William Leon Johnson (born July 13, 1974) is a former professional

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 ...

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 ...

. He played seven seasons 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 the

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

, the

Chicago Bears The Chicago Bears are a professional American football team based in Chicago. The Bears compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) North division. The Bears have won nine NF ...

, and the

San Diego Chargers The San Diego Chargers were a professional American football team that played in San Diego from 1961 until the end of the 2016 season, before relocating to Los Angeles, where the franchise had played its inaugural 1960 season. The team is now ...

Early years

Johnson played

quarterback The quarterback (commonly abbreviated "QB"), colloquially known as the "signal caller", is a position in gridiron football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive platoon and mostly line up directly behind the offensive line. In modern Ame ...

at Freedom High School in

Morganton, North Carolina Morganton is a city in and the county seat of Burke County, North Carolina, United States. The population was 16,918 at the 2010 census. Morganton is approximately northwest of Charlotte. Morganton is one of the principal cities in the Hick ...

. While at Freedom High Johnson also starred at track, winning the state championship in the long jump in his senior year, and played both basketball and baseball. He was moved to tailback at the

University of North Carolina The University of North Carolina is the multi-campus public university system for the state of North Carolina. Overseeing the state's 16 public universities and the NC School of Science and Mathematics, it is commonly referred to as the UNC Sy ...

College career

He played under

Mack Brown William Mack Brown (born August 27, 1951) is an American college football coach. He is currently in his second stint as the head football coach for the University of North Carolina, where he first coached from 1988 until departing in 1997, whe ...

in college at

. Johnson finished his college career with 3,693 rushing yards and 43 TD and added 1,288 yards receiving with 4 TD. He also scored two punt return TD's and a kick return TD. *1993: 179 carries for 1,012 yards with 14 TD. 29 catches for 233 yards with 2 TD *1994: 151 carries for 805 yards with 7 TD. 29 catches for 266 yards with 2 TD *1995: 225 carries for 963 yards with 12 TD. 54 catches for 408 yards *1996: 242 carries for 913 yards with 10 TD. 39 catches for 381 yards Johnson was the only player in

Atlantic Coast Conference The Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) is a collegiate athletic conference located in the eastern United States. Headquartered in Greensboro, North Carolina, the ACC's fifteen member universities compete in the National Collegiate Athletic Associa ...

history to be in the top five in career all-purpose yards, top five in career touchdowns, top five in career scoring, top 10 in career rushing yards and top 10 in career receptions. Johnson finished his college career being first in all-purpose yards in ACC history, and second in touchdowns. Johnson scored 50 touchdowns in his career, just one shy of the then all-time ACC record held by Ted Brown of

NC State North Carolina State University (NC State) is a public land-grant research university in Raleigh, North Carolina. Founded in 1887 and part of the University of North Carolina system, it is the largest university in the Carolinas. The university ...

. Johnson scored 306 points total points at UNC, a school record for non-kickers. At the time, Johnson and Brown were the only two non-kickers to score 300 or more points in their college career.

Professional career

Johnson was selected as the 104th overall pick in the

1997 NFL Draft The 1997 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 19–20, 1997, at the Paramount T ...

by the

. He was primarily used as a

return specialist 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 ...

, returning both a kick return and punt return for touchdowns in his rookie season. He also would still be used as a

. Johnson was the punt returner on the NFL's 1997 All-Rookie team. In 2001, he left the Jets in free agency and signed with the

. While with the Bears, he had his career high most rushing touchdowns in a season with 4, on only 20 total carries. In 2003, he signed with the

where he played for one season and then retired.Burton, Roger. (August 2, 2017)
All-time UNC Football Top 25 Countdown: No. 10 Leon Johnson
''tarheelblog.com''. Retrieved February 3, 2022.

Personal life

Johnson is the father of one child, Jaylen. In 2010, Johnson was inducted in the Burke County Sports Hall of Fame.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Johnson, Leon 1974 births Living people People from Morganton, North Carolina Players of American football from North Carolina American football running backs American football return specialists North Carolina Tar Heels football players New York Jets players Chicago Bears players San Diego Chargers players