Larkins, a defensive back who allowed Skyline to score the game’s first touchdown, later delivered a game-changing blow that left Titans receiver Mike Norris writhing in pain on the Coliseum turf. That season, the Bulldogs were packed with talent, which included future NFL star running back Marshawn Lynch, who scored five touchdowns to beat rival Skyline High before a raucous crowd at the Oakland Coliseum. Nineteen years ago, Johnson and Larkins helped Tech win the school’s lone Silver Bowl title (the OAL football championship game was branded the Silver Bowl in the 1980s). Days earlier, with Johnson on the Tech sideline during his Denver Broncos off-week, the Bulldogs blew out San Francisco’s Mission High, 32-0, in their season opener. Credit: Nick LozitoĪs last month’s heat wave scorched the field at Oakland Tech, football players rushed to the water coolers for a drink. “As much as getting cut hurts,” he said, “getting to take advantage of these moments can change your life forever.” Bonds and banners Virdell Larkins hopes to bring another Silver Bowl title to Oakland Tech. “Oakland taught me about survival,” Johnson said in a phone interview from Denver, shortly after being cut from the team’s active roster and placed on its practice squad. It’s a story that I’ve personally seen unfold, as a friend and former classmate of Johnson’s at Tech. Johnson was an overlooked and undersized West Oakland kid, but at Tech he blossomed into an NFL prospect alongside other neighborhood football stars who years later are still bonded by a twisted-fingers celebration they would perform together after big plays. Tech” around the Broadway campus, she’s part of the glue that holds together the school’s sports programs. Johnson’s persevering journey from Oakland to the NFL-one of the pinnacles of American professional sports-makes sense after you meet Johnson’s mother, Rosemary Whisenton. “Josh Johnson, you’re going to have a heck of a story to tell one day!” “The NFL isn’t glamorous for everyone it’s a grind and a journey,” tweeted Emmanuel Acho, a sports analyst and former player. “Guy has mad heart,” one person replied to a Twitter post chronicling Johnson’s football trek. Days later, he signed with his record 14th NFL team, the Denver Broncos.Įach time Johnson enters an NFL game, fans marvel at a quarterbacking journey that now spans 19 teams (including three stints with the San Francisco 49ers and one with the Oakland Raiders) across four professional leagues. Johnson has said he wants to play professional football until he’s 40. Girls basketball players circled the track in advance of their title game in Sacramento.Īs the sun set at Tech and the stadium lights turned on, Johnson, 36, zipped passes into the hands of Vallejo native Rashad Ross, a free-agent receiver. Inside the gym, student members of the team were lifting weights in hopes of closing the gap with West Oakland’s McClymonds High, the perennial Oakland Athletic League football favorite. His former Tech teammate and cousin, Virdell Larkins III, now the school’s head football coach, was chatting with assistants. On a cool afternoon, last March-the NFL offseason-longtime pro quarterback Josh Johnson was training at his alma mater, Oakland Technical High School.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |