Andre Johnson Gives Back To The Community

We hear a lot about former or current athletes who have lost all their money, abused their wives or girlfriends or otherwise behaved poorly in some way. It's important to remember that just as with any other job, the jerks, dummies and slobs are most likely a minority of the people that you'll meet. One person who is going above and beyond to help people in life is former Houston Texan wide receiver Andre Johnson. It is important to reach out and help those less fortunate than ourselves, especially if they're children. Children don't own responsibility for their situation. You may not have $20,000 to give away but I am sure there are other ways you can give of your time and resources to those who need and appreciate the help. Retired NFL star Andre Johnson holds nearly every Houston Texans receiving record - but for the past nine years, Johnson has fulfilled a very different kind of streak. Come the holiday season, Johnson brings several children from struggling families into a Toys R Us - and tells them to pick out whatever they'd like.

You'd think there would be a spending cap or limited amount of toys the children can take home, but Johnson has only one rule. Kids, ages 5-16, have to fill their shopping carts in 80 seconds (80 was Johnson's jersey number). Not hard to do when you're, you know, a kid in a toy store.
Totals from Johnson's past shopping sprees have run between $5,000 and $16,000 - the kind of numbers that credit card companies send fraud alerts over (that actually happened to Johnson in 2014). But this year, Johnson set a new personal best. The total on the receipt? Exactly $19,144.58. Oh, and everyone got an Xbox (or their gaming system of choice). Naturally.

The origin of Johnson's yearly ritual is rooted in a earnest desire to give back and to help kids in need. "I know that a lot of kids don't get what they want for Christmas," he told New Fix. "This idea was brought to me and I just kind of took it and ran with it."LINK