Tour De J

Longhorn senior All-American Derrick Johnson will share his thoughts as he travels coast-to-coast this week on a national awards tour. Johnson journey began on Sun., Dec. 5 in Charlotte for Monday's Nagurski Trophy (nation's top defensive player) banquet and he moved on to Houston for the Lombardi Award. He will then continue to (Weds., Dec. 8), Orlando for the Home Depot College Football Awards show (Thu., Dec. 9) and the Butkus Award (nation's top linebacker/Fri., Dec. 10) and finally Newport Beach, Calif. For the inaugural Lott Trophy (nation's top defensive player/Sun., Dec. 12). All totaled, Johnson will cover 6,238 miles during his cross country journey.

	(l to r) Erasmus James, Shaun Cody, Derrick Johnson and David Pollack Photo gallery

«Previous | Dec. 7-8: Since I last talked to you, I was very fortunate to be able to win the Nagurski Award in Charlotte. It's an experience I'm never going to forget and a dream come true. I couldn't have won the award without my teammates and coaches, so it's really something we'll all share.

Now I'm in Houston for the Lombardi Award. It's been a tough couple of days because I was up at 4:30 a.m. on Tuesday to catch a flight here, but it's all been fun. After I got here, there was an orientation luncheon where they showed us a film on Coach Lombardi and we saw some highlights of past winners. David Pollack and Erasmus James were in Charlotte also and are two of the other finalists, plus Shaun Cody of USC is here. All of them are defensive ends, so I'm the only linebacker, but we've all been getting to know each other even better and they're all great guys.

After the luncheon, we went and spoke at the Burnett Bayland Home for Juveniles and tried to encourage them to be able to learn from their mistakes and build their character. We took pictures and signed autographs afterward and I enjoyed talking to a lot of them. I hope we were able to inspire them to work for their dreams.

From there, we went to a radio station to do an interview before going to a dinner reception with a lot of people from the Rotary Club of Houston and the Lombardi Committee. I met a lot of nice people, plus there was more picture taking and autograph signing before we came back to the hotel where I was glad to see my bed.

Today was a really special day. We had another pretty early wake up call at 7 a.m., but we got ready, had some breakfast and went to two children's hospitals where most of the kids were having cancer treatment. A lot of people say what we do inspires them, but I met so many young kids who have to fight each day, and they were the ones who really inspired me. All of us were just glad to be able to brighten their day. The Texas Children‚s Hospital even has its own little radio station and one of the kids interviewed us for the whole hospital to hear.

We came back for another luncheon and then it was time to get my tux fitted for tonight. Now it's time to get ready for the banquet, so wish me luck. Next stop is Orlando.

Hook'Em
D.J.