Johnson played in the NFL for 15 years with three teams: the St. Louis Cardinals, Houston Oilers, and Denver Broncos.
[2] During his college football career at New Mexico State he became the only person to date to be named Most Valuable Player of the Sun Bowl in consecutive years, winning the award in 1959 and 1960.
His teammates named him the Broncos Most Valuable Player, and he was selected for first-team All-AFC honors by Pro Football Weekly and United Press International.
[21] As of 2017[update], his 16.45 yards per attempt in the game[20] remains a franchise record,[citation needed] and in 1986 he was named a member of the Denver Broncos Ring of Fame.
[1] He retired in 1975[3] with a 59–57–8 record as a starter, with 1,737 completions (at the time, ranked 13th all-time in professional football) on 3,392 attempts (13th), for 24,410 yards (14th), 170 touchdowns (15th), 181 interceptions (14th) and a passer rating of 69.2 (20th).
[23][3] As an undergraduate, Johnson was part of NMSU's Army ROTC; he used his graduate studies to delay his commission until 1967, when he was called into active duty.
[25] Johnson was also briefly the interim head coach of the NMSU football team during the off-season, following the firing of Hal Mumme in January 2009.