Micah Johnson battled through injuries to become CFL force

Saskatchewan Roughriders defensive tackle Micah Johnson battled through a bevy of injuries to become one of the CFL’s top defensive players.

“There’s been too many times I wasn’t supposed to be playing football again,” Johnson said in advance of Thursday’s game against the visiting Hamilton Tiger-Cats. “Then it was like, ‘OK, he might be able to play football again.’ Then it’s like, ‘He might not be the same again.’ And then it’s like, ‘He’s better than what he was.’ ”

His injury problems follow him back to his draft year in 2010. Johnson was dealing with an MCL injury in his left knee that affected his draft stock.

He went undrafted and spent the next couple years bouncing around the NFL, trying to find an opportunity to stick.

“I got cut from five, six NFL teams. I felt like I was playing real good with Green Bay and I got cut out of nowhere,” the now-31-year-old said. “It was one of those situations where everybody in the organization is telling you, ‘You’re doing a great job, we love everything you did. Just things happened injury wise.’ ”

It was at that moment that Johnson realized he needed to re-evaluate where his career was headed.

“After that cut, it kind of took the air out of me. My agent called and said, ‘A team up in Canada has your rights and you could come in and compete and play,’ ” Johnson recalled.

But his transition to the Calgary Stampeders wasn’t a smooth one.

He tore the ACL in his left knee in 2013 and again in 2014, which prematurely ended each of his first two seasons in the CFL.

During the surgery for his second torn ACL, doctors had to operate on both of his knees in order to take some of the patellar tendon from his right knee and move it to his left one.

During the surgery, Johnson suffered a pulmonary embolism and dealt with multiple blood clots in his lungs.

“The second time I had ACL surgery, it made it pretty difficult to bounce back from because usually you like to get right into rehab and not have to lay up in a hospital for a few weeks,” Johnson said.

But through all of that, Johnson got healthy and became one of the most dominating defensive forces in the CFL. He has compiled 41 sacks during his seven years in the CFL, including 14 in 2018.

Johnson has come a long way from being the youngest of three brothers in his family.

He was born in Columbus, Ga., but he never called anywhere home for long. His father was in the military so he and his family moved around a bunch.

Johnson has called cities in California, Washington, Hawaii, Texas, Virginia and Kentucky home. But no matter where he went, his passion for football followed.

“(Watching two older brothers) I couldn’t wait until it was my turn where I was old enough and I could play. As soon as it hit, I was the first guy out there,” Johnson said.

Johnson admitted that being the youngest of three brothers helped him during his childhood because it taught him to persevere and battle through challenges.

“I had to do a lot of fighting when I was younger, especially with my brothers. They weren’t too easy on me. It helped me out growing up,” Johnson said.

“I was always playing with older kids. I was playing basketball with older kids, playing football with older kids. I was never really on the level of anybody around me so I think it made things simple for me. I was just used to a lot of competition and a lot of hard coaching from my older brothers at an early age.”

Johnson was a standout at Fort Campbell High School in Kentucky and was always one of the biggest people in his class.

“My sophomore year of high school, I was like six feet two inches (tall), 255 pounds and all throughout college I was 255, 260 (pounds),” he said. “I’ve been a big boy all the time for sure.”

He was voted the winner of the 2005 Kentucky Mr. Football award, which is given to the top high school player in the state.

He was recruited by the University of Kentucky Wildcats as a running back and linebacker. He scored a rushing touchdown in 2006 in the school’s Music City Bowl victory over the Clemson Tigers.

Johnson eventually came north of the border to Canada, not only changing the country he played in but his position as well.

“As soon as I came in, I knew the CFL was a different, smaller game,” Johnson said. “I knew I wasn’t going to be a linebacker anymore up here. I just wasn’t sure where on the D-line, so I just started playing all of (the positions along the D-line).”

That’s where then-Stampeders defensive end Charleston Hughes and defensive line coach DeVone Claybrooks — now the head coach of the B.C. Lions — came in.

“They were the first ones who really came in and taught me how to play D-line,” Johnson said. “I really was a blank template at that point.”

Johnson is now in his first season with the Roughriders, who signed him as a free agent in the off-season. Despite not having any sacks yet in 2019, Johnson continues to draw double-teams from opposing offensive lines.

“I’m a real tenacious person, I’ve overcome a lot and I believe in perseverance,” he said. “That’s kind of a symbol I want to be for people.”

Kickoff for Thursday’s game is set for 7:30 p.m. The Green Zone pre-game show begins at 5:30 p.m.