Athletes - Brad Johnson

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	Athletes - Brad Johnson

Brad Johnson (born September 13, 1968 in Marietta, Georgia) is an American football player. He is currently quarterback for the Minnesota Vikings in the NFL.

Johnson is most widely acclaimed for leading the Tampa Bay Buccaneers past the Oakland Raiders in a 48-21 rout during Super Bowl XXXVII in 2003.

Some feel Johnson's accomplishments go unnoticed, thus making him an underrated player. Along with leading the Buccaneers to their very first Super Bowl, he has eclipsed the 3,000-yard passing mark five times and in 1999, he became only the second Washington Redskin in franchise history to eclipse 4,000 yards. He holds a 58-41 career record as a starter, currently the 6th best quarterback win-loss ratio in the league. And has one of the top 20 career passer ratings in NFL history.

He has been twice selected to Pro Bowl: 1999 and 2002. In 2003 he was named to USA Today's All-Joe team which recognizes the NFL's most unsung players.

He connected on 60% of his passes for 10 straight seasons, 1996-05 (minimum 100 attempts), passing Joe Montana and Steve Young for longest all-times streaks. And he has earned NFC Offensive Player of the Week honors 7 times in his career.

To date, Brad Johnson is the only NFL quarterback to have thrown a touchdown pass to himself. Against the Carolina Panthers in 1997, Johnson caught his deflected pass and ran three yards for a touchdown. Although his critics will tell you he has slow feet and a comparatively weak arm, he is admired by many for being proof that skill and determination can be more important than talent.

Early Minnesota Years

Brad Johnson wasn't a full-time starter in college. In 1992 he was drafted out from the Florida State Seminoles in the 9th round by the Minnesota Vikings with a pick they obtained from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. He played backup QB only playing a few games until starting quarterback Warren Moon was injured in 1996. He started eight of 12 games that year earning NFC Offensive Player of the Week twice and finishing third in the NFC with an 89.4 passer rating. The next year he started again and was rated fourth in the NFC with 20 TDs and 3,036 passing yards, but suffered a season-ending neck injury in the 13th game.

In 1998 he started the first two games for the Vikings before being injured. In just those 2 games Johnson passed for an incredible 747 yards, had a 65% completion rate (11 yds per completion), and scored 7 touchdowns but in the 2nd game he suffered a broken leg forcing backup QB Randall Cunningham to take over for him. Cunningham, thought to be washed up at the time, exploded by connecting passes to 7 time Pro Bowler receiver Cris Carter and that year's newly drafted receiver Randy Moss (who currently is a 5 time Pro Bowler). That year the Vikings went 15-1 and Cunningham had the best passer rating in the league (106.0), the second-most TD passes (34), the fifth-most passing yards (3,704), and was awarded NFL's MVP award (by Maxwell Club).

After this Dennis Green, who was the Vikings coach at the time, decided to start Cunningham and trade Johnson to the Washington Redskins. This was to be regretted the next year because while Johnson had the best season yet in Washington, the Vikings were to begin at 2-4 with Cunningham throwing more interceptions (9) then touchdowns (8) and getting benched and replaced by Jeff George (backup QB at the time) who helped the team to an 8-2 finish and a playoff spot. George was then traded to Washington in favor of starting rookie QB Daunte Culpepper in MN.

Washington Redskins

In 1999 Brad Johnson had the best season yet at Washington making the Pro Bowl for the first time in his career and having a 90.0 passer rating with 4,005 yards, 24 TDs and 13 INTs. His 316 completions set a Washington team record and his 4,005 yards passing ranks 2nd all-time in Redskins history. He was also NFC Offensive Player of the Week twice that year again. The following year in 2000 the Redskins went 8-8, Johnson threw more INTs (15) than TDs (11), and he was traded to Tampa bay while Jeff George then started in Washington for 2001. They immediately regretted this when George had the worst stats in the league and was benched at the 2nd game (0-2) for Tony Banks while Johnson again had another great season in Tampa Bay.

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Athletes - Brad Johnson

Early Minnesota Years

Washington Redskins

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