Teyo Johnson (born November 29, 1981) is a Canadian 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

tight end The tight end (TE) is a position in American football, arena football, and Canadian football, on the offense. The tight end is often a hybrid position with the characteristics and roles of both an offensive lineman and a wide receiver. Like ...

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) and the

Canadian Football League The Canadian Football League (CFL; french: Ligue canadienne de football—LCF) is a professional sports league in Canada. The CFL is the highest level of competition in Canadian football. The league consists of nine teams, each located in a ci ...

(CFL). He was drafted by the

Oakland Raiders The Oakland Raiders were a professional American football team that played in Oakland from its founding in 1960 to 1981 and again from 1995 to 2019 before relocating to the Las Vegas metropolitan area where they now play as the Las Vegas Raide ...

in the second round of the

2003 NFL Draft The 2003 NFL draft was the procedure by which National Football League (NFL) teams selected amateur college football players. The draft is known officially as the "NFL Annual Player Selection Meeting" and has been conducted annually since 1936 NF ...

. 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 ...

with the

Stanford Cardinal The Stanford Cardinal are the athletic teams that represent Stanford University. As of June, 2022, Stanford's program has won 131 NCAA team championships. Stanford has won at least one NCAA team championship each academic year for 46 consecutive ...

. Johnson was also a member of the NFL's

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 ...

Miami Dolphins The Miami Dolphins are a professional American football team based in the Miami metropolitan area. They compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member team of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) East division. The team pla ...

Denver Broncos The Denver Broncos are a professional American football franchise based in Denver. The Broncos compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) West division. The team is headquart ...

and

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

and the CFL's

Calgary Stampeders The Calgary Stampeders are a professional Canadian football team based in Calgary, Alberta. The Stampeders compete in the West Division of the Canadian Football League (CFL). The club plays its home games at McMahon Stadium and are the third-old ...

. He also played for the

Sacramento Mountain Lions The Sacramento Mountain Lions was a 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 rect ...

of the United Football League.

Early years

Johnson grew up in

Lynnwood, Washington Lynnwood is a city in Snohomish County, Washington, United States. The city is part of the Seattle metropolitan area and is located north of Seattle and south of Everett, near the junction of Interstate 5 and Interstate 405. It is the fou ...

and attended Mariner High School in Everett. He transferred to

Mira Mesa Senior High School Mira Mesa Senior High School (MMHS) is a public high school in the San Diego Unified School District. The school is recognized as a National Blue Ribbon School and a California Distinguished School. The school has an overall rating of 9.6/10 acco ...

San Diego, California San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the eighth most populous city in the United States ...

during his senior year along with friend

Amon Gordon Amon Gordon (born October 13, 1981) is a former American football defensive end of the National Football League. He was drafted by the Cleveland Browns in the fourth round of the 2004 NFL Draft. He played college football at Stanford Cardinal foo ...

, who became an

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 ...

player.

College career

Johnson was recruited to

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

as one of the most highly touted two-sport athletes in the country. He aspired to play quarterback, but as he was buried on the depth chart, the coaches switched him to wide receiver to get his talent on the field. In 2001, Johnson was Pac-10 Freshman of the Year at the position of wide receiver. He racked up 79 catches, 1,032 yards and 15

touchdown A touchdown (abbreviated as TD) is a scoring play in gridiron football. Whether running, passing, returning a kickoff or punt, or recovering a turnover, a team scores a touchdown by advancing the ball into the opponent's end zone. In Ameri ...

s in 22 games. After his

sophomore In the United States, a sophomore ( or ) is a person in the second year at an educational institution; usually at a secondary school or at the college and university level, but also in other forms of post-secondary educational institutions. In ...

season, when the new coach said he was switching Johnson to yet another position from wide receiver to

for next season, he decided to leave school early and enter the

NFL draft The National Football League Draft, also called the NFL Draft or (officially) the Player Selection Meeting, is an annual event which serves as the league's most common source of player recruitment. Each team is given a position in the drafting o ...

