MOBILE, Ala. (AP) — Rashad Johnson would rather be a dog than a cat.
The All-American safety from Alabama didn’t hesitate to fill in that answer on an NFL team’s questionnaire at the Senior Bowl, even though the question threw many players for a loop. He even readily supplies a detailed explanation for his choice.
“A dog is man’s best friend, but when his territory’s threatened, he’s ready to fight,” Johnson said. “I guess that’s how you’ve got to be as a football player. You can be a friendly guy off the field, but once you get inside these lines it’s time to scrap for what’s yours.”
Spoken like a cerebral, scrappy football player. Johnson is hoping those attributes will help the former Crimson Tide walk-on forge an NFL career that even he wouldn’t have predicted coming out of little Sulligent High School.
Johnson began as a scout team running back under coach Mike Shula. Then he quickly mastered the complex defense of Shula’s successor, Nick Saban, and emerged as one of the Tide’s biggest stars the past two seasons, racking up 183 tackles and 11 interceptions.
Johnson was responsible for making many of the on-field calls and adjustments for the Alabama defense, and he’s hoping NFL teams will regard his brains as an asset, along with his playmaking ability.
“That’s an advantage to me,” said Johnson, who plans to get a law degree eventually. “When I go in and a playbook is thrown at me with the rest of the rookie guys that are there, I have the most confidence in the world that I’m going to be the first guy that picks up on it and knows what’s going on on the field.”
At 6 feet, 195 pounds, Johnson said some NFL teams have expressed concern about his size.
They wonder, he said, “Can he withstand the blows from the other guys?”
“With these big guys out here, thumping around with them, that only just adds to the positives that I’ve got going for me,” Johnson said.
He has already started to bulk up. He was listed at 186 pounds when he helped the Tide go 12-0 in the regular season and earn second-team All-America honors.
