Graney: German born, Jakob Johnson finds niche with Raiders

He got in trouble at school a lot. Soccer couldn’t tire him out enough. Neither could swimming.

So his mother happened upon a newspaper article about a local tackle football team named the Scorpions and sent him on his way.

“I came home from practice really tired and happy,” Jakob Johnson said. “That was it, man.”

He was hooked.

He was 13 then, born and raised in Stuttgart, Germany, located on the Neckar river and about an hour from the Black Forest.

How he got from there to here — a fullback for the Raiders about to begin his fourth NFL season on Sunday at the Chargers — is a tale of family and opportunity.

He is a product of the International Player Pathway program, which the NFL since 2017 has provided athletes from other countries the chance to earn a spot on a league roster. Johnson did so off the practice squad with the Patriots in 2019.

Go Vols

It was a few American transplants with those Scorpions of the German Football League who convinced Johnson he was good enough to play college ball in the States. It’s why he joined family in Jacksonville, Florida, for his senior year of high school.

Good enough? Would say so.

He landed at the University of Tennessee as a four-star recruit.

“Just being from somewhere else and behind the whole football educational process — most of these guys started playing when they started walking,” Johnson said. “I’ve been blessed to be around good veteran players who took me under their wing in college and the NFL. Just tried to learn as much as I could.”

Had a lot to learn about America, too.

It’s a common story. Kid grows up in Europe watching mostly movies from the States and gets into his mind just how things will look and taste and feel once arriving. Not always the case.

“I assumed everywhere was going to be like New York,” Johnson said. “That, and Mountain Dew blew my mind and I couldn’t believe you could get 24 burgers at Krystal at one time. We don’t have that in Germany.

“I ended up being somewhat of a meathead.”

He was a need for the Raiders once fullback Alec Ingold departed for free agency. Johnson was a player new general manager Dave Ziegler and coach Josh McDaniels knew well from their time with the Patriots.

A 6-foot-3, 255-pounder who could fill a key role, who over 37 games in New England gained 83 yards on 13 catches with a touchdown. So they signed him to a one-year, $1.5 million deal.

He blocks. That’s him. Never had a carry with the Patriots.

“He’s a great human being and he’s really a good football player,” McDaniels said. “Very tough, very physical, extremely unselfish. He’s not out there on every play, but the plays that he is out there, he gives us everything he has.”

Said running back Brandon Bolden, who was also with Johnson in New England: “He doesn’t shy away from any of it. Comes in and carves out his role in the league. It’s not easy to do, especially when you didn’t grow up here playing this game.”

Munich game

How far things have come: Johnson said when he was a teenager, a video game such as “Madden” was no more popular than ones on skateboarding or BMX racing. But now, football has been adopted to all levels of the mainstream across his native country.

And on Nov. 13 in Munich, Tampa Bay will meet Seattle for the league’s first regular-season game in Germany.

And there won’t be anyone prouder than the guy who expected every American city to resemble Midtown Manhattan.

“We wouldn’t have even considered (Germany hosting an NFL game) an option 3-4 years ago,” Johnson said. “This will change the landscape of football over there for a very long time.”

Hey, it’s not 24 Krystal burgers at once, but you get the idea.

Ed Graney is a Sigma Delta Chi Award winner for sports column writing and can be reached at egraney@reviewjournal.com. He can be heard on “The Press Box,” ESPN Radio 100.9 FM and 1100 AM, from 7 a.m. to 10 a.m. Monday through Friday. Follow @edgraney on Twitter.