How One Routine Play Changed Everything for Pitt’s Anthony Johnson

As he was lifted into an ambulance, all Pitt defensive tackle Anthony Johnson wanted to know was if he was going to play in three days against Cincinnati.

Ever so slowly, two thoughts crept into his mind: Will he ever be able to play football again, or let alone even walk?

A routine play, a simple hit, was about the shake up Johnson’s life for the foreseeable future.

“I still had my bottoms on me. I think they took my cleats off. They were cutting the stuff off me and I remember them pulling on me, pinching on me,” Johnson said. “At first there was so much noise going on, it’s like a movie. Them just asking me if you feel this, feel that. I look up and was like, ‘No, I don’t feel that still.’ That’s when I got really scared.”

The Pittsburgh native had just played in his one and only game for his hometown team after joining the program as a redshirt senior.

Those coming days would be full of emotion, mental struggles, pain and doubt of what would come next in his life.

An athlete by trade would look to break into the next chapter of his life helping out the Pitt program in whatever way possible.

A Basketball Player at Heart

Basketball was Johnson’s first love and always will be. It was on the hardwood that Johnson showed off his athleticism as a point guard throughout the early years of high school and the AAU circuit.

“A lot of people don’t believe this, but I was a point guard,” Johnson said. “I was only like 200 pounds when I started playing football. I loved to score the ball and that’s what I was known for.”

Johnson attended Chartiers Valley and Lincoln Park in his early high school days before he enrolled at Taylor Allderdice. Then, during the middle of his sophomore year, he moved to Jeannette. He appeared in four games for the Jayhawk boys’ basketball team where he averaged 26.3 points before he was ruled ineligible by the WPIAL for transferring with athletic intent.

During that summer, Johnson heard from fellow classmates that he should try out for football but didn’t give it much thought. The peer pressure persisted, and he finally gave in.

“I was probably one of the bigger kids in the school. It was a Single-A school, so they were begging me to play. I thought I was going to be at wide receiver or linebacker when I came out. They put me at d-line the first day and I was like, ‘Nah, this isn’t for me.’ Ended up paying off and I’m glad I didn’t look back for sure,” Johnson said.

Similar reservations about the change came from Johnson’s parents as well.

“At first, we were like, ‘Oh my God, we’ve put all this time, energy and money into basketball, what are you doing?’ He excelled so much in basketball; we were almost afraid that he wouldn’t excel that much in football. We were nervous because his whole life was around basketball one time,” Melissa Johnson said.

Now an upstart in football, Johnson powered the defensive line with 134 tackles and 12 sacks for a Jeannette team that went on to claim a WPIAL and PIAA title in 2017.

“I started to pick it up. They told me I led the team in tackles one week and I was like, ‘I didn’t even know you kept track of that type of stuff.’ That was my goal every week to lead the team in tackles, get the sticker on my helmet. It was great. The tradition for the town was great. Won the state championship. That was a great year and really made me fall in love with football,” he said.

Johnson’s time at Jeannette was short-lived, however, as he moved to Cleveland Heights for his senior year. It was a place he was familiar with dating back to his days as an AAU basketball player out of Ohio.

Anthony Johnson at the Pitt football Kickoff Luncheon in 2024. Photo courtesy of Pitt Athletics.

While it was another blip on the high school map, each move was calculated to improve his game and set up his future, especially a new one in football.

“He even learned more because his coach played in the NFL before. Anthony had no technique going into his senior year,” his mom said. “When Division I colleges would look at him, they’re like, ‘You’re good, but you have no technique.’ The coach up there taught him the technique he needed to help him advance.”

In two short years, Johnson crafted his game on the defensive line and accrued interest from around college football with offers from Syracuse, Georgia Tech, Central Michigan, Toledo, UMass and others.

Eventually, Johnson signed with Bowling Green late in his senior year.

The Path to Pitt and Putting on the Hometown Jersey

Johnson thought he knew everything when he was a freshman at Bowling Green, but life came at him fast. He only played three games for the Falcons before suffering an injury that derailed his first year of college football.

As quickly as Johnson joined Bowling Green, he was gone.

In need of change, Johnson decided to transfer closer to home between Cleveland and Pittsburgh as he landed at Youngstown State.

It was at YSU where Johnson spent four years and developed as a football player and person.

