Jessica Simpson Kicks Off Romance With Former Football Player

Wonderwall, Monday, July 5, 2010, 7:19am (PDT)

By Kat Giantis

When Jessica Simpson blows out the candles at her 30th birthday party on July 10, she won't have to close her eyes and wish for a boyfriend. TMZ says the top-heavy, vegan diet-trying blonde has started seeing former NFL player Eric Johnson.

Word is, the pair began dating in May, three months after Johnson, 30, a onetime injury-plagued tight end (insert double entendre here) for the San Francisco 49ers and New Orleans Saints, filed for divorce from wife Keri.

A source informs TMZ that the fledgling flames are "very happy."

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Jessica is no stranger to dating strapping guys who know how to handle a pigskin, although this time out she doesn't have to worry about being labeled a jinx, as she was during her nearly two-year relationship with Dallas Cowboys star Tony Romo.

That romance ended a year ago this week, with the quarterback reportedly drop-kicking Simpson the night before her planned Barbie-and-Ken-themed birthday bash (we figure the idea of dressing up as a private parts-challenged doll was the final straw).

Since calling it quits with Romo, the onetime Mrs. Nick Lachey has been linked to Billy Corgan (denied all around), Gerard Butler (ditto on the denial) and Jeremy Renner (also denied).

RELATED: Jessica's Twitter ode to the moon in WW Comics

She was also dragged into the PR mess from ex-boyfriend John Mayer's disastrous Playboy interview, in which he called her "sexual napalm," a label that resulted in both plusses (plenty of dates) and minuses (unrealistic nookie expectations).

"I just want a normal man!" Simpson said in April when asked what she was looking for in a guy. "Somebody who's normal! That's it!"

The starlet also seems to have learned a few things from the potholes she's hit on the bumpy road to love.

"You can't love someone else to change them," she tweeted in March. "Happiness comes from accepting who they are. It is our decision to REALLY know who we love."

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