Lions’ legend retires
Infant son, cycling, new career will keep retired lineman busy
Brent Johnson, the B. C. Lions’ career sacks leader and probable future CFL hall of famer, retires after a stellar 11- year career with the Leos.
In his well- cut dark suit, his weight down 20 pounds from the Grey Cup game last November, and his close- cropped hair impeccably groomed and not matted with sweat as we are so used to seeing it, Brent Johnson looks every inch the budding investment banker.
At 35, and with perhaps another year in him based on last season’s play, he is walking away from football while he still can — to manage money, to truly experience a B. C. summer and to see if those powerful legs that helped carry him to so many quarterback sacks can pedal him to new heights of achievement.
“I’m looking forward to rejoining the ranks of normalsized humans,” the one- time 265- pound defensive end for the B. C. Lions said Monday as he formally announced his retirement after 11 seasons.
“I was even saying to my wife, I left home [ Kingston, Ont.] when I was 18 to go to Ohio State to play football. Not that I’d be having a summer off now, but I’ve never really enjoyed just a summer on the weekends to sit back and sort of do whatever you want to do. I’m looking forward to the subtleties that come with retirement.”
The 6- foot- 3 Johnson wants to get down to 220 pounds in order to attack some bike races he has scheduled for the summer. They include the Test of Metal, a 67- kilometre pointtopoint mountain bike race in the Squamish area in June and some Granfondo road cycling events around B. C.
“I’ve got my work cut out for me there,” said Johnson.
He’s done some cycling over the years, “but at 265 pounds, you’re limited.”
The gruelling two- wheel workouts are key to feeding the competitive adrenalin rush he’s leaving behind.
“And, you know, in the line of work that I’m going into, it’s going to be very competitive, too. I’ll just try to bring the lessons I’ve learned over time in the football locker- room to what I do for my job in the real world.”
In the fantasy world of overgrown boys playing the game they love, Johnson was a threetime CFL all- star ( 2005, 2006, 2008), a two- time most outstanding Canadian ( 2005, 2006) and the league’s most outstanding defensive player in 2006.
Over a five- year period, from 2004 to 2008 when he recorded 65 of his 84 career sacks, three interceptions and 15 fumble recoveries, there may not have been a more dominant defensive player, non- import or import, in the CFL.
“He had a tremendous first step ... he was a student of the game, took it very, very seriously,” said Lions GM Wally Buono, who was Johnson’s head coach through much of his career. “His drive to succeed and do well paid dividends for him.”
Buono said that while the club might have liked to have Johnson back for another year to play in a defensive line rotation, he believes the player made a wise decision to go out on top.
“Very, very few people in our business get to call when they’re going to call it quits,” said Buono.
Johnson, who said retirement has been an option the last few years, admitted it was a difficult decision, one he ruminated over for the last couple of months. But it was ultimately made easier by the fact he got to “live that dream” last season by playing in, and winning, a Grey Cup at home in BC Place.
“It’s hard to top that and that weighed heavily on my decision. And just the fact that there’s an opportunity out there for me in the business world.
“I’ve got more than my share out of football and been very lucky with the Lions, what they’ve given to me over the past 11 years.”
While he won Grey Cups and those individual awards, Johnson, a key contributor to the Lions’ community initiatives, said the thing he’s most proud of in his career is being part of the franchise’s turnaround, on and off the field, over the past decade.
“Seeing how far along this franchise and the people in it have come ... selfishly I take a lot of pride in the fact I hope I had a big hand in that. When I arrived here in 2001, it wasn’t the class operation it is now.”
Johnson, who became a firsttime father when his son was born last fall, said he has no desire to get into coaching or management at the professional level, but can see himself helping out at the minor football or high school level.
And he says he’ll continue to support the Lions by going to games at BC Place, even though he concedes it might be emotionally tough to detach himself in the early going of the 2012 season.
“The first couple of games are going to be hard. I devoted a lot of my life to the game. There’s going to be a ton of emotion involved with it.”