{"id":273801,"date":"2025-11-10T08:06:09","date_gmt":"2025-11-10T08:06:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/273801\/"},"modified":"2025-11-10T08:06:09","modified_gmt":"2025-11-10T08:06:09","slug":"nfl-pariah-continues-career-rehab-helps-salvage-bears-comeback-vs-giants","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/273801\/","title":{"rendered":"‘NFL pariah’ continues career rehab, helps salvage Bears comeback vs Giants"},"content":{"rendered":"

‘NFL pariah’ continues career rehab, helps salvage Bears comeback vs Giants\u00a0<\/a> originally appeared on The Sporting News<\/a>. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Before the Chicago Bears<\/a> came calling two weeks ago, an “NFL pariah” languished at home for much of the 2025 season. Now, he’s fast becoming a hero in the Windy City.<\/p>\n

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MORE:$141 million Giants star emerging as X-factor ahead of Bears clash<\/a><\/p>\n

As Chicago’s defense was hit by a rash of injuries, the club turned to free agent defensive back C.J. Gardner-Johnson for help, despite his burning through two short-lived stints with the Houston Texans<\/a> and Baltimore Ravens<\/a> just this year.\u00a0Gardner was signed on Oct. 29 to help replaced nickel corner Kyler Gordon.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just a blessing to be here,\u201d Gardner-Johnson said, per Phil Thompson of The Chicago Tribune<\/a>. Thompson observes that Gardner-Johnson had been quickly becoming an “NFL pariah” after burning through so many teams. \u201cI was home for a month and a half. The narratives and scrutiny.”<\/p>\n

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Gardner-Johnson’s redemption arc<\/p>\n

Gardner-Johnson had a big impact in the Bears’ 24-20 home win against the lowly New York Giants<\/a> on Sunday. He forced a fumble from Giants signal caller Jaxson Dart in the third quarter, helping salvage the contest. Chicago eventually came back after trailing by 10 points in the fourth frame. Gardner-Johnson also notched a pair of sacks.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut when you run (into) a great group of people, a great group of coaches that believe in you, people (who) believe in you, I think all that goes out the window when they can see a person and you come in and just adapt and adjust,” Gardner-Johnson reflected on his Bears tenure. “Come in and play right away, make an impact on the team.\u201d<\/p>\n

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With the win, Chicago improves to a surprisingly good 6-3 record during its first season under new head coach Ben Johnson.<\/p>\n

More Bears news:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"‘NFL pariah’ continues career rehab, helps salvage Bears comeback vs Giants\u00a0 originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":273802,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[436],"tags":[1742,57774,49,48,6681,1735,125369,7668,1737,1763,13282,1728,514,125368,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-273801","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl","8":"tag-baltimore-ravens","9":"tag-c-j-gardner-johnson","10":"tag-ca","11":"tag-canada","12":"tag-chicago","13":"tag-chicago-bears","14":"tag-gardner-johnson","15":"tag-giants","16":"tag-houston-texans","17":"tag-jaxson-dart","18":"tag-kyler","19":"tag-new-york-giants","20":"tag-nfl","21":"tag-phil-thompson","22":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273801","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=273801"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273801\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/273802"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=273801"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=273801"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=273801"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}