Jessica Simpson's hubby Eric Johnson looooves to throw his kids up in the air!

I guess since he retired from the NFL, the former tight end misses throwing the ball around, so his kids are the next best thing. Mama Jess posted this shot of Eric playing with son Ace in the pool, on Tuesday, and captioned it: "I was on a plane to NYC today and I missed out on this!!!' I'm in LOVE with the 2 of them. #boyswillbeboys."

It's not the first time Eric has used one of his offspring in lieu of a ball ... the doting dad made daughter Maxwell catch air back in April during a trip to the beach. Which makes us wonder ... does he throw his super-slender wife up in the air like this sometimes???