Rosenfels reflects on why ex-teammate Johnson is a HOF lock

Sage Rosenfels is a former 12-year NFL quarterback who writes, does radio, and podcasts about the NFL and college football.

Talent isn’t overrated. Heart is underrated. And Andre Johnson had boatloads of both.

During my three-year run with him as a Houston Texan, Dre was the epitome of the perfect wide receiver. He was a superstar from a different era. He was also the perfect teammate.

When I joined the Texans in 2006, they were short on talent and coming off a 2-14 season. They did have one star player: Andre. After one of our first summer practices, head coach Gary Kubiak spoke to the team about the work ethic it would take to turn the franchise around. He brought up Andre, and despite this only being his fourth year in the league, Kubiak predicted Andre’s future induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

At the time, I remember thinking this was a bold statement. Johnson had put up solid numbers in his first three seasons, but nothing that would make you think he was a lock for the Hall. Plus, I'd never heard a head coach speak about a young player like this. It would make sense if Kubiak was talking about a wide receiver in the last few years of his career who was nearing 1,000 catches. It would make sense in Minnesota if Mike Zimmer was praising Adrian Peterson’s career as a goal for other players on the team. But a one-time Pro Bowler? How did Kubiak already know?

Looking back, it was obvious. It’s easy to see a player who has talent. Andre was 6-foot-3 and 230 pounds of steel. He wasn’t the prototypical wide receiver - he was something the football gods designed in a lab. But after watching Dre work in the offseason program and through a handful of OTA practices, Kubiak had seen much more than that. He saw Andre’s athletic gifts were actually surpassed by his work ethic and heart. It's extremely rare for a supremely talented player to have a blue-collar work ethic. When the combination does occur, greatness usually results.

Andre Johnson was outworked by nobody during my time in Houston. Rarely does a star player train or practice harder than everybody else, but Andre was unique. Not only did he dominate every sprint and drill in the offseason training program, which was held Monday through Thursday, he also held his own workout on Friday. The few players who had enough guts to show up for this optional running session were treated to a workout that brought many of them very close to throwing up. Some of them weren’t so lucky. That Friday workout was insane.

To understand this work ethic, you have to know Andre’s history. Dre was Miami through and through. He grew up during the early years when the U was a dominant force in college football. The Miami football team had more swag than anyone in the history of college athletics at that point. When Andre arrived at Miami, he was part of the program's resurgence. He sat behind future Pro Bowlers Reggie Wayne and Santana Moss as a freshman. His 2001-02 teams may have had the most talent in the history of college football. The coaching staff also allowed former Hurricanes legends, such as Ray Lewis, to have influence on the players. NFL players trained with the college players and taught them the insane work ethic it takes to be great. Talent met grit, and dozens of players on this Miami team went on to have long, successful NFL careers. I played with a few ‘Canes who were on that team, and they all seemed to have that extra edge that allowed them to play at a championship level.

So Andre had the perfect recipe of physical ability and self-discipline. But what I believe separated Dre from other superstars I played with was his leadership style. Most great players have a strong verbal presence in the locker room and on the field. I played with guys like Junior Seau, Brett Favre, Jason Taylor, Justin Tuck, Jared Allen, and Bruce Smith, and all of them had one thing in common: They liked to talk. Most had no problem speaking in front of the team. Many talked a lot of smack during games to the opponent. All of them enjoyed their time in front of the camera. Andre didn’t feel the need to lead that way. He was fairly quiet most of the time, but when he did speak, absolutely everybody listened. And it’s not that Andre didn’t like attention - I believe he thought talk was cheap and all that really mattered was the results on the field. Playing at the U, winning national championships was all that mattered. People can talk until they are blue in the face, but a player’s performance was more important. He led by example, and most of his teammates tried to live up to his level of play.

Cheers to the best wideout I ever played with, and congratulations on a Hall of Fame career. Though Andre Johnson ended his NFL run this week without getting to play in a Super Bowl, this was no fault of his own. It’s too bad his teammates, including myself, weren’t good enough to get him to the big game. No teammate of mine deserved it more than him, and Andre Johnson never cared about awards. Winning championships was his only goal.

As a consolation prize, he will be enshrined into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in five years. He'll be forced to get up in front of everyone and speak one more time. I'm hoping those in the audience and watching on television listen very closely. His greatness was earned the old-fashioned way.