From academic ineligibility as a high schooler to nearly giving up on football as a pro, Johnson stuck with football because of the instilled belief he received from two of his offensive line coaches.
There are a few common threads between each of the inflection points in Fred Johnson’s football career.
“I saw peers getting arrested, getting killed, robbing people,” Johnson said. “Just that type of stuff. I had great role models in my life. I had people in my life that I knew wouldn’t be able to see me on the other side the way life was going. … I never strayed from the path, but I never had motivation to do anything until I started playing football my senior year. That’s when I felt like I was on the right path.
“It wasn’t easy for him,” Davis said. “He came to college with some scars. It wasn’t your prototypical path for an elite high school prospect. In all ways, he was raw. He was extremely raw, hadn’t been polished yet. … There’s a lot of kids that just couldn’t overcome some of those things. They end up becoming victims or statistics. He didn’t allow that to become his story.”
When Johnson signed with the Eagles, he initially resisted Stoutland’s intense scrutiny during his reps on the scout team. He felt his career was hanging in the balance after stops with the Pittsburgh Steelers, Cincinnati Bengals, and Tampa Bay Buccaneers ended with his getting released. Stoutland said the approach that eventually got through to Johnson may be part of his “secret sauce” as a coach. He eventually made an agreement with Johnson that even if his on-field corrections were harsh in the moment, they were made in an effort to help the 27-year-old reach the potential Stoutland saw in him.
“Real workouts, he’s not just jogging around in circles,” Heath said. “He’ll skip rope, shadow box, then do 30-30-10, which is 30 jumping jacks, 30 mountain climbers, 10 burpees. Real boxing, not no cardio or him just punching around. Real-deal Holyfield .”Heath said he has trained a handful of NFL players as well as professional fighters, but he said Johnson’s ability in the ring makes him wish he’d have met him before he chose football.
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