The Texans were off Tuesday.

At 8:30 a.m. on his off day, wide receiver Andre Johnson walked into a Toys R Us near NRG Stadium, found the children waiting for him and gathered everyone together.

“You can go through the store and get whatever you want,” said Johnson, the Texans’ longest-tenured player. “I’ll pay for it. Have a Merry Christmas.”

Empty shopping carts were lined up. The countdown began. Then Johnson briefly paused the rush.

Don’t worry about video-game systems, he said. If you want one, you’ll get one, and a couple games. They’re behind locked doors. Focus on what you really want and you’ll get a free system when your carts are loaded.

They were off. For 80 seconds, children ages 8-16 from the Harris County Department of Family Protective Services tore through open aisles, pulled once-unthinkable items off shelves and kept racing in dreamland.

“Twenty seconds. Twenty seconds!” called out Johnson’s uncle.

“All right. Ten seconds. Let’s go!”

“That’s it. Done! Done!”

Overfilled baskets spun toward registers. Stuffed animals and playsets were strategically placed on top of “Frozen” dolls and WWE toys. Checkout counters beeped, beeped and beeped.

There was a minor hold up.

“Go get my wallet out of my car,” a smiling Johnson said to his uncle.

For the next 20 minutes, No. 80 snapped photos, traded laughs and swiped his credit card, moving from register to register as toys were pulled out of baskets and bagged.

A receipt spooled out. Then it kept stretching and stretching. While Johnson paid for one Christmas, another register reached $3,338.01 and kept running.

The Texan bought so much Toys R Us started giving him gift cards back.

The final bill: $16,266.26.

“It’s crazy,” Johnson said. “Me and my uncle were sitting in the house one day. And I was like, ‘I want to do something for Christmas.’ And he was just like, ‘Have you ever thought about having kids go through Toys R Us and get what they want?’ And I was just like, ‘Naw, I never really thought about that.’

“He was like, ‘Give ‘em 80 seconds to run through the store and let ‘em just get what they want.’ And I was like, ‘That’s not enough time.’ And he was like, ‘They can grab a lot.’ So we did it the first year and when the kids came back, I was like, ‘Wow, I didn’t think they could grab that much stuff in that amount of time.’ So we just rolled with it from there and we just kept doing it every year. And we just decided to give them whatever game system they wanted because they keep that stuff locked up.”

Twenty-three days remain until Christmas. For the eighth consecutive year, Johnson handed out early holiday joy for free.









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Photo: Johnny Hanson Image 1 of / 12 Caption Close Image 2 of 12 Texans receiver Andre Johnson gave away more than $16,000 in toys for Houston area children who are part of CPS Department of Family Services due to unfortunate circumstances in their lives. This is Johnson with Chasidy, 7. less Texans receiver Andre Johnson gave away more than $16,000 in toys for Houston area children who are part of CPS Department of Family Services due to unfortunate circumstances in their lives. This is Johnson ... more Photo: Johnny Hanson Image 3 of 12 Texans receiver Andre Johnson gave away more than $16,000 in toys for Houston area children who are part of CPS Department of Family Services due to unfortunate circumstances in their lives. Texans receiver Andre Johnson gave away more than $16,000 in toys for Houston area children who are part of CPS Department of Family Services due to unfortunate circumstances in their lives. Photo: Johnny Hanson Image 4 of 12 Texans receiver Andre Johnson gave away more than $16,000 in toys for Houston area children who are part of CPS Department of Family Services due to unfortunate circumstances in their lives. Texans receiver Andre Johnson gave away more than $16,000 in toys for Houston area children who are part of CPS Department of Family Services due to unfortunate circumstances in their lives. Photo: Johnny Hanson Image 5 of 12 Image 6 of 12 Texans receiver Andre Johnson gave away more than $16,000 in toys for Houston area children who are part of CPS Department of Family Services due to unfortunate circumstances in their lives. Texans receiver Andre Johnson gave away more than $16,000 in toys for Houston area children who are part of CPS Department of Family Services due to unfortunate circumstances in their lives. Photo: Johnny Hanson Image 7 of 12 Photo: Brian T. Smith Image 8 of 12 Photo: Brian T. Smith Image 9 of 12 Photo: Brian T. Smith Image 10 of 12 Image 11 of 12 Photo: Brian T. Smith Image 12 of 12 Texans' Andre Johnson gives away $16,000 in toys at annual Christmas event 1 / 12 Back to Gallery

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