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Bobby Johnson
Topic Started: Apr 27 2005, 08:51 AM (109 Views)
WVGiantsFan11
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Ex-Giant's long climb back is fueled by quest for a ring
Tuesday, April 26, 2005
BY STEVE POLITI
Star-Ledger Staff

Bobby Johnson shook hands with his former Giants teammates for the first time in almost two decades yesterday, and each time he did, he could feel the gold and the diamonds from their Super Bowl rings. Every player from that 1986 team has one.

Every player, that is, except Johnson.

He suffered through a cocaine addiction that took everything except his life. He endured the pain of a factory accident that ripped through the skin and shattered the bones on his right hand, leaving the former receiver permanently disfigured.

But the low point came one day in 1989, when he walked into a pawn shop in Nashville, took his priceless ring out of his pocket, and hawked it for $500.

There are only about six thousand Super Bowl rings. Many of the best players in NFL history do not have one. Those who do protect them like children, lock them in safe deposit boxes, and say things like former Giants receiver Phil McConkey did recently: "They'll have to rip it from my cold, dead finger."

For barely enough money to pay the rent, in a moment of desperation, Johnson gave his away.

"I just woke up one morning and said, 'I need some money,'" Johnson said. "The only thing I could pawn was that ring.

"I don't think the guy actually believed it was a Super Bowl ring. He thought it was a replica or something. I thought I could keep making payments until I got the $500 back, but at the time when I was getting the money, that was the last thing I could spend it on.

"I had to eat," he said. "I had to live."

Johnson never imagined, more than a decade later, that selling his ring would help reunite him with the Giants teammates he thought he would never see again.

# "Fourth and 17," Edison resident Steve Wisniewski said. "That catch you made against Minnesota, that's what made you a household name in New York, Bobby."

Wisniewski is one of the 50 or 60 Giants fans or autograph hounds who paid their $15 at a MAB Celebrity Services memorabilia show in Secaucus, stood on line with their helmets and posters and books, and waited for Johnson to sign his name.

Johnson caught 112 passes in his three-year NFL career. But the one that matters, the one everyone remembers, came on Nov. 16, 1986, in Minnesota.

The Giants, 8-2 at the time, trailed the Vikings 20-19 with 1:12 left. Johnson broke free inside the Vikings secondary and waited. Lineman Karl Nelson had suffered a concussion on the previous play and was seeing double, so he tried to "block the guy on the right." An assistant coach stumbled off the bench trying to get a better view.

Johnson kept waiting.

Phil Simms said if he threw that pass 100 times, "I'd get it in there five or six times." This was one of those times. Johnson grabbed it for a 22-yard gain and a first down. Raul Allegre kicked the game-winning field goal a few plays later.

The Giants never looked back.

Johnson did not catch a pass in the big game two months later. He knew his time was up. He was traded to the San Diego Chargers six months later and released during training camp.

The drugs had taken over, and his story is a familiar story for athletes in the mid-'80s. Johnson started snorting cocaine at parties to fit in, and then alone to make himself feel normal, and then nothing could stand in the way of his addiction.

He moved to Tennessee, where he grew up, and started working odd jobs. The money went into drugs. He was getting clean in 1989 when, facing eviction from his apartment, he pawned the ring. He was too proud to ask his teammates for help.

They couldn't find him to offer help. Johnson missed the party to celebrate the 10-year anniversary of that championship season. Tony Galbreath drove through rough neighborhoods in East St. Louis where Johnson once lived, looking for him. Galbreath met plenty of Bobby Johnsons, but never the right one.

"I felt like I was searching for the one-armed man in 'The Fugitive,'" said Galbreath, a backup running back on the 1986 team. "I spent 20 years trying to find him."

It took an unlikely person to track Johnson down.

The man who had his ring.

# Alan Joseph, a lawyer from Glendale, N.Y., has the biggest known collection of Giants memorabilia -- more than 15,000 trading cards, 200 plaques and 30 signed game-day jerseys. He found the prize of his collection at a Super Bowl memorabilia show in 1994.

He paid 20 times what Johnson got from that Tennessee pawn shop, and estimates the ring's current value at about $20,000. He displayed it on his finger at a Giants charity golf outing a few years back and nearly came to blows with McConkey.

"I could not believe that somebody would pay for that and put it on his finger," McConkey said.

