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“The perpetrators left the body where the children got on the school bus.”
Status: 28.04.2024 | Reading time: 2 minutes
Jakob Johnson’s road to the NFL was rocky. In a podcast, the football professional talked about his experiences at high school
Source: picture alliance/dpa/Maximilian Haupt
With Brandon Coleman, another professional with German roots will play in the NFL in the future. On the sidelines of the draft, one of his predecessors, Jakob Johnson, remembers his way into the billion-dollar league. The 29-year-old reports on shocking experiences from his school days in the USA.
Brandon Coleman, the next player with German roots, will compete in the National Football League (NFL). The 23-year-old German-American was drafted in Detroit by the Washington Commanders in the third round and in 67th position overall. “I’m speechless and shocked, that was completely surprising,” said Coleman in an interview on RTL after he was selected in the draft.
Jakob Johnson is one of Coleman’s predecessors. On the sidelines of the draft, the fullback from Stuttgart, who has played for the New England Patriots and the Las Vegas Raiders so far in his career, talks in a podcast about his arduous path to the NFL. After graduating from high school, Johnson transferred to Jean Ribault High School in Jacksonville. The racism and rampant crime there shocked him at times, emphasizes Johnson in an interview with Mark Hartmann on “Behind The Athletes”.
“I had previously thought that I knew what racism felt like. But in Florida we saw what structural racism looks like. The crime going on there cannot be compared to Germany. There were fights every day during school breaks,” said Johnson, who said he grew up in the “better neighborhoods” of Stuttgart. To illustrate his experiences, the 29-year-old tells a particularly harrowing story from his school days.
Johnson on path to the NFL
“A lot of guys at my age were involved in gang conflicts. “Occasionally people even got shot, including a classmate from my high school,” Johnson remembers. “The perpetrators left the body exactly where the children had to get on the school bus in the morning.” His cousin’s friend was shot in the head in another incident.
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The son of a single mother was able to keep his focus on football despite the adverse conditions because he really wanted to go to college. Things didn’t go as hoped for the German at the University of Tennessee. “Last year of college was the worst football year in school history. After that, I was done with football,” admits Johnson, who was slowed by a serious shoulder injury and was unable to declare for the NFL draft.
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Johnson, who temporarily worked as a waiter and in a pizzeria, ultimately fought for a place in the NFL after returning to Germany through the NFL’s International Player Pathway Program for foreign professionals.
