Cameron Johnston (born 24 February 1992) is an Australian-born

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...

punter for the

Houston Texans The Houston Texans are a professional American football team based in Houston. The Texans compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC South, South division, and play their home ga ...

of the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...

(NFL). He played

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States. Unlike most ...

Ohio State The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best public ...

. He formerly played

Australian rules football Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an oval field, often a modified cricket ground. Points are scored by k ...

and was a member of the

Melbourne Football Club The Melbourne Football Club, nicknamed the Demons, is a professional Australian rules football club that competes in the Australian Football League (AFL), the sport's elite competition. It is based in Melbourne, Victoria (Australia), Victoria, ...

in 2011. He also played for the

Philadelphia Eagles The Philadelphia Eagles are a professional American football team based in Philadelphia. The Eagles compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) East division. The team plays ...

of the NFL from 2017 to 2020.

Early life and Australian rules career

Johnston is from

Geelong Geelong ( ) (Wathawurrung: ''Djilang''/''Djalang'') is a port city in the southeastern Australian state of Victoria, located at the eastern end of Corio Bay (the smaller western portion of Port Phillip Bay) and the left bank of Barwon River, ...

Victoria, Australia Victoria is a state in southeastern Australia. It is the second-smallest state with a land area of , the second most populated state (after New South Wales) with a population of over 6.5 million, and the most densely populated state in Au ...

, and attended high school at St Joseph's College. He played for the

Geelong Falcons The Geelong Falcons is a youth Australian rules football representative club in the NAB League, the Victorian statewide under-18s competition, Victoria, Australia. The club takes in talented junior players from the Geelong, Colac and Warrnambo ...

in the under-18

TAC Cup The NAB League Boys (also referred to as simply the NAB League and formerly known as the TAC Cup) is an under-19 Australian rules football representative competition held in Australia. It is based on geographic regions throughout country Victo ...

before being drafted to the

with the 63rd selection in the 2011 AFL rookie draft.Former Melbourne Demon Cameron Johnston takes a punt on American football
''Sydney Morning Herald'', 8 January 2015 A midfielder, Johnston spent the 2011 season playing for the

Casey Scorpions The Casey Football Club, nicknamed the "Demons" and formerly the "Scorpions", is an Australian rules football club based in Cranbourne East, Victoria. The club, which was known until 2005 as the Springvale Football Club and the Casey Scorpions ( ...

, Melbourne's affiliate team in the

Victorian Football League The Victorian Football League (VFL) is an Australian rules football league in Australia serving as one of the second-tier regional semi-professional competitions which sit underneath the fully professional Australian Football League (AFL). It ...

(VFL). However, he managed only six games for Casey's senior team, instead spending most of the season in the VFL reserves (a third-tier competition). Johnston was delisted by Melbourne at the season's end.

College career

After failing at his AFL ambitions, Johnston signed up with Prokick Australia in 2012, an academy headed by Nathan Chapman for Australian players looking to pursue a career in the United States. In 2013, he secured a full scholarship with

. As a freshman, Johnston led all

Big Ten The Big Ten Conference (stylized B1G, formerly the Western Conference and the Big Nine Conference) is the oldest Division I collegiate athletic conference in the United States. Founded as the Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representati ...

punters with a 44.0 per punt average and ranked 16th-best nationally. He was named a second-team freshman All-American by

College Football News ''College Football News'' (''CFN'') is a magazine and website published by College Football News, Inc., headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. News coverage includes scores, statistics, rankings, and reports on college football games. Analysis include ...

later that year. In his final three years at OSU, he was part of the 2014 national championship team, earned second and first-team honors in his junior and senior years respectively, and was named Eddleman-Fields Big Ten Punter of the Year. He also ranked academically in the Big Ten his final two years.

NFL career

Philadelphia Eagles

Johnston signed with the

as an

undrafted free agent In professional sports, a free agent is a player who is eligible to sign with other clubs or franchises; i.e., not under contract to any specific team. The term is also used in reference to a player who is under contract at present but who is a ...

on 11 May 2017. He was waived on 2 September 2017. He signed a reserve/future contract with the Eagles on 3 January 2018. On 1 September 2018, Johnston made the Eagles 53-man roster for the 2018 season. He made his NFL debut in the 2018 season opener against the Atlanta Falcons and had six punts for 313 net yards in the 18–12 victory. On 24 March 2020, Johnston was re-signed to a one-year, $660,000 contract by the Eagles.

Houston Texans

Johnston signed with the

on March 30, 2021. On August 31, 2023, Johnston was placed on injured reserve.

References

External links

Ohio State Buckeyes bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Johnston, Cameron 1992 births Living people Australian players of American football American football punters Ohio State Buckeyes football players Philadelphia Eagles players Sportspeople from Geelong Geelong Falcons players Casey Demons players Australian rules footballers from Geelong Footballers who switched code Australian rules football players that played in the NFL Houston Texans players