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In the weeks leading up to the NFL Draft in late April, Ethan Johnson
got a chance to see what a miracle looked like.
Shut out of the NFL Combine in late February because of an
injury-ravaged senior season and bumped from Notre Dame's own Pro Day
to attend to what he terms "a family medical emergency," Johnson
headed to Florida hoping to develop a plan that would somehow create a
back door onto an NFL roster.
That the former Irish defensive end started organized team activities
(OTAs) with the Kansas City Chiefs on Monday was not what he
considered the miracle, though Johnson did wonder after missing Pro
Day if he'd ever get a chance to try on his dream.
The real marvel was a cancer patient Johnson met while training in
Jacksonville, Fla., with childhood friend and personal trainer David
Kampfe Jr.
Kampfe's mother, Eileen, is a master herbalist whose work includes
treating eight cancer patients.
"A person she started working with in November had three stage 4
cancers," Johnson said. "The doctors told her she only had six months
to live. So the cancer patient went to Eileen at her Wellness Center.
"This is a woman they literally had to carry in there. She couldn't
sit up. Now, six months later, she's walking her dog. She's not going
back to work yet and her cancer is not in remission yet, but it's on
its way. It's crazy. I watched everything Eileen did."
And soon, Johnson started eating the "power foods" that the cancer
patients were ingesting, things like mila, maca and beet juice along
with salmon and venison for protein. He's still eating that way as a
member of the Chiefs.
"Haven't tried one drop of barbecue sauce since I've been here," Johnson said.
The Kampfes' methods helped get Johnson's body ready for the NFL, but
he still needed to find a hole in the screen.
So his first call was to his former coach at Lincoln High School in
Portland, Ore., Chad Carlson, who put him in touch with agent Tim
Younger out of L.A. His second call was to University of Kansas head
coach Charlie Weis, Johnson's head coach at Notre Dame in his freshman
and sophomore seasons (2008, '09).
"I was just hoping that he could alert some teams about my character
and let them know I'm a hard-working guy and that my family situation
was real," Johnson said of Weis. "And he really helped me out a lot.
"When you have only two weeks before the draft, you need all the help
you can get. Coach Weis, I think, really went to bat with teams and
let them know I was a viable option in the draft. Now, I didn't get
drafted, but I got signed very quickly after the draft -- like 40
minutes after, I was signing my contract."
Johnson joins former Irish teammate, safety Kyle McCarthy, on the
Chiefs' roster. Former ND quarterback Brady Quinn is also a Chief,
though Quinn had already graduated by the time Johnson arrived at ND
in the summer of 2008.
The 6-foot-4, 300-pounder was prepared to wait until 2013 to try to
make a run at an NFL career. But the family medical emergency was
resolved shortly after ND's April 3 Pro Day. The NFL Draft was April
26-28.
"I didn't want to do something halfway and not being able to perform
properly, because I wasn't able to focus on it the way I wanted to,"
Johnson explained of bypassing the combine-esque workout for pro
scouts.
His senior résumé didn't help matters. It included a career-low 14
tackles and zero sacks, largely the product of a high ankle sprain
suffered in the opening moments of ND's win over Purdue in week five.
Johnson was not back at 100 percent until weeks after the season
ended, though he did hobble through ND's final four games of 2011.
"It was definitely frustrating," he said. "You work for three years to
put yourself in position to have a great senior season. After six
weeks, the injury stabilized, but it was like walking around on a peg
leg.
"You have enough strength to put weight on it, but cutting or any type
of sudden movement is like not going to happen. And defensive line
play is all sudden movements and explosion.
"I guess that's a big reason why I just feel so happy for the
opportunity and I'm just thankful for all of the people who helped me
get into this situation. I'm very, very, very thankful. I feel -- well
-- blessed is almost not strong enough of a word. God is good."
Personnel matters
-- The job offers continue to roll in for kicker David Ruffer. The
Economics major just wishes one of them would be from an NFL team.
"I've talked to the people who have offered me the jobs," Ruffer said.
"And they understand that I need to give the NFL a shot while it's
still in me. But it's been pretty quiet and I'm just trying to be
patient.
"Obviously, those firms can't wait forever, so in the next couple of
weeks, I'll sit down with my dad and figure out what's best for me."
Ruffer set a school record for consecutive field goals (23) during the
2010 season, which was seven short of the NCAA record. He was 10-of-16
last season.
-- Offensive lineman Lane Clelland, a top 100 prospect coming out of
the McDonogh School in Owings, Mills, Md., said this week he will not
pursue a fifth year at another school.
Multiple injuries helped limit Clelland's playing time to 13 reserve
appearances over four seasons at ND. The 6-foot-5, 297-pounder missed
all of the 2011 season with a knee injury and was not invited to apply
for a fifth year at ND.
Clelland hopes to land a job in commercial real estate in the Houston,
Texas, area.
"I just didn't want to risk more problems with the knee," he said.
"Looking back, one of the reasons I picked Notre Dame out of high
school was what it could do for me beyond the field. Right now, it
looks like I made the best decision."
Staff writer Eric Hansen:
ehansen@sbtinfo.com
574-235-6112
Do and it's done