Newspaper Page Text
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 11, 2021
BARROW NEWS-JOURNAL
PAGE 3B
Brad Johnson
stays busy with football
In Tampa, BTB (Before Tom Brady), the most
popular guy in town — even on intermittent
visits — was Brad Johnson, the Oconee Coun
ty-based former Florida State quarterback who
led his Buccaneer team to victory in Super Bowl
XXXVII.
Perhaps he is better known in many places for
his TikTok account “Big Bad Brad, No. 14.” His
standard video opens on the basket
ball court He is spinning a basketball
on his finger and then arches a shot
from the comer, with dead-eye aim,
the toss strips the net. Then, grin
ning expansively, he reaches down
for a football and fires to the goal at
the other end of the court. That toss
ships the net too. Amazing, simply
amazing.
Entering a game in Baton Rouge
last fall, where his son, Max, plays
quarterback for LSU, a gate atten
dant shouts to him not as the father of
the young Tiger quarterback and not
as the winning quarterback in the Super Bowl—
but "look a heah, it’s the TikTok man.”
When he was growing up in Black Mountain,
North Carolina, Johnson was a kid who was en
raptured with basketball. He became a big man
(6-5, 238 pounds), but the NBA was not in his
future. There was more to basketball than shoot
ing the ball.
“I couldn’t defend anybody, couldn’t guard
anybody and couldn’t jump,” he laughs.
Early on, he, and those around him, realized
that he was a thrower. He could throw rocks, a
frisbee — anything that was not nailed down.
Throwing just came natural to him, but he be
came most efficient at throwing a football and
a baseball. Every day of his life, he spent time
shooting baskets and throwing something or oth
er.
Although he played two seasons of basketball
at FSU, and still loves the game, he realized his
future was in football.
It didn’t come easy, however,
Making the starting lineup was a challenge,
but once he made it, after a while, he was sacked
by the offensive coordinator, Mark Richt, his fu
ture brother-in-law.
He and Richt have something in common in
that they enjoyed the many games they played:
table tennis, pickup basketball, touch football
and shuffleboard. Both were devout competitors,
pushing, shoving and knocking one another into
the walls. He remembers a game in which broth-
er-in-law Richt lost a point and in a fit of anger
kicked a nearby table and breaking a toe.
“We soon were in the Georgia training room
with Ron Courson, Mark with a busted toe and
me with skinned elbows from being pushed into
the walls,” Brad remembers. Fortunately, they
don’t pull clubs out of the bag in anger on the
golf course.
From Florida State where Johnson won a cou
ple of bowl games for the Seminoles,
his odyssey took him to the Minne
sota Vikings, London Monarchs,
Washington Redskins and then to
Tampa Bay where he would win a
ring with John Gruden.
“I was a late bloomer, but I en
joyed the journey,” he said.
After Tampa, there were four
more years, two with Minnesota and
two with Dallas.
“Playing for Gruden was an in
teresting challenge,” Brad said. “He
made us believe. We stayed healthy
and won the close games which is
always important. We were hungry. We could
score points and our defense stopped everybody.”
He can still recite the playbook verbiage:
“Shift green, left west F short spire, U banana
Z overhead.” And, “green right, close 14, blast
check 97 Seattle, spider 2 banana.” With some
coordinators, they install the plays early morning
and you don't see them again till 5:00 in the af
ternoon,’ ’ he said. ‘ ‘You were with Gruden all day
long. You agreed upon the plays, you debated
the plays, but on Sunday you were on the same
page.”
Johnson loved the interaction, he loved train
ing camp and practice.
“I was grateful to be playing the game and
practice, to me, was fun,” he said.
That is why the game remains fun today as
he coaches the quarterbacks at Oconee County
High School. He loves what he is doing.
Even when he drives through the night 596
miles for LSU games. There is little rest on Satur
day during the day before a night game in Baton
Rouge. Then it is an all-night drive back home in
time for a quarterback meeting on Sunday after
noon. His take on his routine: "It’s fun.”
Back at Black Mountain in the late ‘80s, given
the opportunity, he would have signed up for his
journey without hesitation.
Loran Smith is a syndicated colmmist arotmd
the state and a University of Georgia sports radio
announcer. He can be reached at loransmith@
sports.uga.edu.
WBHS
continued from IB
Photo by Kyle Funderburk
Sophomore Emily Hall pitched the first six innings
Tuesday for Winder-Barrow.
Winder-Barrow trailed
Jefferson 3-2 with two outs
in the top of the seventh in
ning when Dayton Power
singled on a hard grounder
into center field. A walk to
Abby Polk moved Power
into scoring position and
she crossed home plate
when Alyssa Bond dou
bled on a line-drive to cen-
terfield.
Jefferson had the ingre
dients for a rally when the
fleet-footed Elbe Kinlaw
hit a one-out infield sin
gle before stealing second
base. After a pop fly by
Spivey, Kinlaw attempted
to steal third, but she was
caught at the base for the
third out.
Metz sparked Winder’s
game-winning rally with
a double to start the eighth
inning. Ashlyn Christy laid
down a great bunt to move
Metz to third, but Saxon’s
throwing error on the play
allowed Metz to cruise into
home plate. A line drive
by Hailey Frasier brought
Christy home to give
Winder-Barrow a 5-3 lead.
Jefferson showed some
fight in the bottom of the
eighth inning when Ma-
leia Truelove singled on
a grounder into left field
with one out. However, a
pair of strikeouts by Bed-
dingfield prevented her
from advancing.
The Dragons had a
chance to take a much
greater lead in the second
inning. Truelove hit a lead-
off triple and scored when
the very next pitch went
wild to give Jefferson an
early 1-0 lead. Savannah
Smith then reached first
on an error before Greysin
Busch and Kensie Pugh
singled to load the bases
with one out. Jefferson’s
attack ended when Audrey
Burton hit a pop-fly which
lead to a double-play
when right fielder Alexis
Edmondson caught Pugh
before she could return to
first base.
Winder-Barrow took its
first lead of the game in
the fourth inning thanks to
a pair of doubles by Metz
and Beddingfield. The
Bulldoggs led 2-1 until
Jefferson regained the lead
in the fifth inning. Burton
scored the game-tying run
on an error at third base.
Kinlaw gave the Dragons
a 3-2 lead when she scored
on Spivey’s sacrifice fly.
Jefferson starts Region
8-AAAA play Thursday,
Aug. 12, at home against
East Hall.
Winder-Barrow was
scheduled to host Jack-
son County on Wednes
day, Aug. 11. The Bull
doggs don’t start Region
8-AAAAAA play until
they travel to Shiloh on
Tuesday, Aug. 17.
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