After suffering a torn pectoral muscle during a Week 2 loss to the Seattle Seahawks, Detroit Lions safety C.J. Gardner-Johnson made an unexpected return to team facilities on Friday. However, upon his return he was a bit of a changed man.
Gardner-Johnson took to X, formerly known as Twitter, to reveal that he’ll no longer be going by the name “C.J. Gardner-Johnson.” Instead, he will henceforth be known as “Ceedy Duce.”
It’s apparently Gardner-Johnson’s self-described “alter ego.”
“It’s a different person,” he told the Detroit Free Press. “I got an alter ego. I got like two different people living in me, football and life. Life, I’m just chilling. Football, that’s a whole different person. People call me Ceedy on the football field or Ducey. In life, they call me C.J. or Chauncey.”
Duce’s teammates were thrilled to see him for the first time in several weeks.
“He told us he was going to be here this week, but he popped up today on us out of the blue,” cornerback Jerry Jacobs said. “So to have that loudness and that funniness and all that around, it’s a great feeling so I was happy to see him.”
This isn’t the first time Duce has taken a page out of the Chad Johnson and Ron Artest playbook, either. During his first two seasons at Florida, he went by the name “Chauncey Gardner Jr.” Ahead of his junior season, he changed it to “C.J. Gardner-Johnson” to honor his stepfather, Brian Johnson, who helped raised him.
During the 2020 season, as a member of the New Orleans Saints, Gardner-Johnson also said he would “officially” change his name to Ceedy Duce, but that never came to fruition, until now.