Jets’ Jermaine Johnson upbeat after feared season-ending injury: ‘I got my crying out on the field’

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Most players who suffer a feared season-ending injury aren’t seen in the locker room about an hour later about an hour later, willing to share perspective on their misfortune with reporters. It’s virtually unheard of for a player to speak on a devastating turn of fortune with perspective and good humor.

But there Jets edge rusher Jermaine Johnson was on Sunday afternoon, with a smile on his face as he talked to reporters. A few minutes after coach Robert Saleh announced the team fears Johnson is done for the season with a torn Achilles, Johnson embraced the will of the universe rather than questioning it.

“I’ve got a ‘have faith’ tattoo [on my chest],” Johnson said. " I always pray to God before every game, I tell him to use me so I can serve others. And this might be his way of me doing that. It is what it is, it ain’t cool. But he got the right one. I’m going to do what I’m supposed to do. I’m going to help the guys out and I’m going to stay in it, bro.”

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Johnson went down while trying to chase Titans quarterback Will Levis on third-and-1 with 4:41 left in the third quarter. Johnson was trying to recover after a blocker shoved him away from Levis, who was running up the field for a 21-yard gain. But when Johnson planted to run back up the field, the back of his right leg and heel appeared to stretch at an extreme angle, and Johnson immediately fell to the turf grabbing at his lower leg.

Johnson said he knew quickly what had likely just happened.

“Well, again, we’ve got to make sure,” Johnson said of the MRIs and other tests he’ll undergo when the team returns to New Jersey. “But yeah, I thought somebody stepped on me. And then I looked at the replay and nobody stepped on it, and I was like, ‘Damn.’ But man, like I said, I’m in positive spirits. I got my crying out on the field a little bit. I’m probably going to get a little more crying in [Sunday night]. But after that, you know, 24-hour or 48-hour mourning rule for me and we’ll be back to work.”

The injury happened less than 53 weeks after quarterback Aaron Rodgers was lost to the same injury. Rodgers saw it was a serious injury by the way his teammates reacted, but he was also focused on the offensive adjustments the Jets had to make in a close game. But soon after Johnson left the game, Rodgers found out what Johnson was dealing with in most unexpected way.

“I was worried about him,” Rodgers said of Johnson. “[Then] I saw actually on the Jumbotron it said, ‘Achilles.’ So, my heart kind of dropped a little bit. Good news is, he’s a very young player that is going to have a very long career.”

Even Rodgers, who knows exactly what Johnson is going through, was impressed by the way the 25-year-old was handling the situation.

“We briefly talked,” Rodgers said. “I just told him I love him and told him I was sorry. He is handling it a lot better than I did so far. It’s going to be a big loss for us.”