Loneliness, resiliency and using Madden: The life of the NFL’s most prolific journeyman

By Ben Morse, CNN

(CNN) — In 2008, the NFL was a vastly different league than it is now.

Tom Brady was still in his first decade of his 23-season-long career, games were still available to watch on analog television and Aaron Rodgers – currently the league’s oldest active player – had only just been announced as the starting quarterback for the Green Bay Packers.

This was the NFL Josh Johnson was stepping into as a rookie. Since then, Johnson has been a member of 14 different teams – including the San Francisco 49ers four times, the Baltimore Ravens three times and three other teams twice – meaning he holds the record for the most teams a player has been on.

It is a journey that has sent the 39-year-old to every corner of the US – with stints in other professional football leagues included.

It is an odyssey which has had its ups and downs for Johnson, battling loneliness, doubt and finding his place in the game he loves.

And it’s a trek which has taught Johnson lessons not only about football, but also about life, family and himself.

“It means resiliency to me now,” Johnson told CNN Sports when asked what his record means to him. “It means faith. It means determination. It means always being able to find a way.

“And that comes from my family. That’s my family trait. That’s a lot of faith, that’s a lot of belief. Because I’m in a lot of situations where it didn’t look like it was going to be in my favor, things worked out in my favor.”

Setback

Having played his college football at San Diego, Johnson was selected in the fifth round of the 2008 NFL Draft by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

After serving as the team’s backup on his rookie contract – in the five starts he made for the Bucs, he had an 0-5 record – Johnson moved to new pastures. He chose to sign for the 49ers, the team he grew up supporting as a California native which was led by his coach at San Diego, Jim Harbaugh.

But what seemed like the perfect opportunity for Johnson quickly turned into devastating blow and a moment of learning for the young, aspiring quarterback.

Johnson was let go as part of the Niners’ roster cuts ahead of the 2012 season, missing out on the third quarterback spot to Scott Tolzien, with Alex Smith and Colin Kaepernick on the team already.

It was the first time in his career that Johnson had been cut from a team and, for it happen through his college coach and with his hometown team, it had a big impact on Johnson.

“I remember that day like it happened yesterday. I felt like my world ended the first time,” he remembered.

In the face of the blow to his confidence – he described being cut as not “part of my initial plan” – Johnson focused on remaining true to who he was.

“I had to make sure that, firstly: ‘Don’t forget who you are.’ And then secondly, it was: ‘Ok, why are you still doing this?’” he said.

“It’s like: ‘You love football. You love getting out on the grass. You love going through the process of getting better. You love going out there being able to compete and you love going out there and doing your thing on the field. So get up, get off your ass and go get back to it.’”

‘Created a little niche’

From there, Johnson’s nomadic journey began in earnest.

After a brief stint in the United Football League with the Sacramento Mountain Lions before the league folded, Johnson bounced around the NFL with numerous teams over the next years, including four franchises in 2015 alone.

This process of moving around the league, having to keep stopping and starting brought about a range of emotions for Johnson, especially doubt and loneliness.

“Doubt was more so like not understanding when your next opportunity is going to come from,” he told CNN Sports. “You got to listen to other people’s advice to hope that: ‘OK, this is going to work itself out.’”

As for loneliness, he explains that it was an emotion he dealt with primarily at the start of the epic journey, particularly as he was in the early stages of a relationship with his now-wife.

“The loneliness was for the first few days because it was more so like I felt like I let myself down. I felt like I didn’t put myself in position to be successful in the way that I wanted to be,” he said.

The constant churn of teams was also a stark reminder that while football is a sport, it is also a business – and sometimes business decisions have to be made.

“The NFL is kind of a tricky thing on how people view you. Somebody may love you, somebody may hate you, and it depends on who that person is,” Johnson said.

He highlights learning from the plethora of stellar head coaches he’s played under, soaking up the wisdom they have imparted and the personal bonds he’s formed with teammates and coaching staff as the reasons why he believes he’s stuck around and “created a little niche” in the league.

Throughout this long, winding path around the NFL, Johnson – who is now with the Washington Commanders – had to reconsider what he could offer and bring to a franchise. He isn’t able to contribute on the field as much as he’d like, but through his “knowledge for the game” and personal relationships, he believes he’s still a valuable asset to have around.

Outside of the team facilities, Johnson says he does his own research – whether through conversations, on social media or on the EA Sports video game franchise “Madden” – to ensure he’s as clued in as he can possibly be. The hard work Johnson puts in helps endear himself to his teammates and therefore, he says, “gain their respect.”

Johnson has been in football for 18 years and has met plenty of different faces. And he crosses paths with those coaches who he encountered during his early years, something he says also helps his reputation.

“When I was in my earlier days in the league, I showed them the respect, talk football with them and got to know them and they’re like: ‘This guy knows ball,’” he said. “In our game, people respect doing that.

“And when they start getting opportunities and our paths cross again, I’ve come to find out there’s another level of trust that I’ve gained organically. All those things to me have compiled into creating opportunity for someone. Because most guys don’t play this long as backups. I don’t have a lot of starts, but I’ve been in professional football, specifically, for 18 years.”

Switching teams so regularly means he’s constantly having to meet and form bonds with new people, despite running into familiar faces occasionally. Forming a personal relationship with someone in an organization will help both you and them, Johnson explains.

“We just value someone’s name and just having that natural bond and getting to know them,” he said. “That can spread you thin a little bit.

“Because knowing people in the organization is very important because they’re resources and they do a lot of things that can make your life a little easier. But also getting to know them helps them serve you a lot better.”

Over the years, Johnson has learned some tricks to help acquaint himself with new colleagues, from researching the background of management or coaches or looking up teammates on Madden to know a bit about their game.

He describes it as the kind of research you were taught to do at college and means he’s “not learning playbooks and people all from scratch at the same time.”

Logistics

Johnson has picked up a haul of memorabilia over his NFL career and someday hopes to deck out his permanent home with it all to remember every stop he’s been along the way.

A longer content idea has also been bubbling round his head – like a feature film or a documentary about his life – for when he does eventually hang up his cleats, due to the unique nature of his career.

“We all want to have a Hall of Fame career, but somebody’s going to get the high side of things, somebody will get the low side of things,” he said.

But this movement around the league has brought its own logistical challenges, as well as personal ones.

Logistically, Johnson’s permanent home has always remained in Oakland. And on his journey around the country – he describes having “a lot of zip codes under my belt” – he’s tried all sorts of moving techniques.

Johnson’s had a consistent home in a city, lived in a hotel or in short-term housing. He’s “done it all,” he says, also noting that he changes what he brings to each new location.

“I used to go from moving everything with me to not bringing anything but some clothes and toothbrush to sometimes – because I’ve only on the team for a week – to just buying some clothes when I’ve been out there and just wearing the gear that they gave me,” he said.

One bit of advice from Johnson: make friends with a moving company. “The more moving companies in my phone, the better,” he said.

While his wife used to stay at their permanent residence while he moved around, their perspective changed over recent years and now she – and their son – joins him often on his travels.

“She’s a big part of who I am, a big part of my journey, there’s a different level of comfort when she’s around, just to endure the things that I normally have to go through,” he said. “Because every time you switch teams, it’s like you’ve got to reprove yourself. You got to reprove yourself to a locker room, to an organization, to a coaching staff. And my wife matters in part of that process.”

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