LeShon Eugene Johnson (born January 15, 1971) is an American former professional

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

player who was a

running back A running back (RB) is a member of the offensive backfield in gridiron football. The primary roles of a running back are to receive American football plays#Offensive terminology, handoffs from the quarterback to Rush (American football)#Offen ...

and

kick returner A return specialist or kick returner is a player on the special teams unit of a gridiron football team who specializes in returning punts and kickoffs. There are few players who are exclusively return specialists; most also play another position ...

in 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) for six seasons during the 1990s. 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 ...

for

Northern Illinois University Northern Illinois University (NIU) is a public research university in DeKalb, Illinois. It was founded as Northern Illinois State Normal School on May 22, 1895, by Illinois Governor John P. Altgeld as part of an expansion of the state's system ...

, and earned All-American honors. He was picked by the

Green Bay Packers The Green Bay Packers are a professional American football team based in Green Bay, Wisconsin. The Packers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC North, North division. It ...

in the third round of the

1994 NFL Draft The 1994 NFL draft was the procedure by which National Football League teams selected amateur college football players. It is officially known as the NFL Annual Player Selection Meeting. The draft was held April 24–25, 1994, at the Marriott Mar ...

. He also played professionally for the

Arizona Cardinals The Arizona Cardinals are a professional American football team based in the Phoenix metropolitan area. The Cardinals compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) West division, and play t ...

and

New York Giants The New York Giants are a professional American football team based in the New York metropolitan area. The Giants compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) East division. ...

of the

NFL 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 major ...

and the

Chicago Enforcers The Chicago Enforcers were a short-lived American football team based at Soldier Field in Chicago, Illinois. This team was part of the failed XFL begun by Vince McMahon of WWE World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc., d/b/a as WWE, is an American ...

of the

XFL (2001) The XFL was a professional American football league that played its only season in 2001. The XFL was operated as a joint venture between the WWE, World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE) and NBC. The XFL was conceived as an outdoor football l ...

Early years

Johnson was born in

Haskell, Oklahoma Haskell is a town in Muskogee County, Oklahoma, United States. The population was 2,007 at the 2010 census, a gain of 13.7 percent over the figure of 1,765 recorded in 2000. Haskell was established in 1904 on the Midland Valley Railroad. It was na ...

.National Football League, Historical Players
LeShon Johnson
Retrieved February 9, 2012. He was a standout

high school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...

running back at

Haskell High School Haskell () is a general-purpose, statically-typed, purely functional programming language with type inference and lazy evaluation. Designed for teaching, research and industrial applications, Haskell has pioneered a number of programming lan ...

.databaseFootball.com, Players
LeShon Johnson
. Retrieved February 9, 2012. Johnson was a

bull rider Bull riding is a rodeo sport that involves a rider getting on a bucking bull and attempting to stay mounted while the animal tries to buck off the rider. American bull riding has been called "the most dangerous eight seconds in sports." To recei ...

on the junior

rodeo Rodeo () is a competitive equestrian sport that arose out of the working practices of cattle herding in Spain and Mexico, expanding throughout the Americas and to other nations. It was originally based on the skills required of the working va ...

circuit, earning the nickname the "Cowboy," which followed him throughout his football career.

College career

Johnson attended

Northeastern Oklahoma A&M College Northeastern Oklahoma A&M College (NEO) is a public community college in Miami, Oklahoma. Established as the Miami School of Mines in 1919, NEO has an enrollment of approximately two thousand students. The Golden Norsemen is the school mascot. ...

, before transferring to Northern Illinois University as a junior. At Northern Illinois, he played for the

Northern Illinois Huskies football The Northern Illinois Huskies football team are a college football program representing Northern Illinois University (NIU) in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) of college football. NIU football plays its home games at Huskie Stadium on the cam ...

team in 1992 and 1993. As a senior in 1993, Johnson was the leading college rusher with 1,976 yards on 327 carries for an average of 179.6 yards per game. Johnson finished sixth in the 1993

Heisman Trophy The Heisman Memorial Trophy (usually known colloquially as the Heisman Trophy or The Heisman) is awarded annually to the most outstanding player in college football. Winners epitomize great ability combined with diligence, perseverance, and hard ...

voting race, with five first-place votes. He played only two years for the Huskies, but his total yards mark of 3,314 still places him fifth on the team's all-time rushing list.

Professional career

The Green Bay Packers selected Johnson in the third round (84th pick overall) of the

, and he played for the Packers in and ). From to , he was a member of the

. In Johnson's career-best game, he rushed for 214 yards on 21 carries for the Cardinals versus the New Orleans Saints on September 22, 1996.Pro-Football-Reference.com, Players
LeShon Johnson
Retrieved February 9, 2012. His career was interrupted by

lymphoma Lymphoma is a group of blood and lymph tumors that develop from lymphocytes (a type of white blood cell). In current usage the name usually refers to just the cancerous versions rather than all such tumours. Signs and symptoms may include enlar ...

cancer in 1998. He managed to make a comeback and subsequently started for the New York Giants in . His football career ended playing in the

XFL XFL may refer to: Sports * XFL (2001), a defunct American football league that played its only season in 2001 * XFL (2020), a professional American football league Vehicles * Bell XFL Airabonita, a 1940 U.S. Navy experimental interceptor aircra ...

for the

Life after football

Johnson pleaded guilty in 2005 to the crime of

dog fighting Dog fighting is a type of blood sport that turns game and fighting dogs against each other in a physical fight, generally to the death, for the purposes of gambling or entertainment to the spectators. In rural areas, fights are often staged i ...

Okmulgee County, Oklahoma Okmulgee County is a county in the U.S. state of Oklahoma. As of the 2010 census, the population was 40,069. The county seat is Okmulgee. Located within the Muscogee Nation Reservation, the county was created at statehood in 1907. The name Ok ...

. He received a five-year deferred sentence.George Dohrmann,
The House on Moonlight Road
" ''Sports Illustrated'' (May 29, 2007). Retrieved February 9, 2012.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Johnson, Leshon 1971 births Living people American football running backs Arizona Cardinals players Chicago Enforcers players Green Bay Packers players New York Giants players Northeastern Oklahoma A&M Golden Norsemen football players Northern Illinois Huskies football players All-American college football players Ed Block Courage Award recipients People from Haskell, Oklahoma Players of American football from Oklahoma African-American players of American football 20th-century African-American sportspeople 21st-century African-American sportspeople

Early years

College career

Professional career

Life after football

See also

References