Many of the Patriots' assistant coaches have gotten attention this week, partly because they're never heard from, and some (Josh McDaniels) because the world is trying to figure out if they'd be a good coach for their franchise.
Pepper Johnson's appeal lies in the fact that he played for the Giants during their glory days in the late 1980s and into the '90s and now works under his former coach, Bill Belichick. The first player to be a two-time captain at Ohio State and a member of the Buckeyes' All-Century team and Hall of Fame, the Detroit native played in 193 games over 13 seasons with the Giants, not missing a practice or game for the first 11 plus years of his career. Playing at inside linebacker, he accumulated over 1,200 tackles and 25.5 sacks with New York.
Two years after his retirement, in 2000, Johnson joined Belichick's staff through the NFL's summer coaching fellowship; he spent the season with the team as a defensive coaching assistant. The next year, he became the team's inside linebackers coach; in '04, he took over the defensive line, arguably one of the best D-lines in the NFL.
"I think Pepper had great leadership skills... and we saw that at the Giants, even early in his career," Belichick recalled this morning. "I remember there were certainly times when I was the defensive coordinator at the Giants and we would be sitting there on the sidelines, and of course we liked to play a lot of Cover 2 back in those days, with the safeties back there deep. There was one game in particular where they were running the ball against us and I called the team over and I said, 'OK, look, we’re going to play a little more Cover 3 and bring the safety down into the front to help us in the running game.' Pepper said, 'No, no. You don’t do that. You keep those safeties back there. We’re going to take care of the run. We don’t need any help. You guys stay back there and play the pass – We’re going to handle the running game. We don’t need any help.' That’s a great attitude to play the game."
As a coach, Belichick said, Johnson brings the same type of confidence he had as a player to his current job. And on Fridays, it has become tradition that Johnson lead the kickoff drills, his booming voice counting off players and then shouting, "We gets down!" when it's time for Stephen Gostkowski to kickoff.
Johnson also runs the Show Team, what New England calls the defensive scout team.
"Those players take a lot of pride in it, as Pepper does. They do an awesome job of getting our defense ready to play on a weekly basis. I’m sure that [Tom] Brady and all of the other offensive players would tell you how good of a job our defensive show team players do of getting us ready to play the game, and Pepper has great enthusiasm. He does a tremendous job on that.
"I can’t say enough about Pepper. He’s been a great player for me, a great coach for me and a great friend through the years. I have great respect for everything that he’s done in the National Football League and in football."
In case you're wondering, Johnson's given name is Thomas; an aunt gave him the nickname Pepper because the young man sprinkled pepper on his breakfast cereal.
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GO PATS. THE CITY OF BOSTON AND SURRONDING AREAS HAVE WAITED A LONG TIME FOR NEW ENGLAND TO GET TO THE TOP. NOW THAT WE ARE THERE WE INTEND TO BE THERE FOR YEARS TO COME. GO.GO....GO
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