Randall Posted July 28, 2009 Share Posted July 28, 2009 Sadly, Jim Johnson's fight nearing end Former Eagles defensive coordinator Jim Johnson is said to be near the end of his courageous battle with melanoma. Johnson, 68, took another turn for the worse recently according to sources and the muffled talk at Eagles training camp Tuesday morning was he was fighting to stay alive. Head coach Andy Reid visited Johnson Monday night according to a source. Johnson stepped aside as defensive coordinator after 10-plus years last week, enabling protege Sean McDermott to take over the job for the start of training camp. Johnson has been unable to coach since the early May minicamp due to the melanoma that sapped his strength and compounded the pain from a lower back condition. Johnson, nonetheless, coached that entire camp from the seat of a scooter that got him around the practice field. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Wolf Posted July 28, 2009 Share Posted July 28, 2009 Sad to hear this happening to anyone. Thoughts and prayers out to Coach and his family. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaulOttCarruth Posted July 28, 2009 Share Posted July 28, 2009 Looks like he passed away. http://www.philadelphiaeagles.com/index.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big John Posted July 28, 2009 Share Posted July 28, 2009 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
piratesownninjas Posted July 28, 2009 Share Posted July 28, 2009 This is horrible news. Very sad to hear. I need to read up on melanoma, as I know very little about it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
piratesownninjas Posted July 28, 2009 Share Posted July 28, 2009 Looks like he passed away. http://www.philadelphiaeagles.com/index.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
i_am_the_swammi Posted July 28, 2009 Share Posted July 28, 2009 confirmed. A terrible loss for his family, the Eagles, and the entire NFL. In todays age of felons and thugs in the NFL, he was the definition of a true class act. RIP JJ. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Do Work Son Posted July 28, 2009 Share Posted July 28, 2009 One of the best defensive coaches ever to coach in the NFL RIP JJ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DMD Posted July 28, 2009 Share Posted July 28, 2009 One of the best defensive coaches ever to coach in the NFL RIP JJ As a life long Cowboys fan, I never had anything but the highest respect for him. I agree he was one of the very best and a man who knew to stay in the one job that expressed his greatness best. RIP indeed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Mucca Posted July 28, 2009 Share Posted July 28, 2009 RIP Coach, You will be missed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TDFFFreak Posted July 28, 2009 Share Posted July 28, 2009 This blows. RIP. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Randall Posted July 28, 2009 Author Share Posted July 28, 2009 (edited) Looks like he passed away. http://www.philadelphiaeagles.com/index.html Oh man. Melanoma is usually treatable if caught early enough. Edited July 28, 2009 by Randall Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Azazello1313 Posted July 28, 2009 Share Posted July 28, 2009 what a bummer I have no reason to root for the eagles (I pretty much hate all teams from philly as a general rule), but in the last several years I've become a big fan of the team because I love reid's offense and, especially, johnson's defense. guy was one of the real true innovators and master technicians at what he did. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chavez Posted July 28, 2009 Share Posted July 28, 2009 what a bummer I have no reason to root for the eagles (I pretty much hate all teams from philly as a general rule), but in the last several years I've become a big fan of the team because I love reid's offense and, especially, johnson's defense. guy was one of the real true innovators and master technicians at what he did. +1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flypaste Posted July 29, 2009 Share Posted July 29, 2009 This is sad news. Great coach and a kind man... RIP Coach Johnson. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peepinmofo Posted July 29, 2009 Share Posted July 29, 2009 Wow... Sad day for not only Eagles fans, but NFL fans alike. RIP JJ. You will be missed. I had no idea he was this close to passing away. Heck I thought he was stepping aside only to treat the disease. What a bummer... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Retrograde assault Posted July 29, 2009 Share Posted July 29, 2009 Sorry to hear it, great coach! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteelBunz Posted July 29, 2009 Share Posted July 29, 2009 So sad. This is a HUGH loss......for everyone. Incredible coach. Prayers to his family and friends. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
keggerz Posted July 29, 2009 Share Posted July 29, 2009 may he rest in peace Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
