Former All-Pro wide receiver Chad Johnson only caught a pair of passes in his CFL regular-season debut with the Montreal Alouettes. That didn’t matter to the 36-year-old, who just was thrilled to be playing football again. Johnson spoke to Peter King of TheMMQB.com about the feeling that accompanies playing professional football for the first time in nearly three years:
“A joy,” he said. “A joy. That feeling, as a kid, you wake up on Christmas, the excitement. I’m just thankful to have a chance to play again. I didn’t care about catches, I didn’t care about the ball. I mean, the feeling just being part of something again, being part of this organization … I mean, words really can’t describe how it felt, to lose something that I worked for all my life and have it snatched from me because of my irresponsibilities and my mistakes. A lesson was learned. Humbling experience. I don’t know what to say. It’s awesome.”
Let’s check out some more assorted notes from the CFL and NFL…
- Meanwhile, Alouettes general manager Jim Popp is more excited about another one of his wideouts: Duron Carter. Popp talked to King and described his infatuation with the 23-year-old: “Every NFL team should be after Cris Carter‘s son. Duron Carter is a phenomenal athlete. He’s got every measurable. He’s fast, 6-foot-4, can be a punt returner in the NFL with his size, can run with the ball, has got tremendous body control.”
- Today is the deadline for players to renew their therapeutic use exemption, writes Mike Florio of ProFootballTalk.com. The exemption (along with a prescription from a doctor) allows players to take otherwise banned substances.
- Barring medical exemption, the NFL has banned “non-standard and overbuilt face masks,” tweets NFL.com’s Ian Rapoport. As the writer notes, the decision was based on research and will likely only impact the four players who wore such masks last season.