Former Vol A.J. Johnson released by Dolphins

#1
Tman44

Tman44

God Father of Soul
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#1
This guy lived a horror story. He was a Freshman All-American in 2011 and lead the SEC in tackles in 2012. He returned to UT for his senior season in 2014 and was suspended on November 18, 2014 for rape accusations. When he left Tennessee, no pro team would touch him. He would have easily been a round 1 or 2 pick. He was finally acquitted in July of 2018. The Broncos jumped on him and he finally got his NFL shot as a 26 year old rookie. Hopefully someone will give the now 31 year old linebacker another shot. I hope the young Vols learn his story and understand the risks involved in putting yourself in bad positions where you can easily be taken advantage of and have your career ruined by false accusations.

EDIT: He was picked up by the Dolphins practice squad.
 
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#5
#5
Tman44 said:
This guy lived a horror story. He was a Freshman All-American in 2011 and lead the SEC in tackles in 2012. He returned to UT for his senior season in 2014 and was suspended on November 18, 2014 for rape accusations. When he left Tennessee, no pro team would touch him. He would have easily been a round 1 or 2 pick. He was finally acquitted in July of 2018. The Broncos jumped on him and he finally got his NFL shot as a 26 year old rookie. Hopefully someone will give the now 31 year old linebacker another shot. I hope the young Vols learn his story and understand the risks involved in putting yourself in bad positions where you can easily be taken advantage of and have your career ruined by false accusations.
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He is married to a guy that worked with me overseas daughter. The other sister is a news reporter in Nashville, it was interesting that she kept dating him during those allegations.

Good luck!!
 
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#11
#11
Vol777 said:
False accusations should reach the same penalty as whatever crime they accuse. Nobody should be able to have their life ruined by a false accusation.
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There's a difference between "false" and failure to prove beyond a reasonable doubt though, just because a jury doesn't convict (i.e. find guilt beyond a reasonable doubt) doesn't mean the person was factually innocent. I'm speaking generally. Now if you can prove it was straight up a false accusation, then I agree with you, but that's an important distinction. Our system is set up to err on the side of an innocent person not being convicted, and though it does still happen sometimes, far more people benefit in close cases from that high standard of "beyond a reasonable doubt" in being acquitted.
 
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#14
#14
Tman44 said:
This guy lived a horror story. He was a Freshman All-American in 2011 and lead the SEC in tackles in 2012. He returned to UT for his senior season in 2014 and was suspended on November 18, 2014 for rape accusations. When he left Tennessee, no pro team would touch him. He would have easily been a round 1 or 2 pick. He was finally acquitted in July of 2018. The Broncos jumped on him and he finally got his NFL shot as a 26 year old rookie. Hopefully someone will give the now 31 year old linebacker another shot. I hope the young Vols learn his story and understand the risks involved in putting yourself in bad positions where you can easily be taken advantage of and have your career ruined by false accusations.
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I'll admit I was wrong; I didn't think he would play a down in the NFL due to lack of speed, and poor pursuit angles. I guess NFL coaching did him some good.
 
#16
#16
unfrozencvmanvol said:
There's a difference between "false" and failure to prove beyond a reasonable doubt though, just because a jury doesn't convict (i.e. find guilt beyond a reasonable doubt) doesn't mean the person was factually innocent. I'm speaking generally. Now if you can prove it was straight up a false accusation, then I agree with you, but that's an important distinction. Our system is set up to err on the side of an innocent person not being convicted, and though it does still happen sometimes, far more people benefit in close cases from that high standard of "beyond a reasonable doubt" in being acquitted.
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Sure there is, but the details in this case are awful, and the Knoxville law enforcement and legal folks were looking for a sentence, not justice. They deliberately blocked and or contributed to the destruction of significant evidence proving innocence. It was an attempt to railroad a guy.
 
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#17
#17
Tman44 said:
This guy lived a horror story. He was a Freshman All-American in 2011 and lead the SEC in tackles in 2012. He returned to UT for his senior season in 2014 and was suspended on November 18, 2014 for rape accusations. When he left Tennessee, no pro team would touch him. He would have easily been a round 1 or 2 pick. He was finally acquitted in July of 2018. The Broncos jumped on him and he finally got his NFL shot as a 26 year old rookie. Hopefully someone will give the now 31 year old linebacker another shot. I hope the young Vols learn his story and understand the risks involved in putting yourself in bad positions where you can easily be taken advantage of and have your career ruined by false accusations.
Click to expand...


I would like to see the Falcons give him a chance.
 
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#18
#18
knox-townVOL said:
Luckily he did enough to still make a pretty dang comfortable living. I'm sure he made more money than I'll ever make in my life.
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Here are his career earnings:

1693337230155.png
Let's assume for a minute he doesn't earn any more in the NFL...take out 10% for agent commissions, then take out a huge chunk for taxes (let's say 33%...but that's just a SWAG on my part)…you're left with about 3.5 million...and he's already 5 years into that amount...

It's nothing to shake a stick at but it's also not "do whatever the hell you want for the rest of your life" money...especially if he's dumb with it which unfortunately a lot of athletes are
 
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#19
#19
ButchPlz said:
Sure there is, but the details in this case are awful, and the Knoxville law enforcement and legal folks were looking for a sentence, not justice. They deliberately blocked and or contributed to the destruction of significant evidence proving innocence. It was an attempt to railroad a guy.
Click to expand...
That's why I said "I am speaking generally", that is, not about A.J.'s case in particularly.
 
#20
#20
Vol777 said:
False accusations should reach the same penalty as whatever crime they accuse. Nobody should be able to have their life ruined by a false accusation.
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oh but that "me too" movement has basically made the accused automatically guilty. you're exactly right though. it is a shame. hopefully he was able to save some money
 
#21
#21
thunder5 said:
Here are his career earnings:

View attachment 573608
Let's assume for a minute he doesn't earn any more in the NFL...take out 10% for agent commissions, then take out a huge chunk for taxes (let's say 33%...but that's just a SWAG on my part)…you're left with about 3.5 million...and he's already 5 years into that amount...

It's nothing to shake a stick at but it's also not "do whatever the hell you want for the rest of your life" money...especially if he's dumb with it which unfortunately a lot of athletes are
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hopefully he had some good people investing it for him.
 
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#23
#23
Milehigh_Vol said:
He is married to a guy that worked with me overseas daughter. The other sister is a news reporter in Nashville, it was interesting that she kept dating him during those allegations.

Good luck!!
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would you mind rewording that fer me... maybe when you are not quite a mile high .. NOT THAT THERE IZ ANYTHING WRONG WITH EITHER
 
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#24
#24
Vol777 said:
False accusations should reach the same penalty as whatever crime they accuse. Nobody should be able to have their life ruined by a false accusation.
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Agree. I've seen a couple of situations with people I know, and one had their life practically ruined. The other, thankfully, was an idiot. She was fighting for custody with her husband at the time, and texted him that if he didn't stop fighting for custody, then she'd tell the judge he tried to molest her teenage daughter (from a previous marriage). Like I said, idiot, he had his lawyer show the judge, and she instantly lost custody, even has to have supervised visits because the judge labeled her mentally unstable. If she hadn't texted him, and he didn't have that proof, probably would've ruined his life.
 
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