“Youngstown, I grew up off the field and on the field so much whether it be my education in school to being discipline on the field leading off the field. The coaches around me, the people around me, some of my best friends that I still talk to every day to this day, they helped me out so much to form me into a leader,” Johnson said.

He appeared in 36 games during his time in Youngstown and compiled 45 tackles, nine for a loss, five sacks and one fumble recovery. In the classroom, Johnson got a degree in general studies with a focus on business analytics.

After the 2023 season, he, along with nearly the entire starting defense hopped in the portal looking for further their careers and it paid off as many of them went to the Power Four level, including Johnson.

Pitt was one of several schools to offer Johnson when in the portal and it was a school that also showed interest coming out of high school. Johnson had close ties with the program back in the day when he kicked it with Damar Hamlin, Paris Ford and Bricen Garner at their dorms in Oakland. It was always a dream to play at Pitt, but he wasn’t ready to return home just yet.

He wanted to venture out more and that’s when he committed to Illinois. However, the time was brief in Champaign, Ill. Spring ball made Johnson realize that the scheme wasn’t the fit for him, so back in the portal he went.

Johnson then touched base in the powerful SEC at Mississippi State, but Pitt never quit. Pat Narduzzi and the staff continued to pursue Johnson to the very end and he finally flipped his commitment to return back to Pittsburgh.

“Coming down here and meeting with Coach Duzz and the scheme. I thought it really fit me and fit my game. I just loved Coach Duzz’s knowledge of his scheme and that’s what really drew me back here and playing my last year at home,” Johnson said.

Anthony Johnson at practice during the 2024 season. Photo courtesy of Pitt Athletics.

Coming home and playing for Pitt built buzz within the family and friends.

“We were so excited,” Johnson’s mom said. “We knew that we would be able to be there all the time and we got the schedule and picked out where we would travel and follow him. Even the neighborhood and people that knew him were excited.”

When he arrived on the South Side last fall, Johnson was looking to crack the two-deep roster. He brought a gritty and physical edge to him.

“During camp, I was around the d-line a lot,” assistant director of player personnel Oren Wilson said. “I had conversations with a bunch of guys. Me and him got really close early on. I would tell him something in practice, ‘Hey do this, do that.’ I played d-tackle for Coach Narduzzi at Michigan State, so I know what the expectation is, so I would tell him little things here and there. In the beginning, he was probably like, ‘You’re just an old dude trying to tell me stuff.’ Eventually, when I started to be right, he listened to me a little more…

“He was a gritty guy. He wants to be physical. That was his MO: physical and gritty.”

At the conclusion of camp, Johnson was preparing for a redshirt senior season full of promise that kicked off against Kent State as he logged his first tackle with the Panthers.

“It was surreal having my parents in the stands and so many people I knew from the city coming to watch. It was only one game I got to run out with them, but I’ll forever remember that and getting to play at what I still call Heinz Field. I’ll always be thankful,” Johnson said.

Up next was Cincinnati – a trip that Melissa and Anthony Johnson Sr. were preparing to leave for on Friday, but it was never meant to be.

One Routine Practice Play

It was another typical Wednesday practice down on the South Side as the Panthers prepped for a road game against the Bearcats.

The defense was going up against the scout team midway through practice and it was a routine defensive line stunt. Johnson made a move inside and bumped up against the offensive lineman. It was as casual as it gets.

Then, he fell fell to the ground.

“I remember him going down. It was an inside drill, and I think it might’ve been a thud day. When you watch the video tape, it was nothing odd. It was a freak accident,” Narduzzi said.

It was anything from normal, however. Johnson fell and immediately had pain down the left side of his body going through his leg – Hot, burning, stinging pain. Then, it hit Johnson that he couldn’t feel anything in his leg.

“I remember them asking, ‘Do you feel this?’ And I’m thinking, ‘They’re not doing anything.’ I lost feeling pretty much in the whole left side of my body. That was probably some of the scariest stuff I’ve ever been through in my life,” he said.

“I remember laying there and thinking, ‘Alright, I’m going to get up,” Johnson continued. “I’ve hurt my back before freshman year and I’ve dealt with a lot of back problems since then, so I thought it was fine. Then the pain down my leg – I’ve had leg pain before but never this severe pain. Losing feeling, I remember asking. ‘Am I going to be able to play this week. I want to get this season going, get back on track.”

The next thing Johnson knows was he was taken in an ambulance to UPMC Presbyterian with a lot more questions than answers.

