Giants tight end Theo Johnson catches up with Post columnist Steve Serby for some Q&A.
Q: Describe your on-field mentality.
A: I want to be explosive, I want to be fierce. But also smart and calculated. Like when I’m in the run game and the pass game, I want people to be fearful of having to guard me, having to go block against me.
Q: Give me an example of your fierceness.
A: If I have a safety playing flatfooted, standing right at 10 yards, I want to run straight through him. Obviously not directly down the middle because that’s OPI [offensive pass interference], but like run through his shoulder. My mindset is if you’re standing flatfooted, you are disrespecting me. You’re telling me you can just sit there and be able to cover me, which I take as disrespect.
Q: You believe in intimidation?
A: Yeah, I mean, football is a physical game, and some people, if you beat them down enough, people are not going to keep rising to the challenge.
Q: What’s an example of your physical or mental toughness?
A: The big thing for me is doing things even when you don’t feel like it. You never feel like you did in July for training camp.
Q: How does your play style compare to Cam Skattebo’s?
A: I think me and Skatt and Jaxson [Dart] kind of get along because it’s just like gritty ball. It’s not always going to look sexy, you know? Like sometimes it looks a little dirty, but you get it done, you get that extra yard, you lower your shoulder and you go for two more. That’s not cute. But we’re not running out of bounds, we’re not trying to be cute, it’s hard-nosed football.
Q: From your Instagram, referring to your mother: “You believed in me when no one else did, not even myself.”
A: I was a young kid, like wasn’t always a most confident person, and my mom just saw something in me, was hard on me. Like there were times where I didn’t really know how my life was going to go and what I was going to end up doing. And she kept believing in me, kept trusting me, kept loving me — even when I gave her a lot of reasons not to. And I am in her debt for that, because I wouldn’t be here without her.
Q: Your mother was a victim of domestic abuse. Because of what you and your five brothers endured, did you ever seek therapy?
A: Yeah. … At first it wasn’t very beneficial. It wasn’t until I was a little older until I started to see it being beneficial. And I say that because if your heart is not in it, then you’re not going to get anything out of it. Like, if you’re just going to check a box or you’re just like, “Man, this is dumb but my mom’s making me do this,” or “the school’s making me do this,” or whatever, you’re not going to get anything out of it. Someone can’t make you improve and do the work. But it wasn’t until I chose to do it, then I was like, “Alright, this is something I want to do, this is an area that I want to improve in,” that I started to see the benefits of it.
Q: Was dealing with the anger, or channeling it, part of the therapy?
A: I never had anger issues or anything like that.
Q: What did you learn about yourself?
A: The big thing for me is just giving myself grace. Not being so hard on myself. Not trying to be perfect … perfectionist. And that it’s OK to not be OK sometimes. But just learning ways to decompress or deal with those feelings in a healthy way rather than going to toxic ways of kind of dealing with things.
Q: How do you feel about your father?
A: I honestly don’t have any feelings towards him. Bad or good, I was a very small kid when I last saw him or had any interaction with him, so I don’t have any negative things to say. … Obviously there’s bad things that happened, but I was a kid, and holding on to negative things from when you’re a child is not good for you, so I wouldn’t say I have any crazy feelings one way or another about him.
Q: Does your mother come to home games?
A: Yeah, she’s been to two games this year.
Q: What it is like playing in New York?
A: I love it, honestly. I’ve really enjoyed it. The fan base is fierce and they care about their team and they want to see us do well. And when things are going great, it is one of the best places to be. I love the city in general, just the energy, the type of people that are here, the personalities that the people around here have, the personalities of our fans. I have really, really love playing here.
Q: Coming out of Penn State, how did you feel about lasting until the fourth round of the 2024 draft?
A: There’s definitely a chip on my shoulder for sure. That’s something I definitely think about, and think about the people drafted over me. I carry that with me every day.
Q: You check their stats every day?
A: No, no, no, not crazy like that. But I definitely look out for like, “What has he been doing?” stuff like that.
Q: You thought you’d go second or third round?
A: I had my draft party on Day 2 because I thought for sure that’s what it was going to be.
Q: Are you a trash talker?
A: I’m not someone that’s going to go out of my way to trash talk, but I definitely get into it for sure.
Q: If someone talks to you …
A: Yeah, and if I make a play I’m going to let somebody know, too.
Q: If you bludgeoned me or caught a ball against me, what would you tell me?
A: Like, “It’s going to be a long day for you.”
Q: George Kittle has been someone you’ve admired.
A: He’s definitely one of them. I looked at a lot of Gronk [Rob Gronkowski] stuff. Tony G. [Gonzalez], Jimmy G. [Graham]. I liked Kittle a lot like in college and stuff because I saw myself as a complete tight end that can do a little bit of everything. He was just as invested and willing in the run game as he was in the pass game.
