Myles Garrett was in a “playful mood” two months ago when he made a plea to play for the Dallas Cowboys.
The ESPN video, released Friday, was taken during a relaxed interview session at the College Football Awards show Dec. 8.
Garrett attended the show at the College Football Hall of Fame in Atlanta and spoke to an ESPN social media producer, who asked whether there was a specific team he might want to join in the NFL. His answer was “100 percent supposed to be fun,” the producer said.
Garrett, a Texas A&M defensive end who hadn’t officially declared for the NFL draft at that time, addressed Jerry Jones, owner of his hometown Cowboys, and Dallas coach Jason Garrett.
“All right, I’m speaking to you, Jerry,” Myles Garrett said. “Mr. Garrett, make it happen. Dak Prescott is leading our team right now. I need you to take Tony Romo, take a couple picks, give them to Cleveland so you can pick me up. Please. I would love to play in Dallas. Just make it happen.”
The social media producer said Myles Garrett’s comments were in the spirit of an upbeat event. All players in attendance went through a series of interviews before the event.
“He was definitely having fun and was in a playful mood,” the producer said. “One of the questions right before that was about his interest in dinosaurs. That’s what we do. We get fun little nuggets.
“It was 100 percent supposed to be fun. He was just having fun. He knew I worked for ESPN and that I was videoing him.”
In a separate video for KRIV-TV in Houston that was posted on Twitter on Thursday, Garrett said he would “definitely” like to play for the Browns.
“People might say, oh they’re this, they’re that, or I made a comment about cold weather and they kind of pointed toward Cleveland,” Garrett said. “It doesn’t matter to me. I’ll play wherever they put me. It’s about your mindset you go into it [with]. If you go in there with a mindset that you’re going to turn things around, you can make that contagious and people start to believe in it, then you can turn it into a winning program wherever you go.”
Garrett grew up in Arlington, where the Cowboys play. He is projected to be one of the top two or three picks in this draft, perhaps the first overall. The Browns have the first pick and need a quarterback, but it would be highly unlikely that a rebuilding Browns team would trade for Romo, who is 36.
It’s even more unlikely that the Browns would alter their draft plans based on a video like this one — especially given when it was taped.
Garrett attended the banquet because he was one of three nominees for the Chuck Bednarik Award, given to the defensive player of the year in college football. Defensive lineman Jonathan Allen of Alabama won the award.
THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. — Greg Robinson, the former No. 2 overall pick who has struggled at left tackle throughout his three-year career, remains “a big part” of the Los Angeles Rams’ plans moving forward, new coach Sean McVay said Friday.
McVay did not specify whether Robinson would remain at left tackle, but he did praise his talent.
“When you see some of the things he’s able to do, you see the athleticism in space when he’s pulling around and using some of those perimeter schemes that they did offensively last year,” McVay said during a news conference from the team facility, which followed a meet-and-greet with his new assistant coaches. “He’s a guy that we’re excited to get around. That’s why it’s frustrating that we have to wait so long to get these guys in the building, see them on the grass.”
Rams left tackle Greg Robinson, the No. 2 overall pick in the 2014 draft, leads the NFL with 31 total penalties over the past two years. G. Newman Lowrance/AP Photo
Robinson has committed an NFL-leading 31 total penalties over the past two years. In 2016, Pro Football Focus graded him 71st among 78 qualified tackles. He was benched on two separate occasions this past season, when the entire offensive line struggled to protect rookie quarterback Jared Goff and create space for running back Todd Gurley.
There was some thought the Rams might simply part ways with Robinson, who will cost about $6.8 million toward the salary cap in 2017, but it appears the new staff is not ready to do that.
New offensive line coach Aaron Kromer, who spent the past two years with the Buffalo Bills, said Robinson has shown “flashes of skills” to remain an NFL left tackle.
“Now, why it’s not consistent, I can’t answer that; I don’t know,” Kromer said. “When I can work with a player and get my hands on him and be outside and ask him to do something and ask him to do it again and ask him to adjust something, then I know what we can do with him, how we can fit him in the offense. But until then, on tape — I don’t know what he was told. I kind of know what he was supposed to do, but I don’t know what his mindset was. I don’t know it with any of them. So, I’m just looking for individual skills, like a scout.”
At 6-foot-5, 332 pounds, Robinson is surprisingly athletic and has the skills to play left tackle, something that was obvious when he came out of Auburn in 2014 but just hasn’t clicked yet in the NFL.
The Rams’ previous offensive line coach, Paul Boudreau, spoke during the season about Robinson’s inconsistent mechanics.
“He’s all over the place with his feet, he’s all over the place with his hands,” Boudreau said. “And when he gets in trouble, when he stops his feet, he grabs, and he gets those holding penalties that you really don’t need. So, he’s got to concentrate on focusing on the little things.”
