Broncos sign former Tennessee LB A.J. Johnson
Channel: flash videos
Date: 14/08/2018

Broncos sign former Tennessee LB A.J. Johnson

A.J. Johnson is getting his shot in the National Football League.
The Denver Broncos announced on Monday afternoon that the organization has signed Johnson, the former Tennessee linebacker who last month was found not guilty of rape charges initially filed nearly four years ago.

“A.J. hasn’t had the opportunity to play football for the last three years while resolving a serious legal matter,” Broncos President of Football Operations John Elway said in a statement from the team.
We’ve had several conversations with him since he’s been cleared and have become very familiar with his background and character. Our organization is confident A.J. is ready to move forward and resume his playing career.”

Johnson, listed by the Broncos at 6-foot-2, 243 pounds, finished his Tennessee career with 425 tackles in 46 career games. He had 30.5 tackles for loss in his career, to go with three sacks.

Johnson and Michael Williams, his former Tennessee teammate, were cleared last month by a Knox County jury, finding that the two were not guilty of the rape charges that led to Johnson and Williams being dismissed for the Tennessee football program by former coach Butch Jones.

“I trusted in God. He took care of it,” Johnson told reporters outside the courtroom after the verdict was announced, according to the Knoxville News Sentinel.


The prosecution argued that Johnson and Williams raped a female UT athlete in Johnson’s bedroom during a postgame party in November 2014.

The accuser told jurors she initially consented to having sex with Johnson that night despite Williams and another woman being in the room, and that she’d had sex with Johnson on two previous occasions. She said she didn’t consent later in the evening, though, when Johnson reentered the room and told Williams to lock the door before both players had sex with her. She told jurors that she asked both players to stop, but that neither stopped.

Attorneys for Williams and Johnson argued that the sex was consensual but that the accuser claimed she was raped only after others at the party learned of the situation.

The defense also argued a lack of evidence in the case.

“She never knew it would get this out of control,” Johnson’s attorney told jurors, according to the KNS. “She can’t turn that back.”

Johnson last played football late in the 2014 season with the Vols, recording 101 tackles in 10 games. He was dismissed along with Williams after being accused of forcible rape in November 2014.

Johnson led the SEC during the 2012 season with a career-high 138 tackles, including 8.5 for loss and 1.0 sacks.

He had 100 or more tackles in each of his final three seasons at Tennessee, after posting 80 stops as a true freshman in 2011. Johnson had 105 tackles and 8.5 tackles for loss as a junior in 2013.

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