. He also played forward for two years on the Stanford

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

team, alongside future

NBA The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United St ...

players like

Josh Childress Joshua Malik Childress (born June 20, 1983) is an American former professional basketball player. An All-EuroLeague Second Team member in 2010, he played with the Atlanta Hawks, Phoenix Suns, Brooklyn Nets and New Orleans Pelicans of the Nation ...

Casey Jacobsen Casey Gardner Jacobsen (born March 19, 1981) is an American retired professional basketball player who played four seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA). He also had an extensive European basketball career, mostly while playing with ...

Jason Collins Jason Paul Collins (born December 2, 1978) is an American former professional basketball player who was a center for 13 seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA). He played college basketball for the Stanford Cardinal, where he was ...

and

Jarron Collins Jarron Thomas Collins (born December 2, 1978) is an American professional basketball coach and former player who is an assistant coach for the New Orleans Pelicans of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He was selected in the second round ...

Professional career

Oakland Raiders

Johnson was drafted with the 63rd pick in the 2003 NFL draft by the

. In his

rookie A rookie is a person new to an occupation, profession, or hobby. In sports, a ''rookie'' is a professional athlete in their first season (or year). In contrast with a veteran who has experience and expertise, a rookie is usually inexperienced ...

year he once again changed positions, this time to

. He played in all 16 games and made 14 catches for 128 yards and 1 touchdown. His second season saw him play in only 8 games. He believed that his role was reduced because he missed some voluntary offseason workouts to go to China on an NFL tour, although head coach Norv Turner denied this was the case. Johnson made 9 catches, 131 yards, and 2 touchdowns.

Arizona Cardinals

The start of his third season came with disappointment as he was released by the Raiders at the end of the

preseason In an organized sports league, a typical season is the portion of one year in which regulated games of the sport are in session: for example, in Major League Baseball the season lasts approximately from the last week of March to the last week of Se ...

. He was however quickly signed by the

. He only played 6 games for the Cardinals before was once again released. He only made 3 catches for 29 yards in those games.

Recent years

Johnson went to training camp with the

in 2006 but failed to make the team. While in camp with the

in 2007, he was injured and ended up sitting out that season. Johnson was signed by the

on January 29, 2008. He won the

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

Grey Cup The Grey Cup (french: Coupe Grey) is both the championship game of the Canadian Football League (CFL) and the trophy awarded to the victorious team playing in the namesake championship of professional Canadian football. The game is contested be ...

with the

. Early on November 13, 2009, Johnson was stabbed in his rear hip while attending a concert in Calgary.https://nationalpost.com/sports/story.html?id=2221853

Personal

Johnson is the younger brother of former NFL and

CFL The Canadian Football League (CFL; french: Ligue canadienne de football—LCF) is a professional sports league in Canada. The CFL is the highest level of competition in Canadian football. The league consists of nine teams, each located in a ci ...

players Ahmani Johnson and

Riall Johnson Riall Salud Johnson (born April 20, 1978) is a former professional gridiron football player. Early years Riall grew up in Lynnwood, Washington, where he attended Mariner High School. At Mariner he was considered one of the top football prospe ...

References

External links

Stanford Cardinal bioJust Sports Stats
{{DEFAULTSORT:Johnson, Teyo 1981 births People from White Rock, British Columbia Sportspeople from British Columbia Canadian players of American football Players of American football from San Diego Players of Canadian football from San Diego American football tight ends Stanford Cardinal football players Stanford Cardinal men's basketball players Oakland Raiders players Arizona Cardinals players Miami Dolphins players Denver Broncos players Hamburg Sea Devils players Buffalo Bills players Calgary Stampeders players Living people Black Canadian players of Canadian football Sacramento Mountain Lions players People from Lynnwood, Washington American men's basketball players Basketball players from San Diego