Melissa Johnson remembers precisely getting a call at noon on the Wednesday following the season-opening game against Kent State. It was a nurse from the hospital.

Initially, she thought it was just another ankle or leg injury similar to the many that her son dealt with over the years. The thought was that maybe he would still play on Saturday.

Once there, Johnson heard the doctors discussing that they would keep him overnight for observation. One night turned into 10 days at Presbyterian.

The doctors told Anthony and his parents that it was a spinal column injury, but there was still a lot of mystery surrounding it.

“I had previous back injuries, and they said that could’ve led to it,” Johnson said. “I really don’t have much answers till this day. They did a bunch of tests on me. They saw that my back was like an old-man’s back was how it was explained by my doctor in the hospital and he was like, ‘It’s definitely not something normal for your age, but it shouldn’t have done this to you.’ They were just thinking the amount of force I was continually getting hit with caused a shock to my spinal cord and that’s what lost the function, lost the knowledge from my brain to my leg connect.”

Johnson wouldn’t know for months if he would ever be able to suit up and play another snap of football again. The only thing he knew was that he still could hardly feel anything in his leg.

‘I was mad at the world’

The following weeks were dismal for Johnson. He was laid up in a hospital bed for nearly 24 hours a day.

He was stuck inside his thoughts and kept people out. He didn’t want to see anyone.

“I was definitely down a lot of days. Didn’t want to see my family, my girlfriend, anybody,” Johnson said.

“I was really miserable,” he added. “They were trying to cheer me up the best I could, but I was really short with my answers. I was mad at the world. My parents were always there for me, my friends were always there for me, my girlfriend, my coaches. Everybody was texting me always trying to keep me in high spirits but it wasn’t a really good time for me.”

For those who cared for him, it was difficult to watch him in the hospital during those tough times.

“It was hard watching him like that. He’s usually pretty open and everything. He didn’t want visitors and we tried to talk him up,” Melissa Johnson said.

Even when Narduzzi offered to visit, Johnson tried to deflect.

“Coach Duzz would be like, ‘I’m going to come see you later,’ and I was like, ‘Nah, I’m good. Worry about the game,” Johnson said.

Wilson added: “Everybody was going to visit him. The coaches, the players, we talked to him every day. All he had was his phone. I think there was a point where he didn’t want any. He had to go through the process. He wanted to be alone and figure out what life was going to be now.”

Still, loved ones, friends and coaches continued to come and see him.

Teammates brought class assignments, Narduzzi’s wife brought books and so did his girlfriend, along with food – Johnson really didn’t like the hospital’s options.

As Johnson struggled mentally, it was particularly difficult when the Backyard Brawl approached. It was a rivalry game that he grew up watching and always wanted to be a part of.

He begged the coaching staff and the doctors to let him go to the game at Acrisure Stadium, but the injury was still too raw to allow him out of the hospital.

“I was dying trying to get to the game, but the hospital was like, ‘We can’t let you go for safety reasons,” Johnson said.

Following the game, Narduzzi and the Panthers made sure to call Johnson up on FaceTime to celebrate the win to show their support.

“He’s a brother whether he’s playing one snap, standing on the sideline or in the hospital somewhere,” Narduzzi said. “It was really important. He wanted to be at that game bad. I remember being in the hospital with him and his mom visiting him on a Thursday afternoon before that game and he’s telling me to call the doctors, tell them he’s coming. They were like, ‘He’s not going.”

Even with Pitt calling and singing the fight song on the phone, there was still something missing.

“It definitely made me feel better but it also gave me that fear of missing out,” Johnson said. “I knew they were about to have a great time and I wasn’t there. West Virginia-Pitt, I always knew about that game even when I didn’t play football. I always knew about the rivalry. Not being able to go to that game definitely bummed me out, but I’m still thankful they were even thinking about me after that type of win.”

Johnson spent roughly 20 days in the hospital and was finally released the Friday before the Youngstown State game.

He still didn’t have full feeling in his leg and was using a walker, but leaving the hospital was the first step at recovery. He was in the stands for the YSU matchup and even snuck down to the field during warmups prior to the Cal game.

Some of that negativity that surrounded Johnson in the hospital was alleviated as he just tried to spin the situation into a positive.

