Johnson trying to put concussion history behind him
Will Johnson was having the game of his life Sept. 9 at Ohio State.
Early in the second quarter, Johnson was making play after play for the Sooners when he stepped up on a thirdand-goal play to tackle Buckeyes receiver Parris Campbell at the 6.
Johnson sat up on his knees after making the play, reached up and unbuckled the chin strap on his helmet.
Nearly a month later, Johnson remembers making the tackle but not much else, though it appears on film as if Campbell’s knee or leg make contact with Johnson’s helmet.
“I kind of lost where I was at for a period of time,” he said this week. “It just kind of threw me off.”
Saturday against Iowa State, Johnson is expected to return to the field clear of concussion-like symptoms, but it’s a tenuous situation for a senior who missed large chunks of last season due to concussions.
“This one didn’t scare me as much as last year, because the symptoms following — I didn’t get as many,” Johnson said. “Actually, I didn’t get any.
“They were thinking it was more of an anxiety attack than a concussion.”
Last season, the Sooners had several players have to step away from football due to concussion issues. Lineman Jamal Danley, linebacker Tay Evans and running back Daniel Brooks had to give up the sport due to repeated concussions.
Johnson didn’t want to join that group.
“I felt ... I was in the same situation as a lot of guys, but I felt as though my situation was a little different as why I couldn’t quit,” Johnson said in the spring. “So that was weighing heavy on me.
“I felt as though a lot of guys were in a better situation as far as life after football just because of where they come from and I felt, coming from where I come from, that I was at a disadvantage.”
That kept Johnson pushing through, trying to get back last
season after suffering from what he says were the first two concussions of his life.
Early in the 2016 season-opener against Houston, Johnson took a rough hit. He didn’t think too much of it until OU director of sports nutrition Tiffany Byrd mentioned a knot that was forming on his temple.
When he tried to put his helmet back on, the bump kept the helmet from fitting properly.
Then he started noticing other symptoms.
He winced when his eyes caught the banks of lights in NRG Stadium. Not only was he sensitive to the bright lights but said catching them gave him a dizzying feeling.
That wasn’t all.
“I had this cold feeling the whole game,” Johnson said. “I couldn’t really get warm. It was like doing a warmup
that I never started so it was a long game for me. Honestly, when I remember going back to watch film, I didn’t even remember the first drive of how they got down the field, to be honest.”
Johnson said he didn’t think about stepping away from football after the latest scare, mainly because he didn’t experience any of the scary symptoms from last year and because he passed the tests in the aftermath, even if he did miss the last two games.
Sooners coach Lincoln Riley said there wasn’t a push to talk Johnson out of returning.
“Football is a risky sport,” Riley said. “There’s risk for concussions and risks for 100 other injuries out there. It’s a violent, physical sport. At the end of the day, it comes down to the individual. It’s our job to educate them, and if we do have an opinion on it one way or the other, of course we’ll put that in front of them. Each guy has to make that choice.”