keggerz Posted July 29, 2009 Share Posted July 29, 2009 I posted the Tribute in the IDP forum...I just thought that was a fitting place for it http://forums.thehuddle.com/index.php?showtopic=290179 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Avernus Posted July 29, 2009 Share Posted July 29, 2009 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Menudo Posted July 29, 2009 Share Posted July 29, 2009 R.I.P. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clubfoothead Posted July 29, 2009 Share Posted July 29, 2009 That's a shame. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HowboutthemCowboys Posted July 29, 2009 Share Posted July 29, 2009 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Randall Posted July 29, 2009 Author Share Posted July 29, 2009 Johnson and Philadelphia, a love story By Phil Sheridan INQUIRER STAFF COLUMNIST BETHLEHEM, Pa. - Jim Johnson found his true football home at the very end of his long and distinguished career, at the very end of a life that ended all too soon today. The Eagles and their fans are grateful he did. Johnson was prepared to retire in 1999 when he got an out-of-the-blue call from a young, unproven coach he'd met on a bus in Honolulu. Andy Reid had just been hired as head coach of the Eagles and he wanted Johnson, a man nearly two decades his senior, to be his defensive coordinator. After scuffling to land a job coaching linebackers in Seattle a year earlier and then getting fired yet again, Johnson needed time to decide whether it would be better to step back and live on his comfortable NFL pension. Throwing in his lot with an inexperienced 40-year-old on the other side of the country from his family home - well, it seemed like a lot of bother. But Johnson decided he might still have some coaching to do. He couldn't have been more right. The ensuing decade of success here - seven playoff appearances, five trips to the conference championship game, that glorious trip to the Super Bowl - wound up being the best part of Johnson's career. And it wound up being the most successful extended period in the mostly unhappy history of the Eagles, as well. "It wouldn't have been possible without Jim," Reid said at a hastily arranged press conference last night. Club president Joe Banner pointed out that his aggressive defensive system was the least of what Johnson brought to the franchise: He was, Banner said, "a coach, a leader, a teacher." Reid was asked why he thought Johnson stayed in Philadelphia so long. Ten years is forever for an NFL assistant coach. Reid talked about wanting the opportunity to win and the way the Eagles willingly made Johnson one of the best-paid coordinators in the league. But there was more to it than that. By the time the Eagles' run began, Johnson was in his 60s - an older, defense-minded coach in a league that tended to hire younger, offense-oriented guys like Reid and Jon Gruden. It is a sideways tribute to Johnson that his proteges, John Harbaugh and Steve Spagnuolo, got head coaching jobs. They could deliver Johnson's defense in younger, prettier packages. Disappointment shaded Johnson's career and informed his no-nonsense outlook. He could never take anything in football for granted. He had been a quarterback at Missouri, a tight end briefly in the pros. Yet he wound up coaching defense. He worked his way up through the college ranks and should have been the head coach at Notre Dame, one of the most glamorous jobs in the sport. But the university infamously chose Gerry Faust instead, so Johnson changed tacks and moved to professional football. For most of his career in the USFL and NFL, he was the sort of coach who was respected by his peers and his players, but little known by the average fan. Until he got to Philadelphia. Here he found fans obsessed with their Eagles and as excited by defensive football as Johnson himself. It was a perfect match. That may ultimately be the reason Johnson finished his career here, coaching through the onset of the cancer that claimed him yesterday. Here, finally, he found the appreciation and respect he deserved. It always seemed an odd match, the plainspoken and gentlemanly coach and the vicious, take-no-prisoners defense that he unleashed. Johnson took a vandal's delight in ransacking the other team's offensive game plan. Where many coaches hide behind jargon and secrecy, Johnson's innate self-confidence and keen sense of perspective combined to make him remarkably candid with reporters and, through them, the fans. Philadelphia, its football passions stoked by the likes of Buddy Ryan and Bud Carson, embraced Johnson's style, both on and off the field. The lack of ego was actually one reason Johnson was such an outstanding coach. Rather than force players to conform to his precious system, he tailored his defense to take advantage of his players' unique skills. In hindsight, it is even more remarkable that Johnson coached through last season's playoffs. He was in agony, forced to ride a motorized cart because of the pain in his back. In hindsight, Johnson's decision to coach at a three-day camp in May was a magnificent gesture, a dying man taking one last look around as he did the thing he loved. There was real nobility in that. He was, to the core, a coach's coach. He took his leave with the same quiet dignity and lack of pretense that defined him. Jim Johnson arrived as the wise old man on Reid's staff and, after a decade of glorious wins and crushing losses, he was far, far too young when he left us. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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