“Everybody has something happen to them in their life and it’s all about how you respond, so I was just trying to respond in the right way and become a better person in all areas of my life. All I knew was one sport all my life. I never thought about anything. I always thought it was going to be professional sports for either basketball or for football. After reality setting in made me change. A lot of people would tell you too that I changed in a lot of ways, matured and grew up pretty fast,” Johnson said.

Faith played an important part in Johnson’s recovery as well as he turned a corner when it came to his maturity and new perspective on life.

“He has a lot of faith,” Johnson’s mom said. “His girlfriend has a lot of faith, so that helped. We all did. We told him that he would pull through this. He really pushed physical therapy and got out of there quick. He told them, ‘If I can walk with a walker, will you let me go?’ He put in all the hard work he needed to do to get out and get up there. Once he seen a little bit of movement and improvement, he started coming around.”

One Door Closes, Another Opens

At first, Johnson and his family were still optimistic that a full recovery was possible, and he’d get a medical redshirt to play another year. But by December, Johnson finally knew that he had to call it quits and announced his retirement from football on social media.

Still on scholarship, Johnson was eager to stay busy with the program, so he approached Narduzzi and associate athletic director Chris LaSala about helping out in whatever way possible.

Johnson felt his experience during the transfer portal and in the Name, Image and Likeness era could be an asset to the staff.

“I really just asked for it. I knew that a lot of schools that have a person that can connect for the coaches and for the players. I’ve been through a lot, transfer portal, NIL and doing all that stuff myself multiple times, there’s just so much to learn that I did learn from it. I see kids maybe getting frustrated or making mistakes that I’ve made. I just want to help them not make those mistakes and learn and further their career and do better,” he said.

Narduzzi was open to the idea to further Johnson’s professional development.

“It just kind of happened by accident. Just after the season he was like, ‘Coach, I think I want to do this.’ I was like, ‘That’s great. We let you do what you want to do and slowly get you into this world,” Narduzzi said.

Johnson now works side-by-side with Wilson, who serves as a mentor for him, and sees the passion that Johnson has.

“He’s a genuinely caring young man,” Wilson said. “His biggest concern every day is who is going to relate to players. That disconnect between the coaches and players, he says he wants to be the middleman, so he can explain to each side and make them feel comfortable.”

Anthony Johnson with recruits at spring practice. Photo courtesy of Pitt Athletics.

One of Johnson’s first duties was to help host former teammate Blaine Spires and Oregon transfer Jaeden Moore on a visit.

“When I talked to Coach Narduzzi about it, Blaine Spires. I played with him at Bowling Green our first year and that’s one of my best friends till this day. I re-hosted him when he came on a visit. I just loved to inform people on what’s going on, how it’s going to be. I feel like it’s important for a program to have that type of dude where the players can come to and they can talk to about things they might not be comfortable talking to the coaches about and just being a middleman for everybody,” Johnson said.

Johnson’s approach and personability was a big reason to why Spires, who transferred from Utah State, committed to Pitt.

“That was the first person I hit up after I talked to Coach Daoust,” Spires said in January. “I texted him like, ‘Y’all d-line coach just hit me up.’ He called me immediately and he was like, ‘You’re going to like it. You’re going to really enjoy it up there.’ He said, ‘I’m going to talk to them for you.’ It was big as far as getting me familiar with how everything was ran in the program and the overall culture. It was big. Still till this day, he is helping me here on this staff now. He’s helping me get my feet set.”

Johnson feels his ability to create connections with players will help him stand out amongst the rest in his newly-acquired field.

“As I continue to grow in evaluating talent, I feel like I will be able to out-recruit anybody in the country with my ability to build relationships,” he said.

It’s been seven months since Johnson suffered his football-ending injury. He still goes to physical therapy every day and sometimes limps when he gets tired. He hopes to be jogging soon.

For Johnson, he is beyond grateful for the way Pitt handled everything and allowed him to step into his new role.

“I’m very appreciative,” Johnson said. “They supported me through everything. Coach Duzz was always there for everything even when I wasn’t going back to physical therapy. He made sure that even though you’re not playing for me, he wants me to be healthy, play with my kids one day, have a family. That’s important to me because he showed me things are bigger than ball or bigger than a job. It’s about your health first.”

As Johnson concludes his graduate year at Pitt, anything is possible for the future whether it’s working in the NFL to becoming a college football general manager one day.

No matter what happens, one moment, one routine play has shaped — but won’t define — Johnson’s future.