 
Eric Johnson |
Two members of the Yale football team joined the ranks of the professionals when they were tapped in back-to-back picks during the National Football League (NFL) draft on April 22.
Than Merrill '01, the star Eli defensive back, became the first Yale player drafted by the NFL since 1981 when the Tampa Bay Buccaneers grabbed him in the seventh round as the 223rd overall pick. The San Francisco Forty-Niners then took Eric Johnson '01, the Bulldog star receiver/
Merrill, a political science major from Fresno, California, transferred to Yale in 1998 from Stanford University after a red-shirt season and a varsity campaign. At Yale, he was the biggest defensive back on the team and one of its most powerful hitters. In his junior year, he led the team with 77 tackles and won Yale's Hammer Award for hardest hitter; he also made First-team All Ivy and Second-team All-ECAC that year. Despite missing two games with a leg injury in his senior year, he ended the season with 56 tackles, 26 of them solo, and was named First-team All-Ivy, First-team All-New England and Ivy League Defensive Player of the Week on Nov. 18.
Johnson, a major in American studies and sociology from Needham, Massachusetts, was Yale's most prolific receiver. During his four-letter career, he broke 11 receiving records and one punting mark, while finishing with at least one catch in his last 24 games. He also set the Ivy League Record for catches in a game with 21 against Harvard on Nov. 20, 1999. In fact, catches Johnson made against Harvard in 1999 and 2000 made the "ESPN Plays of the Week." In the 2000 NCAA 1-AA Rankings, he was second in receptions (8.70), ninth in receiving yards (101.7) and 21st in scoring (8.40). His other honors include First-team All-Ivy as wide receiver, Honorable Mention All-Ivy as punter and First-team All-New England. His 3.64 grade point average helped him attain 1999 First-team GTE Academic All-America status and the 2000 Swede Nelson Award from the Gridiron Club of Greater Boston. He was also awarded the Harry Agganis Award for outstanding senior in New England from the New England Sports Writers.
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