Card: Topps Chrome 2008
Acquired: In Person 6/10/12, Houston 610 Fan Fest
See Also: Ted Johnson (2)

Ted Johnson is a man-mountain of a linebacker. When I met him at the Fan Fest, he had his SuperBowl ring available for fans to pick up. It was heavy, loaded with gems to the point of being gaudy, and super heavy. Easily I probably could’ve slipped my two biggest fingers into his ring, which just blew my mind. He was kind enough to sign this card for me, and remarked he had never seen it before.  I really liked this Chrome card, because of its clever layout and design.  (It absorbed the autograph well after I applied baby powder to it and rubbed it thoroughly.) I may even get another and just send it to him to keep for the heck of it.  We talked for a few minutes about the concussion lawsuit former players are filing. I told him that ‘true’ fans would be behind them, and the NFL needed to do a better job of taking care of its gladiators.

A four time AFC champion, and 3 time Super Bowl winner, Ted Johnson was a second round pick out of Colorado by the Patriots in 1995  (- at a time when I began to tune out football with the impending end of the Houston Oilers on the horizon).  A warrior, Johnson stepped into the lineup for the Patriots, playing right and left inside, and middle linebacker for New England over a 10 season career.  He’d play in 125 games, and record 763 tackles.

He’s made a lot of waves since retirement, which was due to concussions. Johnson has battled depression and headaches due to post-concussion syndrome, and things have been rocky from time to time for him suffering from amphetamine addiction and recently joined the players lawsuit as a plaintiff against the NFL in regards to concussions and player safety.

G/Gs  125/106       Tac   530     Sac 11.5      Fum   7      Int  1      Yds    0      Avg -.-     Td  0        Lg 0