A Super Invitation Sunday Former Seattle Kicker Johnson Not Staying At Home This Year
In a professional football career that started 14 seasons ago in the blazing summer heat of the Seahawks’ training camp in Cheney, Norm Johnson rarely pondered what it might be like to play in the Super Bowl.
On Super Sundays past, Johnson usually would invite a few friends over to the house, turn on the TV set and watch the AFC representative get trashed by the best of the NFC.
Not this year. Forget nibbling snacks and sipping microbrews. Johnson has an invitation to the genuine party Sunday afternoon in Tempe, Ariz.
“It’s a dream come true,” said Johnson, whose right foot has been one of the most dependable and accurate offensive weapons for the Steelers in their drive to a Super Bowl XXX date with Dallas.
Johnson admits he never figured he would be involved in the most hyped sporting event of the year.
“It’s something I never even thought about,” Johnson said. “It always seemed like it was something that was for other players luckier than me. I never seemed to be on a eam that would be able to get there.”
In nine seasons with the Seahawks and four more with Atlanta, Johnson and his teammates usually were struggling just to win a playoff berth, spending a lot of time in the last few weeks of the season sorting out the mathematical possibilities.
The closest Johnson came to a Super Bowl was the 1983 AFC championship game, but the Seahawks stumbled and lost to the Raiders.
“Looking back, we were probably lucky to go that far. We were the Cinderella team and not any kind of a powerhouse,” Johnson said. “We were a good, solid team and we had some good breaks.”
Johnson feels differently about the Steelers of 1995.
“Sure, you could look back at that last game against the (Indianapolis) Colts and say there was some luck involved, but I still think we deserve to be where we are,” he said.
Johnson’s kicking is one reason Pittsburgh is back in the Super Bowl for the first time since after the 1979 season. He led all NFL kickers with 141 points. The only player who scored more during the regular season was Dallas running back Emmitt Smith.
And Johnson’s 38 field goals in the regular season and two last week against the Colts give him a combined regular season and playoff total that ranks with the best in NFL history. Johnson’s total of 40 puts him ahead of the 38 by John Carney for San Diego in 1994 and Mark Moseley for Washington in 1983.
Johnson also led the league in attempts (48 regular season, seven in the playoffs), a statement of coach Bill Cowher’s confidence in his 35-year-old kicker.
“It also says something about this team and that our offense has been moving the ball all year long,” Johnson said. “It’s kind of why we’re here.”
Because their job is one of the most specialized in sports, kickers generally have fragile psyches. Unlike the work at other positions, there are no shades of gray in measuring the performance of kicking the ball between the uprights. The job demands, arguably, as much mental stamina as physical talent.
It’s tougher in the Super Bowl.
“It’s a lot more devastating if you have a bad game,” Johnson said. “That gets even more magnified in the Super Bowl.”
In his 14th NFL season, Johnson was found expendable twice, by the Seahawks in 1991 and Atlanta last summer. But he hasn’t missed many paychecks.
A few weeks after being cut by Seattle near the end of training camp, Johnson signed with Atlanta and had that job four seasons.
Late last summer, when Gary Anderson left for Philadelphia, the Steelers signed Johnson. Cowher, who is just three years older than his kicker, has been blunt about the importance of ending the NFC’s 11-year domination of the AFC on Super Sunday.
“I don’t think we’re afraid of Dallas,” Johnson said. “We respect them. The Cowboys are a solid team, but that doesn’t mean we’re going to cower in the corner. We’re going to play hard, do the best we can. We’ve got some players on this team who may not be as well known as the Cowboys, but they can play ball, too.”