McConkey did not know that Joseph already had been in contact with Johnson, tracking him down through the NFL Players Association. The two men became friends.

Joseph invited Johnson to a game in Tennessee when the Giants played the Titans. Then, when he heard about yesterday's autograph show, he helped Johnson get the $1,000 payday.

Seeing his old teammates was wonderful. Seeing his ring was difficult. Johnson handled it for a few seconds, then handed it back to Joseph. "I might run out the door with it," he joked.

He was asked if he wanted it back. "Am I living and breathing?" Johnson replied. "Are we sitting here and talking right now? That would be the greatest thing that ever happened to me, besides winning the Super Bowl and the birth of my son."

Joseph said he would consider selling the prize of his collection back to the former Giants receiver. It was his investment, and he is entitled the money for it.

But Johnson deserves to have that ring back on his finger, so maybe the next time he sees his old teammates, he can hear the noise of gold touching gold when he shakes their hands.

I find it hard to believe that he wore the ring to the Golf Tournament. It is one thing to buy it and display it. it is another to wear it like you deserve it.
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10Giants
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I always liked Bobby Johnson and wondered what had happened to him. This is the first I have heard about his post Giant life and it a sad tale. I have seen personally the way an addiction can eat at a person and it is not pretty. I have heard of other ex players who sold their Super Bowl rings for similar reasons and it always makes me sad to hear it. The guy who bought it does deserve to get paid for it and he did a nice thing helping Johnson get that show. Wearing the ring and waving it around ex-Giants though was a really idiotic thing. It would be a real nice thing if some of his teammates, especially the ones who have done well and can afford to, got together and bought it back for him. Even the Giant organization could get involved.
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27Hampton
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Wow, I never knew that about him. That's too bad.
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Eli_Manning_10
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WR #88?

never saw him play. but i wish i did.
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Gene
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Jesus what a story..........

Perhaps I'm only dreaming here, but would anyone else be a bit surprised if the Mara's got him another ring? Or bought the ring back from that guy?
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Rick5
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I can't believe the guy didn't give the ring to Johnson. He is obviously pretty well off. That's what I would have done, which explains why I'll never be rich.
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Eli_Manning_10
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500 bucks for a ring? wow.


anyways i hope he gets it back.
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10Giants
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Gene
Apr 27 2005, 06:14 PM
Jesus what a story..........

Perhaps I'm only dreaming here, but would anyone else be a bit surprised if the Mara's got him another ring? Or bought the ring back from that guy?

It would not surprise me at all if they did. That is assuming they have been made aware of this story.
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BlueHeart
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Rick5
Apr 27 2005, 06:57 PM
I can't believe the guy didn't give the ring to Johnson. He is obviously pretty well off. That's what I would have done, which explains why I'll never be rich.

You and me both, brother. :yes:

The prick doesn't say what he offered to sell it back to him for. The amount he paid? The 20G he believes it's worth?

I'm soft. If I had the money I would buy it back for him.
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10Giants
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BlueHeart
Apr 27 2005, 07:20 PM
You and me both, brother. :yes:

The prick doesn't say what he offered to sell it back to him for. The amount he paid? The 20G he believes it's worth?

I'm soft. If I had the money I would buy it back for him.[/color]

Many of his ex teammates do have the money, I'm sure. It would be a nice ending if they or the team came through for Bobby, but it should be noted we don't know how many bridges he may have burned with his habit before he left the team.
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BlueHeart
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True.

It seems, from the article at least, that his drug use got completely out of control after he left football.

I'm a freakin' pushover who would give her last dime away to whoever needed it, so, like I said, were I able to do it, the ring would be his. :lol:
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10Giants
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In some ways I'm glad I'm not rich because it would be impossible for me to read something like this and not help.
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WVGiantsFan11
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BlueHeart
Apr 27 2005, 07:20 PM
Rick5
Apr 27 2005, 06:57 PM
I can't believe the guy didn't give the ring to Johnson.  He is obviously pretty well off.  That's what I would have done, which explains why I'll never be rich.

You and me both, brother. :yes:

The prick doesn't say what he offered to sell it back to him for. The amount he paid? The 20G he believes it's worth?

I'm soft. If I had the money I would buy it back for him.

I'm only guessing but I assume that since he mentioned that tht ring was his investment and he deserves the money that he wants the whole $20K.
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