Brad Johnson

An undrafted receiver made it all the way to the Super Bowl in February. One hour before kickoff they told him he was not dressing. Today he won a game in Buffalo with one hand. His name is Efton Chism III. He is from Monroe, Washington, and he is 5 foot 11. His father is a Marine Corps veteran. His mother and his older sister are both educators. He is the third Efton Lynn Chism in his family. The man who trained him from about the sixth grade was Michael Bumpus, a former Seattle Seahawks receiver who ended up as the head coach at Monroe High School. "Efton was the type of kid who did whatever you asked and went above and beyond," Bumpus said. He left Monroe as the school's all time leader in catches and receiving touchdowns. Almost nobody in Division I wanted him anyway. So he stayed home and went to Eastern Washington, in a town called Cheney, where the field is red. Then he had one of the great careers in FCS history. 346 catches. 3,852 yards. 37 touchdowns. He caught a pass in 53 straight games, which no player in FCS football has ever done. In 2024 he caught 120 passes in a season and broke Cooper Kupp's school record. His college coach Aaron Best described him in one line. "He's who you want your daughter to marry. He's who you want your quarterback to throw the ball to on third down." In 2025 he went undrafted. All seven rounds, 257 picks, nobody called. The New England Patriots signed him anyway and he made the roster. His position coach Todd Downing noticed one thing immediately. "Tenacious work ethic. He's in my office every morning at 6 a.m. He beats a lot of coaches there." Six in the morning. As an undrafted rookie who could be cut any Tuesday. He returned kicks that season. On offense he caught three passes the entire year. And then New England went to the Super Bowl. He got to the stadium. He went through the whole week. He was there. About an hour before kickoff they listed him inactive. The roster was full when a veteran receiver came back from injury. He stood on that sideline in street clothes and watched Seattle win it 29 to 13. Now today, in Buffalo. Fourth quarter. 1:55 on the clock. New England down by five. Drake Maye threw it deep right and Efton Chism III reached out and caught it with one hand for 23 yards and a touchdown. That was the game. Be honest about the size of it. One catch does not erase standing in a suit while your team plays for a championship. He is still a role player, and he will probably be returning kicks again next Sunday. But a man who was told he was not needed on the biggest day of his life kept showing up at six in the morning anyway. Today the ball came to him with the game on the line, slightly out of reach. He got one hand on it.

Two years ago his right femur snapped in two. He had five surgeries, spent nine days in a hospital, and doctors were not sure he would walk again. Tonight, in his seventh year of college football, he threw two fourth quarter touchdowns and won the game. His name is Max Johnson. His father is Brad Johnson, who played 17 seasons in the National Football League and won Super Bowl XXXVII with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Max started at LSU, where he threw for 2,814 yards and 27 touchdowns in 2021. Then Texas A&M. Then North Carolina. August 2024. The Tar Heels open the season at Minnesota. Late in the third quarter he lets go of a pass, a cornerback hits him low and a lineman hits him high, and his right thigh bone breaks in two pieces. He wound up in a hospital bed holding the shattered bones in his leg in place. Five operations. Nine days. Complications after the surgeries that had people wondering whether the leg could be saved at all. That fall his father started driving him to the football facility at six in the morning for team meetings, and then sitting in the car waiting for him. Six or seven weeks in, Max came out to the parking lot and woke his father up. "I can walk." Brad told him to prove it. Max took six steps. They both sat there and cried. 368 days after the injury he threw a touchdown pass to his younger brother Jake. "Once I threw it to him, it was a special moment," he said. "Just to celebrate with him, I felt like we were little kids again, playing pee wee football." In January he transferred to Georgia Southern, and in August he won the starting job over the head coach's own son. Understand how long the wait was. Between the end of 2023 and the start of this season, Max Johnson played in five football games. Tonight the Georgia Southern Eagles led the Coastal Carolina Chanticleers 17-3, and then gave all of it back. Tied 17-17 in the third quarter. Johnson threw 16 yards to River Helms. Then 14 yards to Alex Taylor. Georgia Southern won 31-24. He finished 18 of 29 for 233 yards and three touchdowns. Be honest about what this is and is not. This is the Sun Belt Conference, not the Southeastern Conference. He is 24 years old throwing against 20 year olds, and nobody is drafting a seventh year quarterback off a Saturday night in Statesboro. Which is exactly why it counts. There is no career at the end of this. He went through five surgeries and a year of learning to walk again to play college football games that will not make him famous. He said something in the spring, before any of this season happened. "I couldn't see myself a year ago being where I am now." A year before that, he was holding his own leg together.