Johnathan Joseph, Northwestern High and USC Gamecock football great, retires from NFL

A Rock Hill football great is moving on.

Johnathan Joseph, a defensive back from a town called Football City, USA, who spent 15 years in the NFL, announced his retirement from the game on Twitter Thursday afternoon.

“Today I retire from the NFL,” Joseph wrote. “In the summer of 2006, I signed my first NFL contract with the Cincinnati Bengals. Fifteen years later, I can say I accomplished my childhood goal... I will never forget as a kid telling my father I wanted to be in the NFL.”

Joseph, 37, graduated from Northwestern High School in 2003. He attended Coffeyville Community College in Kansas for one year before transferring to the University of South Carolina. He then spent two seasons in Columbia: As a junior Gamecock (2005), he started 10 games and earned second-team All-SEC honors with an impressive season stat line — four interceptions, 55 tackles and nine pass breakups.

He was selected by the Cincinnati Bengals in the first round (24th pick overall) of the 2006 NFL draft.

“To my wife, Delaina, thank you for being supportive, understanding, and a great mom,” he wrote in another tweet. “My kids, thank you and love you. My mom and sister thank you for believing in me and being my #1 fans. To my family and friends, thanks for being supportive, caring, and the backbone to my success.”

Joseph spent five seasons in Cincinnati. Before the 2011 season, as a free agent, he decided to move on to the Houston Texans, where he spent the bulk of his career (nine seasons) and notched two Pro Bowl selections.

And in 2020, he played for the Arizona Cardinals and Tennessee Titans.

In many of the 15 offseasons in his career, he hosted youth football camps in Rock Hill, giving back to the community that helped raise him.

“I just want the kids to have a chance to come and learn from a lot of the older guys,” Joseph told The Herald back in 2015. “A lot of times they see us on TV but this way they can some see us in person. The community supports us so much we just want to come back and support the community any way we can.”

Joseph played in 211 NFL games in total — notching 32 interceptions, seven touchdowns, 200 passes defended, eight forced fumbles, six fumble recoveries and 787 tackles, per pro-fooball-reference.com.

“Last but not least, thank you to the fans,” he tweeted on Thursday. “You are the best fans in the world. You made playing the game worth it. It was an honor to play the game at the highest level, and I’m looking forward to starting the next chapter of my life.”