Those who can’t, teach.
That old and sarcastic adage was becoming reality for Rob Johnson, who realized he had to start turning the page on his football career and move on with his life. So, a few credits short of a degree from USC, Johnson went back to school, taking a juniorcollege Spanish course to get his teaching degree.
That’s where Johnson was headed after a nine-year career in the NFL as a journeyman quarterback. He played in 48 games for four different teams, starting 29, but finally in 2003 had to give in to the intense pain in his right elbow, the result of wear-and-tear over several years, pain he felt as far back as 1998. Johnson endured the procedure commonly known as Tommy Johnson surgery, with a tendon from his wrist grafted into his frayed right elbow.
It was likely he would not be able to return to football from such an operation, especially because he was on the wrong side of 30. Last year, he tried out for the Titans and clearly could not function. He returned home, enrolled in school and helped his father, Bob, coach the El Toro (Calif.) High School football team.
That’s when it hit him.
“Helping my dad with his high school team, just seeing the passion those kids have,” Johnson recalled recently.
“I always considered myself, I’ve been around for 10 years but if you ask the guys I probably act younger than most of them. I don’t know if that’s a good thing.” The Giants signed Johnson, who many in the league thought was retired, on May 26, knowing his right arm would not be at full strength for several weeks, perhaps months. They wanted a veteran presence behind Eli Manning and wanted to upgrade a position where backups Tim Hasselbeck and Jared Lorenzen did not inspire fear in any opponent.
“I wasn’t going to be able to go to a team that’s not ready to win,” Johnson said. “I’ve watched the last two years, when a young guy usually goes in, the season’s over. For a veteran, you go to a good team because they can’t afford to lose if he goes down.
Eli’s a young guy and he’s going to be here as long as he wants. It just depends on which way they want to go.” The direction the Giants take will depend on how Johnson performs in the preseason. He did not play in the opener, with Hasselbeck and Lorenzen serving as backups in a 17-16 victory in Baltimore. Last night, when the Giants faced the Chiefs at Giants Stadium, Johnson was scheduled to replace Manning sometime in the second quarter. It was the first game action for Johnson in 969 days, since he played for the Raiders on Dec. 22, 2003.
“I’ll go in there and play like I used to play, try to make plays, try to make big plays,” Johnson said beforehand.
“I’m not going to go in there with a negative mindset, that I can’t do this and I can’t do that.” In training camp, Johnson has lagged behind, slowly scraping the rust off his arm and game. Though he cannot compete with Lorenzen as far as arm strength, Johnson maintains other than an occasional long ball, he can throw the ball as well now as he did before his right elbow started to weaken.
As a starter in the NFL, Johnson was 12-17, known for scrambling, a high completion percentage, and taking too many sacks. He has 30 touchdown passes and 23 interceptions in his career. One of the main reasons the Giants gave him a call is that Tom Coughlin, when he called all the shots in Jacksonville, drafted Johnson in 1995.
“He was an outstanding leader, he was an aggressive quarterback,” Coughlin said. “He is still a gym rat.
He has that look in his eye and he’s hungry to play the game and compete.”
