CFL: New Argonauts defensive lineman ‘Poop’ Johnson is just a regular guy
“Welcome Poop.”
Those were the words the Toronto Argonauts used to announce the signing of their newest player, defensive lineman Cory “Poop” Johnson, in a tweet Wednesday.
The 26-year-old South Carolina native earned his unusual nickname in 2014 at the University of Kentucky, after an interview with a local TV station where he wasn’t shy.
Asked about his weight, he told a reporter it can vary from 280 to 300 pounds.
“I guess ’cause I poop so much,” he said in the clip, which has been viewed more than 140,000 times on YouTube.
“I try to poop, like, five times a day, three times a day, so it’s hard to keep weight when you got so much going out.”
Johnson, who stands six foot three and officially weighs in at 300 pounds, played two seasons at the University of Kentucky, before spending the off seasons of 2016 and 2017 with the NFL’s Atlanta Falcons and Kansas City Chiefs, according to an Argos news release.
Before joining the Argos, he played for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, the release added, where he played “25 games over two seasons” and “recorded 28 tackles and five sacks.”
Instead of trying to squash the nickname, he’s embraced it.
Asked about it in another YouTube clip from August 2015, he said pooping is “starting to work out in my favour because I’m starting to look a little slim.”
But according to Jan D. Huizinga, a professor of medicine and biomedical sciences at McMaster University, you can’t regulate your weight by pooping a lot.
“The amount of poop is directly related to how much undigestible food you eat. If you poop a lot, you probably eat a lot of fibre, undigested plant matter and fat,” Huizinga wrote in an email.
Diane Urquhart, a resident at the gastrointestinal clinic at McMaster University, said three to five bowel movements a day is “not necessarily abnormal.”