In June 2020, the player-turned-podcaster tweeted out, “I took Viagra before every game & people thought they’d stop me, if my stat line was bad I wasn’t covered, the pass was just incomplete.” At the time, one of his followers thought he was joking, but Johnson was adamant that he was dead serious.
Johnson has discussed using the drug typically taken before sex to help with erectile dysfunction in a 2016 tweet where he wrote, “Doctor: what did you take before the game? Me: Viagra. Doctor: Why? Me: So I’d be hard to cover.”
The Viagra conversation resurfaced on the Nov. 14 episode of Johnson’s joint podcast with Shannon Sharpe: “Nightcap with Unc and Ocho.” During the segment, a viewer asked if the former player’s Viagra story was true, to which Johnson answered, “Yeah, half a pill; that’s all you need.”
Sharpe asked Johnson why he would want to be on the field with “wood” like that, but Johnson explained the erection wasn’t the reason he did it.
His reason behind using the drug was because it made him “explosive” while running his routes.
“It’s an enhancement,” Johnson explained. “With an increase in blood flow to improve performance horizontally. Depending on how you do it. I don’t know what you do at home.”
Johnson also shared that if you mix half a Viagra pill with a little bit of Red Bull, it turns into a “performance enhancer.”
Johnson attributes his use of Viagra to why he is considered one of the best NFL wide receivers ever.
Johnson tells Sharpe, “The increase in blood flow, it has me movin’ times 10 than what I would regularly be moving without it.”
Sharpe laughed at his friend, while others said that Johnson’s use of Viagra made some sense. One commenter wrote, “No wonder they couldn’t stop 85. Mans was out there bricked up and charged up,” while another one said, “I once took Viagra and Adderal before a football game, and I had by far the best game of my life. I felt like a superhero who could see everything in slow motion.”
I once took viagra and adderal before a football game and I had by far the best game of my life. I felt like a super hero who could see everything in slow motion
— Kyle (@kizzlecozzle) November 14, 2023
Later in the podcast, a fan asked Johnson if he still takes the pill, and he said he has no reason to. The former player said, “I’m not playing football no more.” On the other hand, Sharpe said, “I can neither confirm nor deny.”
Sharpe said that he may have “dabbled” in Viagra use at certain times in his life. Johnson said in his relationship, he doesn’t need the pill because “you ain’t get nothin’ but three minutes anyway.” Sharpe said that the first time is different than being in a relationship because you want to “show off.”
Sharpe then shared a story about how he used the pill on his first time with a woman but not the second. The former tight end said, “So I was gonna go back for the third time. You know what she hit me with? She said, ‘Bring that penis you had the first time I saw you.’ I said, ‘God dawg.’” The two podcasters laughed so hard at Sharpe’s story that the sound cut out.
