D’yontae Johnson fueled by father’s death in quest to make Giants roster

On his left forearm is a tattoo that reads “Child of David.” 

“I pretty much grew up under his arm. Wherever he was, I was going with him,” 2023 undrafted free agent linebacker D’yontae Johnson told The Post of his father, David, after another Giants training camp practice had ended. “If he was walking to the store, I was right with him. I looked up to him. Whatever he was doing I tried to do. He was always lifting weights, I would be right behind him doing push-ups, whatever the case may be. We had a dumbbell set in the basement. … It kind of just started from that.” 

It ended too soon, too tragically, when his father David succumbed to a seizure at age 45 in March 2020. D’yontae was 18. 

“I remember it like it was yesterday,” D’yontae said. 

David had been found at his home. 

“Nobody knew he was at home,” D’yontae said. “Kind of he was just there by himself. Just nobody heard from him in a while, which is unlike him.”