Travis Freeman Johnson (born June 28, 1991) is an American former

college football College football is gridiron football that is played by teams of amateur Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. It was through collegiate competition that gridiron football American football in the United States, firs ...

player who was an

outside linebacker Linebacker (LB) is a playing position in gridiron football. Linebackers are members of the defensive team, and typically line up three to five yards behind the line of scrimmage and so back up the defensive linemen. They play closer to the lin ...

for the

San Jose State Spartans The San Jose State Spartans are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent San José State University. SJSU sports teams compete in the Mountain West Conference at the NCAA Division I level, with football competing in the Football Bowl S ...

. He tried out with the

San Francisco 49ers The San Francisco 49ers (also written as the San Francisco Forty-Niners and nicknamed the Niners) are a professional American football team based in the San Francisco Bay Area. The 49ers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member ...

of the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a Professional gridiron football, professional American football league in the United States. Composed of 32 teams, it is divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National ...

(NFL) in 2013.

Early years

Born in San Jose, Johnson graduated from The King's Academy in nearby

Sunnyvale, California Sunnyvale () is a city located in the Santa Clara Valley in northwestern Santa Clara County, California, United States. Sunnyvale lies along the historic El Camino Real (California), El Camino Real and U.S. Route 101 in California, Highway 1 ...

in 2009 and is an

Eagle Scout Eagle Scout is the highest rank attainable in the Scouts BSA program of Scouting America. Since its inception in 1911, only four percent of Scouts have earned this rank after a lengthy review process. The Eagle Scout rank has been earned by over ...

. He had 38 sacks in his final two seasons of high school.

College career

He played

San José State University San José State University (San Jose State or SJSU) is a public research university in San Jose, California. Established in 1857, SJSU is the oldest public university on the West Coast and the founding campus of the California State Universit ...

. In his freshman season, he played in 12 games in which he made 18 tackles and two sacks. In his sophomore season, he played and started in all 13 games and recorded 62 tackles and 7.5 sacks. In his junior season of 2011, he played and started in all 12 games in which he recorded 73 tackles and 9.5 sacks. He was nominated to the Hendricks Award Watch List for the best defensive end. He was selected to the First-team All-WAC defensive lineman. In his senior season, 65 tackles, a career high 13 sacks, 3 forced fumbles, and 2 pass deflections. On October 14, 2011, in a 28-27 victory over

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; ) is an island U.S. state, state of the United States, in the Pacific Ocean about southwest of the U.S. mainland. One of the two Non-contiguous United States, non-contiguous U.S. states (along with Alaska), it is the only sta ...

nationally televised on ESPN, Johnson blocked an

extra point Extra, Xtra, or The Extra may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Film * The Extra (1962 film), ''The Extra'' (1962 film), a Mexican film * The Extra (2005 film), ''The Extra'' (2005 film), an Australian film Literature * Extra (newspaper), ...

and a

field goal A field goal (FG) is a means of scoring in gridiron football. To score a field goal, the team in possession of the ball must place kick, or drop kick, the ball through the goal, i.e., between the uprights and over the crossbar. Consequently, ...

by Hawaii.

Duke Ihenacho Duke Uba Ihenacho (born June 16, 1989) is a former American football Safety (gridiron football position), safety. He played college football at San Jose State Spartans football, San Jose State. He signed with the Denver Broncos as an undrafted fr ...

returned the blocked extra point all the way to the Hawaii end zone for a two-point defensive conversion. Johnson ended his senior year with multiple conference and national honors, including

CBS Sports CBS Sports is the American sports programming division of Paramount Global that is responsible for sports broadcasts carried by its broadcast network CBS and streaming service Paramount+, as well as the operator of its cable channel CBS Sports N ...

third-team All-American, ''

Sports Illustrated ''Sports Illustrated'' (''SI'') is an American sports magazine first published in August 1954. Founded by Stuart Scheftel, it was the first magazine with a circulation of over one million to win the National Magazine Award for General Excellen ...

'' honorable mention All-American,

Western Athletic Conference The Western Athletic Conference (WAC) is an NCAA Division I conference. The WAC covers a broad expanse of the Western United States with member institutions located in Arizona, California, Texas, Utah and Washington (state), Washington. Due to ...

(WAC) Defensive Player of the Year, first-team All-WAC, and second-team

Academic All-America The Academic All-America program is a student-athlete recognition program. The program selects an honorary sports team composed of the most outstanding student-athletes of a specific season for positions in various sports—who in turn are give ...

n. He also won the National Football Foundation Scholar-Athlete Award after his senior season. He finished his college career with a total of 218 Tackles, 32 Sacks, 3 Forced fumbles and 2 Pass deflections. He was invited and played in the 2013 East-West Shrine Game on the west team and the 2013 Senior Bowl. Johnson graduated from San Jose State in 2013 with a

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, B.S., B.Sc., SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree that is awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Scienc ...

degree in

kinesiology Kinesiology () is the scientific study of human body movement. Kinesiology addresses physiological, anatomical, Biomechanics, biomechanical, Pathology, pathological, neuropsychological principles and mechanisms of movement. Applications of kines ...

. Johnson is also a member of the

Fellowship of Christian Athletes The Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA) is an international nonprofit Christian sports ministry based in Kansas City, Missouri, Kansas City. History FCA was founded in 1954 by Eastern Oklahoma State College, Eastern Oklahoma A&M basketball c ...

Professional career

Johnson was not selected in the

2013 NFL draft The 2013 NFL draft was the 78th annual meeting of National Football League (NFL) franchises to select newly eligible football players. The draft, which is officially called the "NFL Player Selection Meeting", was held at Radio City Music Hall in ...

. Following the draft, Johnson joined

New York Jets The New York Jets are a professional American football team based in the New York metropolitan area. The Jets compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC East, East division. The team p ...

rookie minicamp. On July 30, 2013, the San Francisco 49ers signed linebacker Travis Johnson to a three-year deal. The 49ers waived Johnson on August 31, 2013. Johnson had 6 tackles and 1 sack during the preseason.

References

External links

San Jose State Spartans bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Johnson, Travis (linebacker) 1991 births Living people American football defensive ends American football linebackers Sportspeople from Sunnyvale, California Players of American football from Santa Clara County, California Players of American football from San Jose, California San Jose State Spartans football players San Francisco 49ers players