Q: What have you heard about Mark Bavaro?
A: I’ve heard that he’s arguably probably the best tight end to play for the Giants, and he was a force.
Q: Have you seen the clip of him dragging 49er defenders?
A: I saw that, yeah.
Q: What did you think when you watched it?
A: Exactly what I said, that guy’s a force.
Q: If you could go back in time and block any defender in NFL history, who would it be?
A: I think I’d want to block Troy Polamalu. My first ever NFL jersey was him. And I think he’s a guy that played the game with ferocity and played like his hair was on fire.
Q: What did you think of Penn State firing coach James Franklin?
A: It’s a tough situation. I know all the guys and everyone in the building is kind of feeling that. You can say whatever about his record against ranked teams or whatever. He knew how to bring a group of individuals together and make a team. And everyone that’s ever come out of that building has a tremendous respect for him. He can be hard at you at times, like he cared about you not just as a player but as a person.
Q: What did you eat at Emilios Ballato?
A: (Laugh) What didn’t I eat? I think that’s a better question. We had a little bit of everything. I think my favorite thing was their veal parm was nuts. All the pastas really good, the chicken parm was good, the meatballs were good … one of the better veal parms I’ve had.
Q: Three dinner guests?
A: Michael Jackson, Denzel Washington, Drake.
Q: Favorite movie?
A: “Interstellar.”
Q: Favorite actress?
A: Growing up I loved Jennifer Lawrence.
Q: Favorite meal?
A: Lamb gyro.
Q: What do you think of the Giants-Eagles rivalry?
A: It goes back years … two fan bases that don’t really like each other very much. I know a lot about the Eagles and how their fans are kind of wild and rowdy and how our fans can be a little wild and rowdy. There’s probably a lot of unhappy people that we beat them a few weeks ago, so I think it should be a pretty cool environment.
Q: How obsessed or desperate are you to help the Giants turn this around?
A: Yeah, that’s all I think about every day, is what I can do, what my part is in the team winning. And when we lose, I always look at what did I do to contribute to the loss?
Q: What is your message to Giants fans?
A: We might not be where we want to be right now, but there’s a lot of get excited about.
Q: How close is this team?
A: Anyone watching the games knows how close we are. We’re a few plays away from having a complete different record.
Q: What are you most proud of about where you are now in your life?
A: I’m most proud of being a brother I’d say. I’ve worked to get to a position where I can help my family.
Q: Describe your mother, Amy.
A: Selfless is probably the biggest word to describe her. Selfless and hard-working. She always put everyone else before herself, always put me and my brothers before her. She would have us eat and she wouldn’t eat. Always made sure that we were taken care of. And she is the hands down hardest-working person I’ve ever seen in my entire life. Watching her do what she did, and go through undergrad and law school with six kids … you can’t fathom how much work that took to maintain, like to keep six people alive, let alone have them turn out business owners, professional football players. … My one brother is studying in Germany doing a Master’s degree. … We didn’t just stay alive. But we were successful citizens in our field, in our countries, and I just think it’s amazing.
Q: Her getting a Master’s after overcome domestic abuse, does that make you think you can overcome anything?
A: She has always told me that, “If you want to do something, you can do it. But the only thing that’s ever going to stop you is yourself.” And, I’ve seen that to be true, because I was a kid that grew up in the middle of nowhere Canada, and now I’m playing for the Giants. And there’s not a single person that I played with growing up that’s in the NFL, or that even went Division I in college. I’ve had people, when I was growing up, tell me like, “Maybe you should have different goals.” Or, “Maybe you should be more realistic.” And my mom’s like, “Man, no. If you want something, if you want to do it, you got to put your heart into it, you got to give your all to it now. You can’t just say you want it and don’t do the work. But if you really want it, you can do it. There’s a way. You just have to be willing to do what it’s takes to get there.”
Q: How proud is she of you?
A: I think she’s pretty proud of me, I’d like to say. Sometimes she’ll still cry when I see her before the games and stuff, which makes me feel really good because there’s a lot of times where she was crying and it was because I wasn’t listening or doing bad stuff. So it always feels good when I see how proud she is of me where I am.
Q: What drives you?
A: There’s two main things right now. First thing is wanting to support my family, and to be able to provide for them. Whatever anyone needs I want to be able to support them. The second thing is, I want to get every ounce of potential out of myself. I want to be the best I can possibly be, which I think is very, very good. And I don’t want to be laying on my death bed knowing, and thinking, that there was more there that I didn’t rise to. I didn’t accomplish.
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