Extra Effort: Lee County football's TJ Johnson uses his brain and his brawn to succeed

By Pat Welter

To play linebacker you have to be physical, to be great you need to be smart. Lee County High School's T.J. Johnson has seperated himself with his brain as much as his brawn.

"He's an extremely smart kid," Lee County head coach Steve Burdeau said. "He looks for little tendencies, whether that's watching film or picking up things in game or practice."

T.J. can diagnose a play with the best of them, someday he hopes his skills will help him perform surgery on the brain.

"It's kind of similar to football," T.J. said. "Because you have to plan for every surgery and everything you do like make sure you execute it great."

T.J. dreams of becoming a neurosurgeon and has his sights set on attending Duke, North Carolina, or Elon for college. He isn't ruling out playing college football somewhere, but knows his brain is what can take him anywhere he wants to go.

"Football isn't going to be guaranteed in life," T.J. said. "Anything can happen, you can get hurt any day. Once you get hurt what are you going to lay back and relay on."

T.J. is one of the top seniors in his class with over a 4.0 GPA. He's also president of the National Honors Society, Beta Club and participates in robotics with Skills USA.

"I was always competitive," T.J. said. "I always want to be the best in my class, make sure I was making the best grades, be the first to finish the test."

On his cleats you can read "redrum" which is murder spelled backwards for the killer instinct him and the rest of the Lee County defense plays with. He might be destroying the competition on the football field, but someday he could be saving your life.

"My biggest motivation is just being successful in life," T.J. said. "And being happy."