To explain the legacy of most NFL football players, you usually begin with what they did on the field. Their stats, honors, and championships.
To capture the true nature of Edward Stanton Johnson III — known to football fans in Washington as Tre' — it's best to start after his career was over.
He didn’t go into the broadcast booth or begin climbing the coaching ladder. He didn’t trade on his name and associations to enter the business world. Johnson went back to school.
The offensive lineman ditched the pads and became a history teacher at a small all-boys private school just outside Washington. Of course, Johnson helped coach the football team. But he was far more than a former NFL player.
Beloved offensive lineman Tre' Johnson was a bright spot on a Washington team in decline
Johnson, who died suddenly at 54 on Sunday, had a nine-year NFL career. All but one of those seasons was spent in Washington, playing in the immediate aftermath of the first Joe Gibbs era. He started 69 games for the club and was selected to the second-team All-Pro team in 1999. And football was just a minor part of his identity.
I began writing for Riggo’s Rag six years ago in the run-up to the 2020 NFL Draft. One of my early stories was about all the great characters who make up Washington’s professional football history. Johnson was included, right in between Russ Grimm and Dexter Manley.
“A combination of William Faulkner and Casey Stengel.”
That quote was from Ed Sundt, one of the legendary teachers at the Landon School for Boys in Bethesda, Maryland. I knew Mr. Sundt, though I never took a class with him during my own time at Landon. He was about as sharp a thinker as I ever met. And he was equally impressed with the mammoth man who came to teach history after his playing days were done.
Johnson grew up in Peekskill, New York, and graduated from Temple University in 1994. He was an all-conference player for three years in college and a finalist for the Lombardi Award in his final year.
When Washington drafted him in the second round, the original Hogs were a fading memory. Johnson played behind veterans Ray Brown and Raleigh McKenzie in his rookie year, then took over when the latter went to the Philadelphia Eagles in 1995.
Johnson was equally adept at right or left guard, shifting back and forth as required over the next five seasons. The team’s offensive lines were average at best during most of his time in town. It wasn’t until 1999, when they drafted a new right tackle, Jon Jansen, and signed the veteran Andy Heck to play on the left-hand side, that the team started to make real progress.
The success was short-lived. Iconic owner Jack Kent Cooke had recently died, and a new administration was on its way in. Suffice it to say, things did not go well.
Health problems caught up with Johnson the following season, and he retired after the 2002 campaign at age 31. He had battled injuries throughout his career, earning the prestigious Ed Block Courage Award in 1999.
Landon is not some football powerhouse. Sports are a vital part of its mission, but it does not crank out D1 and pro prospects. The only two graduates to play in the NFL were kick returner Kenny Jenkins and linebacker Ted Rogers, both of whom put in a couple of seasons for their hometown team.
Johnson chose Landon for other reasons. I won’t pretend to know what those reasons were, but I imagine they had something to do with the small size and opportunity to develop close relationships with the young men he would be teaching and coaching.
He certainly cut an interesting figure amongst the white oaks and azaleas that adorn the 75-acre campus. Johnson weighed well over 300 pounds and had too many tattoos to count. He rode a motorcycle.
Yet he became a core part of Landon’s identity in short order. His wit, intelligence, and curiosity made him a popular teacher and a valued friend.
Johnson was an excellent football player. His coach, Norv Turner, called him one of the strongest players he had ever been around. His quarterback, Brad Johnson, called him an “inspiration.”
But he was obviously a lot more than that.
Just ask anyone who ever had the pleasure of studying with him, playing for him, or just having a chat when he was Mr. Johnson, long after his playing days were done, and he had found a new calling, teaching history and counselling students at Landon.