Pittsburgh – Maybe snow, plus temperatures around freezing point and a hostile stadium – for German football professional Jakob Johnson, his possibly last NFL game couldn’t have a better setting. “You wouldn’t want it any other way. If you’re a competitor in the NFL, then you want to play your playoff game on Monday evening in Pittsburgh in a rough atmosphere,” said the 31-year-old from Stuttgart to the German Press Agency. “There’s no such thing as too cold. Just too few layers.”
First a carnival waiter, then an NFL professional
It remains to be seen whether Johnson will be in the squad on Tuesday night in Germany (2 a.m. CET) and will play with the Houston Texans against the Pittsburgh Steelers for a place in the divisional round of the playoffs. Likewise, whether a defeat would mean the end of his career in the NFL.
It is certain that the Swabian has already exceeded all forecasts in the National Football League. The average career of an NFL professional lasts 3.3 seasons – despite all the hurdles and obstacles, Johnson is in his seventh season. Shortly after the 2006 World Cup, he discovered American football with the Stuttgart Scorpions and financed his life as a waiter at folk festivals.
“Good work, certain German virtues, that you are a good teammate, that you have a positive influence no matter what room you are in, that can lead to you getting more opportunities,” explained the father of a young daughter. “I’ve earned a lot of goodwill over the years with the way I approach the whole thing. What you do with these opportunities is then up to you.”
Because – this is how he explains his long survival in the NFL: “Performance on the field is the only thing that counts in the NFL.” But “work attitude, reliability and the trust of the coaches” are also essential factors for a career.
Johnson is one of a dying breed of players
As a fullback, Johnson is a type of player that is not in great demand in the league; like the libero in football, the position is increasingly disappearing from the systems of many teams. The task is usually to block the path for other players or, on short runs, to carry the ball yourself.
The New York Giants, for whom he played last season, signed him a whopping five times within six weeks – because he was repeatedly released in between. Football is a tough business; teams are only allowed to have 53 players on their roster during the season.
Even with the Texans he is only on the back seats or on the practice squad; Johnson has already been released twice this season and then hired again. Fans usually only find out whether he will be in the active squad on game day hours before the start of a game.
To have even made it to this threshold is already more than many people gave him credit for. From Stuttgart he went to a high school in the USA and played at college in Tennessee, but was injured and had already finished football.
Because his friends from the Scorpions days wanted him back, he put his helmet on again for the Stuttgart team and finally made it into an NFL support program for international players. From there he went to the New England Patriots with Tom Brady as quarterback, followed by stops at the Las Vegas Raiders, the Giants and now the Texans. “My career was unconventional anyway,” Johnson said. “There are just a few curves and cuts.”
End of career? Johnson talks about the timing
On the other side, the Steelers have veteran quarterback Aaron Rodgers, who is already playing his 21st season in the NFL. The 42-year-old 2011 Super Bowl champion is even flirting with continuing his career if he is without a contract after this season. “This opens up a lot of opportunities for me if I want to continue playing,” he said recently.
Johnson wants to make the decision “with some distance” in the spring as to whether he will struggle through preparation for the season again. So he doesn’t know whether the game in Pittsburgh will be his last – if he plays in the playoffs. “That would of course be another cool moment. But I know what it’s like. Even if the activation doesn’t work out, I’m not discouraged by that, but do my thing during the week and do my little bit to ensure that the other guys in the game are ready,” said Johnson. “And if I get the opportunity to play, that would of course be cool.”
