Undra Jerome Johnson (born January 8, 1966) is a former

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 ...

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

Atlanta Falcons The Atlanta Falcons are a professional American football team based in Atlanta. The Falcons compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) South division. The Falcons joined th ...

New Orleans Saints The New Orleans Saints are a professional American football team based in New Orleans. The Saints compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) South division. Since 1975, the te ...

, and the

Dallas Cowboys The Dallas Cowboys are a professional American football team based in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. The Cowboys compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) East divisi ...

High school career

Johnson played

high school football High school football (french: football au lycée) is gridiron football played by high school teams in the United States and Canada. It ranks among the most popular interscholastic sports in both countries, but its popularity is declining, part ...

Stranahan High School Stranahan High School, is located in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida was officially opened in 1953 as an elementary school. The school is a part of the Broward County Public Schools district. Originally for white students only, In 1963 Chester Seabury be ...

Fort Lauderdale, Florida Fort Lauderdale () is a coastal city located in the U.S. state of Florida, north of Miami along the Atlantic Ocean. It is the county seat of and largest city in Broward County with a population of 182,760 at the 2020 census, making it the tenth ...

Collegiate career

Johnson 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 ...

West Virginia University West Virginia University (WVU) is a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Morgantown, West Virginia. Its other campuses are those of the West Virginia University Institute of Technology in Beckley, Potomac State College ...

in 1985 and played backup his freshman season, behind

John Holifield Johnathan Mark Holifield (born July 14, 1964) was an American football running back for the Cincinnati Bengals. He played college football at West Virginia. Football career High school Holifield played high school football at Romulus High Sch ...

. Johnson rushed for 257 yards and a touchdown that season. In the 1986 season, Johnson's sophomore year, he beat out Holifield for the starting job at running back. He rushed for a team-high 652 yards and five touchdowns that season, as the Mountaineers went 4-7. As a junior in 1987, Johnson played backup again, this time to

A.B. Brown Anthony James "A.B." Brown (born December 4, 1965) is a former American football running back who played for the West Virginia Mountaineers in collegiate play and played for the New York Jets in the National Football League (NFL). He also played ...

. Johnson and the Mountaineers, led by the freshman star Major Harris at

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 ...

, went 6-6. Johnson rushed for 593 yards and four touchdowns that season, behind Brown's 1,000 yards. In Johnson's final season as a Mountaineer, 1988, the team went undefeated for the first time in school history. Johnson shared time at halfback with Brown. Johnson was again second on the team rushing to Brown, this time with 709 rushing yards and 11 touchdowns.

Professional career

Johnson was drafted in the seventh round (172 overall) in the

1989 NFL Draft The 1989 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 23–24, 1989, at the Marriott Marq ...

by the

. He played one game for the Falcons and five games for the

in the

1989 NFL season The 1989 NFL season was the 70th regular season of the National Football League. Before the season, NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle announced his retirement. Paul Tagliabue was eventually chosen to succeed him, taking over on November 5. Due to ...

Personal

Johnson made an appearance at the 2007

West Virginia West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian, Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States.The Census Bureau and the Association of American Geographers classify West Virginia as part of the Southern United States while the Bur ...

vs.

East Carolina East Carolina University (ECU) is a public research university in Greenville, North Carolina. It is the fourth largest university in North Carolina. Founded on March 8, 1907, as a teacher training school, East Carolina has grown from its orig ...

football game as an honorary captain for the

Mountaineers Mountaineering or alpinism, is a set of outdoor activities that involves ascending tall mountains. Mountaineering-related activities include traditional outdoor climbing, skiing, and traversing via ferratas. Indoor climbing, sport climbing, an ...

. Today, Johnson resides in the southern suburbs of Pittsburgh, where he works as a Financial Advisor and Branch Manager at UBS.

External links

Stats from databasefootball.com

References

1966 births American football running backs Atlanta Falcons players Dallas Cowboys players Living people New Orleans Saints players Players of American football from Fort Lauderdale, Florida Players of American football from Valdosta, Georgia San Antonio Riders players West Virginia Mountaineers football players People from Bridgeport, West Virginia American stockbrokers Sportspeople from Harrison County, West Virginia {{runningback-1960s-stub