An in-house option at the position, besides Robinson, could be Rodger Saffold, who was perhaps the Rams’ best offensive lineman last year.
Asked about transitioning to guard shortly after the Rams concluded a 4-12 season, Robinson said: “It’s not really something that I’m just going to accept, because I’m so used to playing tackle. It would be hard to adjust. But if I have to adjust, that will be something that I will do.”
BIRMINGHAM, Mich. — Calvin Johnson said no at first. He had just retired and gotten married. He had spent the past decade in the NFL spotlight and now, when he wanted to move on to the next thing, reality television was not going to be it.
Besides, Johnson knew he couldn’t dance. When people from “Dancing with the Stars” first approached him about joining their show last season, he talked with his mom, Dr. Arica Johnson, and said, “I’m not dancing. I don’t dance.”
The most Calvin knew was 90 seconds of a waltz he performed with his wife, Brittney, at their wedding last June. Other than that, it was typical dude dancing, otherwise known as simple head bobs from his days going to clubs. Ballroom? No chance. Then the DWTS people came back to him. They asked if he would reconsider. This time, instead of talking with his mom, he spoke with his wife, who had a different response.
“She said, ‘Why not,'” Johnson told ESPN.com. “I was like, ‘Hell, why not?’ I talked to the folks on the phone, and next thing you know, I’m dancing.”
Months later, Johnson said he is glad he reconsidered. His time on “Dancing with the Stars” offered him a different perspective on athletes and the world. It allowed him to meet people he never would have otherwise, such as Vanilla Ice, Babyface and Jaleel White. His partner, Lindsay Arnold, became like a little sister to him. She pushed him to embrace his dancing and being able to sell the dance through acting, something he was not comfortable with at first.
Performing on “Dancing With the Stars” was an uplifting experience for Calvin Johnson and has inspired him to try even more new things. Courtesy of ABC
His time on “Dancing with the Stars” turned into a somewhat comfortable bridge into retirement. Johnson still competed every week. He still performed athletically. But this was new. He learned as he went — including hearing the word “musicality” for the first time during his debut performance on the show — and wasn’t really comfortable until the middle of the season, when he was almost eliminated.
“Retired Calvin, he’s just happy,” Brittney said. “Not to say he wasn’t happy when he was playing, because he was, but I think he’s able to enjoy life now. He’s able to do so many things he’s not been able to do for the last nine years.
“Most adults can do things on the weekends and discover themselves in their 20s, but I think now that he’s retired, he has the ability to really discover who he is, what he wants to do with his life and what he enjoys.”
And it has left him with a simple question, one he started to figure out as “Dancing with the Stars” concluded: What’s next for Calvin Johnson, retired 31-year-old?
The rhythms of football dictated his life for more than a decade. There were classes, practices and meetings at Georgia Tech. There was constant training, even during the offseason, along with the weekly in-season regimen to keep himself at a high level. It was, for so long, all he had known.
Now, there’s freedom. He hasn’t lifted weights or run in months. When Brittney asks him in the mornings if he wants to join her on workouts, he laughs. Then he rolls over, goes back to bed and says he’ll make breakfast when she comes back upstairs.
He knows it won’t be like this for long. He’s used to doing something instead of waking up, making coffee from Dunkin’ Donuts or Caribou Coffee, reading the news and figuring out his day. He wants to have a purpose. He wants to make his next step about giving back and creating a business for himself that will help others.
Brittney Johnson, left, on Calvin: “He’s able to do so many things he’s not been able to do for the last nine years.” Photo courtesy of Brittney Johnson
“It’s just timing and just being ready when that time comes,” Johnson said. “You never know when that time will come or when that time is or who that person might be that might come. You never know what’s coming, but a lot of situations, a lot of opportunities that I’ve had in my life, a lot of those that I’ve taken advantage of have been strictly timing.
“Just trying to stay ready for whatever’s coming, you know.”
Johnson has an idea of exactly what that’s going to be.
Johnson’s non-football side always leaned toward education. It’s been a primary focus of his foundation — one he helped run during offseasons, including reading scholarship applications — but now he’s thinking bigger and broader. He wants to motivate and implement everything he has learned throughout his NFL career — his entire life, really — and turn it into something of value to others.
So Calvin Johnson, “Like a life coach,” is happening. Soon.
“He definitely is trying to come up with a prototype of how to train young men,” Brittney said. “That’s important to him, because he had so many great coaches throughout the years and they left such a great mark on his life, not just his football career.
“They left an impact on his personal life, and I feel like he wants to have that impact on young people, too.”
And now he has unlimited hours to make sure the next step is the correct one. He said that people have already inquired about his services. They want him to be able to help young men in both football and life.
“The things he’s been through over his time, his nine years in the league, he’s definitely got something to offer,” said his friend and former Lions teammate, Rob Sims. “He’s somebody I look at, somebody that did it the right way.
