Josh Johnson doesn’t wear bolo ties or say dadgummit, but he’s doing the San Diego-Carson thing, too.

Johnson, a decade-plus since he passed for a zillion yards in San Diego, is flinging footballs in the Carson soccer park where Philip Rivers led the Chargers the past three NFL seasons.

It’s not a stretch to claim this for Johnson, who threw four touchdown passes Sunday night for the Los Angeles Wildcats of the XFL:

He loves football as much as Rivers does.


I’d also guess the University of San Diego alum, who’ll turn 34 in May, is no less resilient than the quarterback who owns the NFL’s longest active streak for consecutive starts. It’s an emotional endurance.

NFL teams made a habit of cutting him. But Johnson still found work, earning jobs with 13 NFL clubs in the nine years after his three seasons with the Tampa Bay Bucs, who took him in the fifth round of the 2008 draft.

It appeared the NFL was done with him last winter, when the Washington Redskins cut ties as he recovered from an ankle injury.

He worked himself back into shape, and the phone buzzed again. Detroit was interested.


“I went to the Lions for preseason and a couple of games,” Johnson said by phone, “and they let me go.”

When the NFL won’t have him, he pulls on another league’s helmet.

In 2012, for example, after his former USD coach Jim Harbaugh cut him from the San Francisco 49ers, Johnson found work with the Sacramento Mountain Lions.

They were in the United Football League, RIP.


When the Oakland Raiders released him in 2018, he joined the new Alliance of American Football, RIP.

It was billed as a homecoming, but he never played for the San Diego Fleet, who would take him first in the league draft but lose him to the Redskins after two of their quarterbacks went down.

Joining the XFL Wildcats wasn’t a tough decision.

XFL teams were offering quarterbacks more money than the AAF did, andcoordinator Norm Chow, who called plays for Rivers in his freshman year at N.C. State, had a good track record.


Also, Johnson knew he’d be The Man.

Last time he had full control of a team, he was wearing No. 11 for USD and leading the Toreros to 30 wins in his 34 starts from 2005-07.

“This is what I’ve been waiting for,” he said. “This is what you work for, so you can be back in that situation. I’m enjoying it, I’m enjoying it a lot.”

Johnson missed the first game of the season due to a hamstring injury, but in his four games he has passed for 1,076 yards and 11 touchdowns. Both figures rank second in the league behind Houston’s PJ Walker, who has played one more game.


Johnson said he owes his pro career to his days at USD.

He’d attended Oakland Tech High, whose star player was his cousin Marshawn Lynch.

Johnson, who chose USD after Saint Mary’s College dropped football, said he learned a lot from Harbaugh. The coach had lasted 14 years in the NFL as a quarterback. He would lead the San Francisco 49ers to a Super Bowl before taking over Michigan’s program.

In college, Johnson grew taller, stronger and faster, and at 213 pounds, ran like a NFL receiver — 4.53 seconds in the 40-yard dash — at the NFL combine after his senior sesaon. He’d averaged 6.1 yards per rush in his career, but was a pass-first playmaker who threw 113 touchdown passes against only 15 interceptions.


Sporting-goods stores owners would envy his closet. It’s filled with football jerseys and jackets from his travels.

Asked if he still owns the silver-and-gold Fleet jacket coach Mike Martz held open in Las Vegas when he was drafted, Johnson paused to visualize his closet. “Yeah, I think do have it. It’s in there,” he said. “It’s sweet.”

One more question earned another pause. Is he hoping to catch the NFL’s eye?

“I want to keep playing football at the highest level possible that they’re going to allow me,” he said. “There’s nothing like being out on the field, playing in the game. There’s nothing like it.”


Perhaps Lakers and Dodgers fans don’t know who the Wildcats are, much less the name of their quarterback. But there’s a game to be played this week, and four more after that.

Josh Johnson loves L.A.