He’s a former No. 1 NFL draft pick and a current ESPN analyst, but he’s not giving his son a free pass in life. Keyshawn Johnson recently pulled his college son, Keyshawn, Jr. out of the University of Nebraska after struggling both on and off the field.
On the football team, Keyshawn wasn’t performing well. But worse, he was received a citation for possession of marijuana in his dorm room. While many sports-minded parents will go to great lengths to protect their child’s reputation, Johnson appears to have a larger goal in mind — despite the fact that his son came in with a stellar athletic reputation.
This had to be hard. It takes guts to be a great #dad. Keyshawn Johnson Pulls Son Out of Nebraska https://t.co/yeNnOMWIzR
— Matt Mower (@chabin76) August 31, 2017
It only took two weeks of trouble at school for Johnson to make his son leave the field and campus for a trip back home.
“One thing you will not do as my son is you will not embarrass Nebraska, you will not embarrass Mike Riley and you will not embarrass this family,” said the elder Johnson. “If you mature and you’re ready to resume your football career and academic goals, then Nebraska will be ready to embrace you.”
"If you want to become #successful — you’ve got to embrace it. You don’t make it to the next level by cruising."https://t.co/cekDcP1A2Z
— GlobalFútbolTraining (@GFTskills) September 4, 2017
Johnson said he never asked his son’s opinion about leaving campus, as it wasn’t up to him. Being friends with the football coach probably helped in making this decision one that Keyshawn, Jr. had to go along with. Johnson said he didn’t want his son to have special privileges to play football because of his personal status — or a previous relationship with the coach.
Keyshawn, Jr. did leave for college a semester early, so perhaps his youth played into the reasons he acted out. But one thing’s for sure, his Dad is teaching him an important lesson — and he probably won’t be making the same mistakes again.