From the moment Keyshawn Johnson strolled across the Madison Square Garden stage as the first pick in the 1996 draft, we knew he was distinctive. His cream-colored suit with brown pinstripes, his dangling three-quarters jacket, his gait, his smile, his mouth, well, it all sucked the air out of the place.
It was clear that Johnson had the persona and the skill to match New York’s glint.
Ten NFL seasons and three teams later, Johnson is in Dallas, an L.A. native turned Cowboy. He lassoed another run with coach Bill Parcells – “Bill takes care of his boys,” he said – but before that earned a Super Bowl ring with Tampa Bay.
Johnson, 33, is still holding it down at receiver. He still provides old-school flavor in the art of running, catching, blocking, scoring, gaining short yardage and long yardage and lining up anywhere you want him. His game is still a hammer. His honesty is still ferocious.
And his team still wins.
Dallas is near the top of the NFC and battles the Broncos today in a Thanksgiving Day matchup part football, part theater. Both teams hope it is a Super Bowl XL preview. For the moment, it suffices as one of this season’s prime servings.
It comes a day after Terrell Owens failed in his bid to instantly resume his season. It arrives two seasons after Johnson was deactivated for the final six games with Tampa Bay after feuding with coach Jon Gruden.
Unlike Owens, Johnson took his hit and eventually walked.
“I didn’t want to fight it with a hearing and all that,” Johnson said. “I didn’t want to be somewhere I was not wanted. My fallout in Tampa was not over finances or not getting the ball. It was personalities. I’m a trustworthy person. I’m going to be honest and upfront. I didn’t see eye-to-eye with him because he’s not that way.”
And T.O.? Not fond eye-balling there, either.
“We are two totally different human beings,” Johnson said. “Some things people are interested in, I’m not interested in. I don’t have to reach for attention. Attention finds me. I’m OK. The less you know about me the better I am. But I get put in the pickle with everybody that causes trouble. I’m the poster boy for bad wide receiver awareness.”
No reach for attention? He wrote a book after his rookie year: “Just Give Me the Damn Ball.” OK, he was a rookie. In attention-grabbing New York, no less, with the Jets.
And, anyway, the book was most telling about how he had come from hardscrabble L.A. to become a No. 1 overall draft pick, he said.
I say Johnson and attention mesh like music and dance.
There are gigantic differences, however, between Owens and Johnson. The chief one is Johnson’s willingness to find common ground with his team and teammates. He has done that with Dallas.
He led the team in receiving yards and touchdown catches last season and is contributing again, leading the Cowboys in catches (47) and touchdown grabs (five). He looks across the field today and sees a receiver in Rod Smith who he believes is comparable.
“Some receivers have outrageous numbers for teams that throw it like crazy, and a lot of times those teams lose,” Johnson said. “That is why I respect No. 80 on Denver. There are a lot of guys that don’t play receiver in the NFL like we do, doing the lifting and getting hit and doing the hitting like a tractor in every game.”
He has 720 catches in regular-season games and another 39 in the playoffs.
“I want to play another four years,” Johnson said. “I want to get to 1,000 catches. This is where I want to be. I’m around folks who appreciate my skills and what I bring to the table.”
In California, Johnson is involved in real estate, food and beverage, restaurants and shopping malls. His work in charities is well-documented.
One day he would like to own an NFL franchise or maybe run one as a GM: “I know I could pick talent and help build an organization,” he said. “But this league recycles GMs like aluminum cans, and half of them don’t know what they are doing. I heard one of them say recently, ‘That Edgerrin James, he’s having a pretty good year. I had my doubts about him coming out of college.’ Edgerrin James has been good for a few years. What’s he talking about?”
The Cowboys will look to Johnson today when in a pickle, and expect Johnson to deliver more often than not.
Johnson may still often walk to his own beat, his own vision, his own world, but he brings a football fire tough to match. Tougher to defeat.
“We are a young team that is getting a taste of big-time football in this game,” Johnson said. “We were the first team to take it to the Philadelphia Eagles and expose them to the NFL. We want the same things Denver wants.”
Sometimes when what you want is what you get, your life is charmed. That has happened aplenty for Keyshawn Johnson. He knows it. He respects it.
Staff writer Thomas Georgecan be reached at 303-820-1994 or tgeorge@denverpost.com.
