Why former Sooner’s quirks are welcome
Lane Johnson showed up to the circus otherwise known as Super Bowl Media Day earlier this week looking like he’d just stepped out ofa clown car. Long stocking cap billowing over his head. Goldrimmed sunglassesas big as saucers.
That wasn’t the only fun.
The former Sooner and current Eagle called Philadelphia quarterback Nick Foles “just a big, 6-6, goofy bleeping guy.” He said the way Philadelphia hasovercome injuries this seasonis “like a Disney movie.” And he admitted that when he called New England quarterback Tom Brady a “pretty boy” after the NFC Championship Game, he “poked the bear a little.”
“But we’re not scared of the bulletin board,” Johnson went on to say. “I don’t get the whole bulletin board thing anyway. OK, put it by your nightstand. It’s not going to make you play any better.
“It’s the Super Bowl. I don’t think you have to get fired up.”
I’m going to go out on a sturdy limb and saywe media folks didn’t talk to Johnson enough when he was at Oklahoma. I remember the offensive lineman being a nice guy and a good quote.
But he’s off-the-charts engaging.
And inthe NFL, where the language is coach speak and the tone is mono, Johnson stands out. He says what he thinks. He refuses to hold back. Even though he’s getting ready to play in the biggest game of his life this week, he’s having fun and he’s not afraid to show it.
“I’m just a voice that
doesn’t want to hold back, who says what everybody thinks even if it gets him in a little bit of trouble,” Johnson told reporters at media day. “I’m not going to be correct all the time.
“I don’t want to be in the fellowship of the miserable.”
Now, that may well be a subtle jab at the Patriots. Led by Mr. Fun himself, Bill Belichick, they seem to take pride in being as drab as the New England winters. Saying nothing is a badge of honor. Dull is a way of life.
Not that it hasn’t been a successful formula. The Patriots have won two of the past three Super Bowls and five in the last 16 years. They have become known as “The Evil Empire” and probably would’ve earned that title even without repeated charges of cheating.
But the Eagles hope to run counter to the norm Sunday — “Seeing the Patriots in the Super Bowl is like watching the same episode of ‘Friends’ every night,” Johnson told reporters earlier this week. “You get tired of it” — and no one in green goes against the blueand-red grain more than the Eagles’ starting right tackle.
Perhaps it’s a product of where Johnson was raised. He is a native of Groveton, Texas, which required a Google Maps search. It’s halfway between Houston and Tyler, hard by the Davy Crockett National Forest. Small. Rural. Lots of hunting and fishing.
Here’s betting folks from those parts tell it like it is more often than not.
Johnson also has a journey that has kept things real. He went to junior college as a quarterback, then switched to tight end. That helped him land a scholarship to OU, where he eventually moved to defensive end. Only after an injury did Johnson move to the offensive line during the spring of 2011. By that fall, he was the Sooners’ starting right tackle.
Two years after moving to the offensive line, he was the fourth overall pick in the NFL Draft.
Now, he’s one of the best offensive linemen in the league.
His is the ultimate underdog story.
Maybe it’s no surprise, then, that Johnson still embraces that narrative. Before the season, he pledged to buy a beer for everyone in Philadelphia if the Eagles won the Super Bowl. They weren’t expected to get to the final game much less win the thing, but buying a round for Philly resonated in that blue-collar city.
Of course, now, people are thinking Johnson might have to make good on his pledge. The math has been done by no less than the NFL’s own TV network, and Johnson’s promise would cost about $2.3 million.
Luckily for him, Bud Light has hinted it would help with the party.
But Johnson has shown he has a very giving side. He has given repeatedly to the public schools in Philadelphia, and when he and fellow Eagle Chris Long hatched the idea of wearing full-head dog masks after playoff wins — of course Johnson would be involved with the underdog-mask craze — they decided to sell T-shirts with all proceeds going to the schools.
Then the NFL decided to capitalize on the underdog theme, too. The league tweeted a picture of its own dogmask shirt, prompting Johnson and Long to tweet back. They wanted to know how much the NFL was donating from the sale of the shirts.
(The NFL, of course, had no intention to do so.)
Less than a day later, the league caved, and now all its proceeds from the underdog shirt sales go to Philadelphia schools, too.
Roger Goodell’s current contract runs through the 2023 season — is it too early to lobby for Johnson as the next NFL commissioner? The guy is real and fun. Sports needs more of that.
“I try not to make too outlandish statements,” Johnson said earlier this week in Minneapolis, “but I don’t know if it’s possible.”
Here’s hoping it’s not.