Vallejo’s CJ Anderson retires from NFL
Bethel High grad scored touchdown in Super Bowl 50 win for Denver
C.J. Anderson’s satisfying career in the National Football League, featuring a Pro Bowl selection, three Super Bowl appearances and a touchdown in Super Bowl 50, has finally run out of downs.
The 29-year-old Bethel High School and Cal graduate announced his retirement on Friday, although the former Denver Bronco said he had basically made up his mind a month ago to step down. Anderson has been in Vallejo recently helping train kids to play the game better and will continue to do so at a Power 5 school in college football, although he couldn’t yet say which school.
“When you give up something you’ve been doing for the last 20 years of your life, it’s always going to be tough,” Anderson told the Times-Herald on Friday morning. “But I’m in a position where I’m happy and still have an opportunity to do something with kids at a Power 5 school and teach them a whole lot more. Guys like Jeff Turner (Jesse Bethel head football coach), Gary Kubiak (ex-Denver Broncos head coach) have given
me so much, I feel it’s time to help give back to others.”
Anderson proved to be a solid football player right away, rushing for nearly 4,000 yards during his high school career and leading his team to four consecutive playoff appearances, including a spot in the Sac-Joaquin Section title game as a junior in 2007. That year he was also named the Times-Herald’s Male Athlete of the Year. He was also a solid quarterback that year, as he threw for nearly 800 yards that season.
“When I look back on his playing days at Bethel, I just remember that he made a lot of big plays,” Turner said about Anderson in 2016. “Big plays you didn’t expect.”
Anderson continued to play well in college, first with Laney on the junior college level, and then later with Cal. As a senior at Cal he had 790 rushing yards and added 164 more yards receiving while playing in the Pac-12 Conference.
Still, when the 2013 NFL Draft Day came, Anderson’s phone was as quiet as a museum.
“Thirty two, 254, 22,” Anderson said. “Thirty two teams, 254 picks, 22 running backs.”
Despite the snub, he never gave up on his dream, eventually getting his chance with the Denver Broncos. Anderson made his NFL debut on Oct. 27, 2013, running for 22 yards on four carries against the Washington Redskins in a 45—21 victory. During that rookie year he saw action at the end of the 2014 Super Bowl, rushing for nine yards on two carries in Denver’s loss to Seattle.
However, it’s his first touchdown — against Oakland in 2014 — that stands out as one of his personal top three moments NFL moments. Anderson rushed for 90 yards on 13 carries against the Raiders, collecting first touchdown on a 51-yard screen pass from Peyton Manning in a 41— 17 win.
“That game stands out because it was my first touchdown and I had so many family members and friends in the stands that day watching me,” Anderson said. “I must have had 60 people in the right corner of the end zone at that game.”
Anderson’s playing time increased over the next few years, with his favorite season coming in 2015. That year he helped the Broncos get to Super Bowl 50, with a few big games along the way. On Dec. 2, after a 30—24 win against the New England Patriots in Week 12, Anderson was named the AFC Offensive Player of the Week. During that contest, Anderson compiled 113 rushing yards and two touchdowns, including the game-winning score down the left sideline in a snowstorm.
That was nothing compared to what he did in Super Bowl 50, when he treated the crowd at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara to 90 rushing yards, including a touchdown in the fourth quarter that gave Denver a two-score lead late.
“I definitely flashed back a little when I scored that touchdown and it was a little bit of a release,” Anderson said in 2016. “But mostly I thought, ‘This game is over. We have the best defense on the planet and everything we set out for as a team we were about to accomplish.’”
Anderson had a rough first 11 months in 2018, when he was released by the Denver Broncos, Carolina Panthers and Oakland Raiders. Still, the setbacks never got Anderson down too much.
Anderson signed with the Rams soon after his release from Oakland and the partnership seemed a match made in heaven. Anderson calls his first week with Los Angeles in 2018 one of the top three moments of his career.
“I landed in L.A. and on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday I just spent hours each day learning the play book,” Anderson said. “Then on Saturday night I got a text from Sean McVay (Rams head coach). It said, ‘I’m glad you’re here and I have loved how you’ve gotten ready this week and you’re going to be big for this week and moving forward.’ That text message nearly left me in tears because after the whole ordeal with Carolina, someone was believing in me.”
Anderson hit the ground running with the Rams in Week 16, rushing 20 times for 167 yards and one touchdown at Arizona. The next week against the San Francisco 49ers at home, Anderson carried the ball 23 times for 132 yards and another touchdown. The Rams won both games.
In the playoffs Anderson continued to excel, running for 123 yards with two touchdowns against the Dallas Cowboys. A week later in the NFC title game, he had 16 rushes for 44 yards as the Rams stunned the host New Orleans Saints with Greg Zuerlein’s 57-yard field goal in overtime for a 26-23 victory. The Rams would lose the Super Bowl, Anderson’s third of his career, to the New England Patriots.
Anderson signed with the Detroit Lions in 2019, but was released after two games, where he recorded 16 carries for 43 rushing yards.
The running back finishes his career with 3,497 total rushing yards and 22 rushing touchdowns. He added another five touchdowns and 900 yards receiving.
In 2016, Anderson was inducted into the Vallejo Sports Hall of Fame, for his work on and off the field. He is the founder of the Dreams Never Die Foundation, whose focus is to provide inner city and lowincome youth with the resources needed to persevere and ultimately reach their maximum potential in academics and/or athletics. He has also put on a free football camp for kids at Corbus Field in Vallejo multiple times.
In retirement, Anderson said he’s not only going to try and help out with coaching, he’s going to try and get some more bowling time in. The Bethel graduate knocks down pins like he did linebackers — he’s posted seven 300 perfect games.
That being said, he’s still going to miss his playing days in the NFL.
“I’m going to miss the locker room,” Anderson said. “Some relationships I had with guys player to player I will always treasure. Also, having something close to 77,000 fans screaming your name and cheering for you, that never gets old. I loved seeing all the hard work I put in mean something.
“That being said, I’m not going to miss pass blocking against guys like J.J. Watt, C.J. Mosley and Aaron Donald,” Anderson continued, with a laugh. “That, I will not miss.”