Quarterback Josh Johnson is one of those guys who just keeps popping up. He’s always buried on the depth chart, mentioned only when a starting QB goes down and there’s a chance he’ll see playing time — but to his credit, the dude just keeps ticking.
So, when Johnson went off for the Broncos in the preseason, going 16-for-23, 172 yards and two touchdowns, it was a nice opportunity to remember that Josh Johnson is still in the league. Then the NFL posted this and it took my breath away.
Yes, if you’re counting that all up Johnson has played for 14 — FOURTEEN! — NFL teams! That’s the current record for most teams played by a single player. Somehow even wilder is how he’s played for four different football leagues. During Johnson’s 15-year football career he’s taken snaps in the NFL, UFL, AAF and XFL — always proving useful, always getting his job done.
This isn’t some wild career that’s resulted in huge contracts, but rather collecting paydays from basically everyone. According to Spotrac, Johnson will have made $9.1M by the end of this season, which is more than most of us hope to make in a lifetime. He’s lived across the country, only appeared in 37 regular season games, and is there more for safety and moral support than anything else. Granted, he’s no Chase Daniel who has made $41M over his career doing more or less the same thing, but Daniel had to take snaps in 70 games.
Josh Johnson has decoded the art of football. His body has never broken down, at age 36 he can theoretically keep going for another 5-6 years at least, if he wants to — and he’s still playing at a high level. I’m simply in awe of everything Johnson has done in his football career, as we should all be.
Every team needs a Josh Johnson. Only 18 teams haven’t had Josh Johnson. At this point it should be written into his contracts that a team can only keep him for a season, at which team he can sign somewhere else — just so he can extend the record.