LOS ANGELES \u2013 Former Philadelphia Eagles defensive lineman and Texas Southern University standout Kevin Johnson died from \u201cblunt head trauma and stab wounds\u201d at a homeless encampment in Los Angeles, according to the medical examiner.<\/p>\n
The Los Angeles County Medical Examiner said Johnson, 55, was pronounced dead Wednesday morning after being found unconscious. <\/p>\n
His death was ruled a homicide and is being investigated. <\/p>\n
Investigators believe Johnson had been living at the encampment at the time of his death. Friends said Johnson had health issues later in life that contributed to his situation.<\/p>\n
A native of the Westchester area in Los Angeles, Johnson first played college football in L.A. before transferring to Texas Southern in 1991. For the next two seasons, he would be a standout defensive tackle, bolstering a deeply talented unit alongside Houston-native and future Pro Football Hall of Fame inductee Michael Strahan.<\/p>\n
Johnson was picked in the fourth round of the 1993 NFL Draft by the New England Patriots.<\/p>\n
Johnson spent time with the Patriots, Minnesota Vikings, and Oakland Raiders before landing with the Philadelphia Eagles in 1995. <\/p>\n
In two years with Philly, had 43 tackles, including seven sacks, and returned a fumble for a touchdown. He played 15 games for the Raiders in 1997.<\/p>\n
Johnson later played in the Arena Football League for Orlando and Los Angeles. <\/p>\n
An article from The Associated Press <\/a>contributed to this report. Read more here.<\/a><\/p>\n Breaking News Alerts<\/p>\n More Stories Like This In Our Email Newsletter<\/p>\n Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LOS ANGELES \u2013 Former Philadelphia Eagles defensive lineman and Texas Southern University standout Kevin Johnson died from \u201cblunt…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":135556,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[300,57786,223,80,154,27,29,28,57787,30359,1499],"class_list":{"0":"post-135555","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-texas","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-kevin-johnson","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-nfl","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-texas","14":"tag-texas-headlines","15":"tag-texas-news","16":"tag-texas-southern","17":"tag-tsu","18":"tag-u-s-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135555","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=135555"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135555\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/135556"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=135555"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=135555"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=135555"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}