“When you got a guy who has done it the right way and wants to share that, I think nothing but a good thing. It’s an outlet for him to get involved.”
It’s what Johnson is passionate about. The logistics still need to be figured out, including whether he’ll work more as a consultant for potential clients or if he’ll open up a stand-alone mentorship/athletic facility in his hometown of Atlanta.
He also knows his market. He won’t be, at least at first, helping athletes whose sports he’s not familiar with, such as basketball, soccer or lacrosse. He’ll stick with football and potentially dip into baseball, a sport he loves and played as a kid. He’s open to helping those coming up through high school and players who are looking to make the jump to college or the NFL.
What it’ll finally look like when he starts officially offering his knowledge and years of football-and-life wisdom for purchase, he doesn’t know. But it’s coming.
“I’m getting into that realm,” Johnson said. “So people that want those services, they are there. I don’t know, it might get really busy or it could be a dud.
“But whatever happens, for right now, that and getting that degree at some point.”
The degree is interesting. Johnson remains 30 credits shy of his bachelor’s degree in management from Georgia Tech. The initial plan was to start taking classes last fall. It would have meant actually going into college classrooms in Atlanta to finish up the credits.
It was something he wasn’t looking forward to — sitting in a college class as a multi-millionaire at the school where he became a first-round draft pick is going to be different — but it has always been important to Johnson. Plus, he knows the strength of the Georgia Tech network and what different avenues that degree could open up for his future, even if he is a familiar name.
He was going to start working while the 2016 NFL season was unfolding, but that’s when “Dancing with the Stars” called. It’s also why he laughs whenever he hears he retired to do the show and then he’d come back. First, he’s not coming back to the NFL. He has moved on. Second, he said no to the show at first, and because Johnson has always wanted to keep his private life private, those on the outside had no idea what he was doing anyway.
“Usually, my reaction was, ‘Little do they know,'” Johnson said. “People, they just react to what they see. You know, that’s all they saw. They don’t know the sequence of events that led up to that. They don’t know. Yeah, they know I retired. They might know I got married.
“They didn’t know that I turned down ‘Dancing with the Stars’ the first time.”
“Dancing with the Stars” was merely another part of the change of Johnson. For years, people only knew the visor-wearing, defense-demoralizing man known as Megatron, who set the NFL single-season record for receiving yards in 2013 with 1,964. They didn’t know much else.
So Johnson … slowly … began to open up. Once averse to social media, he has begun to use it more. This started while he was still playing, when he re-emerged on Twitter following the shootings in Charleston, South Carolina, to voice his opinion months before his final season.
Since he retired last March, he has posted pictures offering glimpses into his life on golf courses in San Diego, on fishing boats in Florida and skiing in Breckenridge. These were all things he rarely did during his football days and hardly ever shared with the public.
But there’s still part of Johnson who wants his privacy and likes being able to come and go in anonymity. As he slid into a booth at a local steakhouse in December, he went about as unnoticed as a 6-foot-5 former NFL All-Pro and Nike pitchman can in the state he called home for close to a decade. There were no turned heads, no picture requests or autographs, just a man and a visitor grabbing a meal to chat.
He still avoids the grocery store, something Brittney is OK with because their rule is that if she picks up the groceries, he has to cook. But he has reclaimed a lot of his anonymity.
As he enjoys retirement and continues to find out whom he is going to be in the next few decades of his life, Johnson is looking forward to sharing this wisdom. He’s looking forward to being able to help young people through the experiences he lived and the knowledge he picked up.
His football career taught him that. So, too, did his experience on “Dancing with the Stars,” something his friends from his old life still don’t quite believe he did. And that is part of what Johnson learned, part of what he took from the show and could help shape his future.
“You gotta just put that first foot forward and follow up, and that’s one thing, if anything, I take away from this experience,” Johnson said. “This is something that I never thought I would do. This was something that was totally uncomfortable to me, but it was OK to go out of your comfort zone.
“It’s OK to do those things, because you never know. It might be something that you’re really good at.”
Consider that some free advice from Calvin Johnson, aspiring life coach and former NFL superstar.
The countdown to the 2017 NFL draft is on, and the Browns are on the clock. Pass-rusher? Quarterback? It’s time for Mel Kiper’s first crack at predicting the first round.
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“I’m staying at home,” Garrett told the Houston Chronicle.
Garrett told the newspaper he wants to experience the moment of being drafted with his family and friends in Arlington, Texas.
Garrett is projected to go No. 1 overall in the latest mock drafts by ESPN’s Todd McShay and Mel Kiper Jr.
The draft will be held April 27-29. The Cleveland Browns will select first.
Garrett compiled 32.5 sacks and 48.5 tackles for loss over the past three seasons for Texas A&M.
The 6-foot-5, 270-pound prospect had 8.5 sacks in 2016, playing more than half the season with an ankle injury.
