Steven Johnson may not have taken the junior-college route coming out of high school, but he knows a little something about unconventional paths to football success.
Facing a dearth of Division I offers out of high school, he attended a year of prep school at Wyoming Seminary in Kingston, Pennsylvania. After suffering a devastating knee injury almost immediately, he walked on at Kansas in 2008, where he worked his way up to earn a scholarship and become a defensive leader for the Jayhawks.
He went undrafted in 2012, but latched on with the Denver Broncos and carved out a lengthy career as a reliable special teamer; when his NFL clock ran out, he kept on going and became a force to be reckoned with in the unfamiliar Alliance of American Football and the XFL.
It’s not surprising, then, that Johnson feels he can relate to the young players eager for opportunities that he’ll be working with at Dodge City Community College.
“I wasn’t highly recruited,” he told the Journal-World. “Nobody wanted me. I went through all that stuff.”
Dodge City announced Sunday that it had hired Johnson as a linebackers coach and special teams assistant. Johnson said he’s ready to hit the ground running and build on the coaching expertise that he’s developed since his pro career drew to a close in 2020.
“I feel blessed to be able to kind of help kids see it through a different light,” he said, “and I’m very intentional with trying to help each and every individual, each and every player, get the best out of them.”
In a particular bit of serendipity, Johnson’s first coaching job above the high school level has him working for the same man, Terry Karg, who coached him at Wyoming Seminary nearly 17 years ago.
“To be honest, it’s only something that God could probably do, how that happened,” Johnson said.
Denver Broncos linebacker Steven Johnson intercepts a pass intended for Seattle Seahawks wide receiver Ricardo Lockette, left, during the second half of an NFL preseason football game, Thursday, Aug. 7, 2014, in Denver. The Broncos won 21-16. (AP Photo/Jack Dempsey)
During his six-year NFL career, nearly twice the length of the average player’s, Johnson had stints with the Broncos, Tennessee Titans, Pittsburgh Steelers and Baltimore Ravens. Along the way, he said, he observed a variety of coaching styles — some effective and some so lacking that he had to teach himself and learn from his fellow players. That was when he got the sense he could be a good coach.
“I just knew that it was something that I was kind of passionate about,” he said, “and I wanted to kind of stay around the game and help kids become the best players that they could be.”
In the years since his last pro season — a standout year with the XFL’s Seattle Dragons, as the league’s leading tackler, cut short due to the pandemic — Johnson immersed himself in coaching by leading the defense for high school 7-on-7 competitions, along with a one-year tenure as the assistant head coach at another postgraduate school, Diamond Football Academy. (Some of its players ended up going to Dodge City.)
One defining experience came when he was able to observe 2021 training camp with the Washington Football Team (now Washington Commanders) as part of a Bill Walsh Diversity Coaching Fellowship, as The Washington Post’s Nicki Jhabvala reported at the time. He said he was able to connect with the players, who were still his peers, pretty easily: “Half the team thought I was there to play.” Johnson was connected to Washington via (former Titans) special teams coordinator Nate Kaczor and (former Broncos) defensive coordinator Jack Del Rio. Johnson said observing those coaches and others helped prepare him for his career to come, as he gave the team’s linebackers “my expertise and some little nuggets” along the way.
“It just gave me more knowledge and more ammunition,” he said, “so when any athlete asks me how to do a certain technique, ‘how do I beat this,’ ‘how do I beat that,’ I feel like I got all the answers in the world.”
Now, Johnson is back in Kansas a dozen years removed from his Jayhawk tenure; this time, he’s gotten into Dodge, however, and is ready to help the team succeed in the competitive Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference. (“I don’t mind the league name,” he said.)
“I’ve been here a week, and I’m already connecting with them all,” Johnson said, “Some of them I’ve known, coached them 7-on-7, trained them, stuff like that. I’m still very much a player, I got a young heart.”
New England Patriots wide receiver Danny Amendola (80) runs from Tennessee Titans linebacker Steven Johnson (52) in the first half of an NFL football game, Sunday, Dec. 20, 2015, in Foxborough, Mass. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)
Arizona Hotshots linebacker Steven Johnson (59) sacks Salt Lake Stallions quarterback Josh Woodrum in the first half during an AAF football game Sunday, Feb. 10, 2019, in Tempe, Ariz. (AP Photo/Rick Scuteri)
Nick Krug
