Jimmie Johnson Jr. played football in the NFL for 10 years and joined the coaching team at Morgan State University last spring. “I’m one of the lucky people blessed enough to have a job in an industry that I still love,” Johnson said. “It doesn’t feel like work to me.” Photo by Timothy Cox

• Share

PRINT

Football fans may be familiar with the name Jimmy Johnson, the former coach of the Dallas Cowboys.

Now another Jimmie Johnson (no relation), a famous name in the NFL ranks, has come to Baltimore. Last year, the athletic department at Morgan State University hired Johnson as an assistant football coach.

“I started playing football in Augusta, Georgia at age six. At 58, I’m still a fan of the game and enjoy helping young people become the best that they can be on the gridiron,” Jimmie Olden Johnson Jr. told the Beacon.

Johnson had a 10-year professional career as a tight end, including three years with the Super Bowl XXVI-winning Washington Redskins (now Commanders) and other teams, including the New York Jets and Philadelphia Eagles.

Johnson got a strong start with an athletic scholarship to Howard University in Washington, D.C., often called the Harvard of historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs).

Morgan State, another HBCU, hired Johson as assistant offensive line coach and recruiting coordinator last spring. According to the university’s new athletic director Dena Freeman-Patton, they hired him because his professional and collegiate pedigree will help develop young athletes.

It’s a task Johnson takes very seriously. “We strive to help our players make the transition from high school to becoming fine young men,” Johnson said.

“As coaches, we find ourselves in various roles: mentors, big brothers, father figures, psychologists. It’s our priority to field a successful team and win as many games as possible, but along that route we emphasize developing good people, great students, and eventually paving the road from young men to manhood.”

Off to college and the pros

Johnson’s road to success started with a move from his hometown of Augusta, Georgia, to D.C. for college. He was looking for a school with a robust athletic program, and his high school football coach happened to be a fraternity brother of Howard University’s football coach.

“I knew about Howard’s academic reputation — that was important to me. But in high school, I excelled both in football and basketball, so I really wanted to go to a school that allowed me to play both sports,” he remembered.

“Howard’s head coach…assured me, my parents and coach that I would be well taken care of if I came to D.C. Plus, I’d be allowed to play both sports,” Johnson said.

At Howard, he played basketball his senior year but focused mostly on football. After redshirting his freshman year of college, he became an award-winning tight end on the football team.

Despite pledging Omega Psi Phi fraternity in college, he said he focused on good grades and staying in physical shape, often forgoing the party scene.

As a fifth-year senior, he was selected first-team All-Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference and became a two-time Sheridan Broadcasting Black College All-American in 1987 and 1988. Johnson graduated from Howard in 1989 with a bachelor’s degree in consumer studies.

During his successful 10-year NFL career, including three years with D.C.’s football team, Johnson earned a Super Bowl XXVI ring for his team’s victory over the Buffalo Bills in 1992.

Johnson stayed in the NFL after retiring as a player. He began coaching in 2001 and working for NFL teams such as the Minnesota Vikings from 2006 through 2014 and the New York Jets in 2015.

He also coached college football teams, including Texas Southern and South Carolina State. He worked as a coaching analyst at the University of Maryland, recruiting and developing tight ends for its football team.

During this past year at Morgan State, Johnson coached offensive linemen. This coming season, he’ll be responsible for developing wide receivers.

Drive and work ethic

As the son of Carolyn Johnson and the late Jimmie Olden Johnson Sr., the younger Jimmie said he grew up in a loving, working-class home.

“My dad was the enforcer. Anytime I got ‘out-of-pocket,’ my mother would threaten us by saying, ‘Wait ‘til your father gets home.’ My father was a good man, but he was definitely in charge.”

He credits the discipline he learned as a child for his eventual success as an adult.

“I’ve always had a certain drive and work ethic, even as a kid. I never wanted to lose.

“Early on, I always wanted to be the best. I never needed anyone to motivate me, not even my parents or coaches. Whether it was about working out or lifting weights, I knew it would take hard work to get to the next level, and it has paid off,” Johnson said.

Johnson is proud of his Southern heritage and frequently returns home to see his mother. Augusta area live music enthusiasts may recall the late Jimmie Johnson Sr. as the lead singer for several R&B and soul bands during the 1980s and 1990s.

Sports run in the family

In between coaching jobs, Johnson earned an M.B.A. from George Washington University in Washington, D.C. He was part of its inaugural class for a two-year executive M.B.A. program for professional athletes, launched in 2011.

Though currently unmarried, Johnson, 58, is the proud father of six athletic children. All four of his sons, Jimmie O. Johnson III, Bradley Bush-Johnson, Jamal Johnson and Jordan Johnson, played collegiate football.

His oldest daughter, Courtney Johnson, is also a Howard University graduate, and his youngest daughter, Savannah Johnson, 15, is a member of her high school’s volleyball, basketball and track teams.

“Football remains a very special part of my life,” he said. “That’s something we all have in common, even though I never pressure [my sons] to follow in Daddy’s footsteps. It’s a route they individually chose,” said Johnson.

After decades of coaching, Johnson is as enamored of the game as he was when he was six years old.

“I’m one of the lucky people blessed enough to have a job in an industry that I still love,” Johnson said. “It doesn’t feel like work to me.”