cared more about what I was doing for them.”

As expected, the CFL was brought up and Manziel said if three-down football is the path he ultimately chooses, he’ll be ready to earn a spot in the league.

“There is going to be a learning curve if that’s the path that pops up in my life. And I’m prepared for that. I wouldn’t expect to just go up there and get the hang of it the first day. For me, it’s going to be coming in and paying my dues in the building.”

It will be hard for Manziel, a household name both south and north of the border, to be just another guy chasing a dream in the CFL, but he hopes his notoriety won’t be held against him.

“Still the cameras the first day. Still all the other stuff that was like I’ve never left football for two years,” Manziel said about his experience at The Spring League so far. “I can’t help that. I hope that’s not held against me. I’ve done what I’ve done in the past, and that is in the past. All I can do is try to control the things I can do in my personal life moving forward.”

When asked if he feels he could succeed in the CFL, Manziel said he’s heard his game compared to one of the league’s legends.

“I feel like everyone that I’ve talked to has said that my style of play would fit. A lot of people come up to me and give a (comparison) to Doug Flutie. I’ve talked to Flutie about this at my time winning the Heisman, he has spoken great things about the game, how much fun he had, how awesome it was, and that’s a similar comparison that I get.”