Cal Football: 21 Months After the Car Accident, Brett Johnson Eager for Game Day Return
The long wait ends for Brett Johnson a week from Saturday. After 639 days, he will play in a college football game again.
Since his most recent outing on Dec. 5, 2020 against Oregon, Cal’s talented junior defensive lineman suffered a serious hip injury in a car accident during spring ball in 2021, underwent major surgery, faced well-meaning doubters and climbed back step-by-step to where he is now.
Asked if he can anticipate his emotions Sept. 3 when the Bears host UC Davis in an afternoon game at Memorial Stadium, Johnson said he will be ready for the moment.
“I’m sure there’ll be some nerves, some butterflies in my stomach. But I don’t have any fear about anything,” he said. “I’m confident in my abilities. I’m confident in my training so far. I’ve had a good camp. I’m just excited to get back out there.”
Andrew Browning, Cal’s defensive line coach, is eager to see game-day confirmation of the progress he’s observed in practice since last spring.
“To my eyes and to the eyes of everybody else in the program,” Browning says in the video above, "he looks like the exact same player as before the injury.”
The 6-foot-5, 295-pounder, who may be Cal’s best player, is putting no limits on what he might do this season.
“I expect to be at least as good as I was before,” he said. “And from there, build upon it and become better.”
The prognosis wasn’t always that upbeat and clear-cut. Johnson has provided few details about the accident or the specific nature of his hip injury.
At the moment of the accident, Johnson was not thinking big picture.
“My very first reaction was, `Oh crap, how am I going to get to practice tomorrow,’ “ he recalled in this video.
It didn’t take long before reality began to set in. “It was very surreal, going through that level of trauma to my body,” Johnson said. “At the end of the day, I still had my life, I still had my mind. I was thankful for that.”
And football?
His doctors weren’t altogether sure that was part of the equation.
“My doctors were like, you’re probably not going to walk normally ever again, let alone play football,” he said.
“And look at me now. Here I am. My surgeon eventually was very supportive of me and very impressed. He was like, `This is unlike anything I’ve ever seen before, unlike anything I would have ever expected.’ “
Johnson said he refused to dwell on the negative and instead chose to deliberately move forward.
He says he got great support from everyone in his circle. “Friends, family, teammates, my girlfriend — all those people definitely helped me get me back to where I belong,” Johnson said.
“Mentally, I will say I handled it pretty well. I think a lot of people in my situation wouldn’t have been as calm as I was. I was very cool, calm, collected and pragmatic about my approach to rehab and returning to play.
“Just very level-headed. Control what you can control. Hit your markers and keep building until you can’t build anymore. And I’m still building, so it’s looking good.”
Browning has been impressed, calling Johnson’s recovery “pretty phenomenal.”
“I don’t know if anybody could handle the situation he was in any better than he has,” Browning said.
Asked if he got advice or encouragement from anyone who’d been through a similar ordeal, Johnson said his grandmother provided something of a roadmap to how she navigated recovery following surgery.
“Right after surgery it’ll be OK because you’ll be on the meds,” she told him. “The day after the day after will be the worst. Basically, that week after surgery is going to be hell.”
And she was “completely right,” Johnson confirmed.
One big difference: “Her football career came to an abrupt end after that operation.”
Johnson was kept on something of a pitch count during practice last spring, making sure he progressed carefully. There were no setbacks. Fall camp has been more normal.
“What gave me good confidence was our first high-temp team drill,” Johnson said. “I was able to stay in the whole time, my hip held up well, my conditioning was really good and I was able to perform well in a relatively high-stress situation.”
He won’t be thinking about the hip when he takes the field against Davis, Johnson said, but lasting changes will be necessary. He will have to continue to rehab and take care of his body to keep the hip healthy.
“But it’s not in any way a hindrance to my abilities to play on a game day,” he assured.
It’s been so long since Johnson last appeared in a game that his only current teammate on the D-line who was on the field with him against Oregon is Ethan Saunders, then a freshman.
Johnson talks in the video above about what he calls the most talented group of defensive linemen he’s played with at Cal.
He can’t wait to be on the field again with his guys.
“It feels good, truly. Going through camp and doing all this, it’s a familiar feeling. But it’s been a while since I’ve really kind of lived through it this way,” he said.
“My freshman year, for all intents and purposes, I had a good season, the team had a good season. Then the next year was COVID and the year after that I got my injury.
“And now here I am for my fourth year and it’s all coming kind of full circle where I’m back to just college football as we know it. I’m excited for it. I’m ready to get after it.”
Cover photo of Brett Johnson by Al Sermeno, KLC fotos
Follow Jeff Faraudo of Cal Sports Report on Twitter: @jefffaraudo
