As the quote states, “No matter how tall a son grows, he will always look up to his father”, and for current Texas A&M quarterback Max Johnson, growing up in a football-centric household as the son of Super Bowl-winning quarterback Brad Johnson, it was almost inevitable that the young gunslinger would find himself on a similar path as his Father before him.
In an article from Draft Wire, and Bucs Wire writer Luke Easterling, Brad Johnson sat down in an interview to reflect on his football life, ranging from his time at Florida State to his 16-year career in the NFL, most notably winning Super Bowl XXXVII with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for the franchise’s first Championship Title. When asked about his son, Max Johnson’s own journey on the gridiron, Johnson stated,
“I coached him pretty much out of the womb.” “How to take a snap, how to do three-step, five-step, seven-step drops. Play fakes, and how to read coverages, and those things. Called plays for him. When he was in fourth and fifth grade team, I was out there scouting other teams, just trying to get wins, and had fun doing it. Coached him all the way through high school, went to a state championship. But now, I’m a dad in the stands, eating popcorn. He has other coaches, and you can’t tell him to throw it to certain people, or look out for the blitz. He’s on his own. As a quarterback, it doesn’t matter who you are. You’ve got to go through the ring of fire, deal with different adversities, deal with different successes.”
Max Johnson’s current collegiate path is almost bizarrely similar to his father’s, who had to fight his way up the depth chart during his sophomore, junior, and senior years at Florida State, as Max’s first two seasons at LSU started as a backup but included 18 games played, starting the entire 2021 season due to a preseason injury to quarterback Myles Brennan.
After transferring to Texas A&M before the 2022 season with hopes of earning the starting quarterback spot outright, Johnson saw his season end after sustaining a hand injury in a loss to Mississippi State, Johnson with miss the final seven games, while freshman quarterback Conner Weigman emerged late in the year to essentially solidify the starting position going into 2023. With the expectation that Johnson would once again enter the transfer portal, the senior surprisingly chose to stay with the Aggies next season as the primary backup, knowing that no matter what happens going forward, he will always have the support of his family, especially his Father.
“We’re an athletic family,” says Johnson, whose wife, Nikki, played volleyball at the University of South Florida. “We have adversity stories to tell, and we’re really just there for support at this point. He’s trying to blaze his own trail, and it’s gonna be fun watching him do it.”
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