Being a coach’s kid gives you a different perspective on life. Being a principal’s kid will do the same.
Jerrod Johnson grew up in both of those worlds watching his father in Humble ISD, where Larry Johnson worked from 1985 until his death in 2007 as a teacher, coach, assistant principal, Humble Middle School principal and Humble High School principal.
Jerrod, who was a three-sport star at Humble High School from 2003-2006, to this day uses the lessons his father passed on to him every day as he steps onto the practice field in the shadow of NRG Stadium as the first-year Houston Texans quarterback coach.
“As a coach’s kid you grow up with all these coaching-isms of things he would just pull out of his pocket for all situations in life,” Johnson said. “One thing he would always say is ‘hard work and prayer are undefeated.’ I live by that to this day and I share that with my players.”
But the biggest impact that his father had on Johnson didn’t come from watching his father teach and coach at Creekwood Middle School, Kingwood High School or ultimately Humble High School as the Wildcats’ offensive coordinator.
It came when he served as principal.
“When he became a principal he saw things in a different light,” Johnson said of his father Larry. “From knowing all the different things, how much he cared about education and just knowing the background of what a lot of students were going through from an administrators’ standpoint, I learned empathy from an early age.
“I think one of the strongest traits of a leader is empathy. I learned that from my dad and I try to apply that.”
Johnson has experienced a meteoric rise in the NFL coaching ranks since coming into the league in 2017 as a Bill Walsh Coaching Fellow with the San Francisco 49ers.
In 2019, Johnson returned to the league as a Bill Walsh Coaching Fellow for the Indianapolis Colts. The next season, then-head coach Frank Reich hired Johnson onto his staff as an Offensive Quality Control coach, which he did for two seasons.
It was in this role, in which he worked closely with now Philadelphia Eagles’ head coach Nick Sirianni, that Johnson learned a new respect for being an NFL coach.
“As a player you think you have an idea but you really don’t know the hours and manpower that goes into putting on one NFL practice,” Johnson said. “I was fortunate enough to work with some great mentors in Frank Reich and Nick Sirianni. I did whatever they asked me to do. I’m so thankful for that experience because I learned work ethic and a different way to view football and respect the profession.”
After three years with the Colts, Johnson was hired as an Assistant Quarterback Coach for the Minnesota Vikings, which he did for the 2022 season.
“For me it was about doing the best I could do that day,” Johnson said about his approach to rising in the coaching ranks. “If I’m the best version of myself and I get better every day over time one day turns into two and two turns into three. If you treat people with respect and work really hard in the title and the position you have, ideally good things will happen from people noticing your work ethic that way. It’s a marathon, not a sprint.”
Following the hiring of DeMeco Ryans as the Houston Texans’ new coach in January of 2023, Johnson interviewed for the Texans’ quarterback coach position.
Then February 12, 2023, changed his life.
“The best part of it was telling my wife that we were going to be able to live in our house and be together,” Johnson said after finding out he had gotten the job with the Texans. “For the last four years, our house was in Humble and she stayed in our house and she would commute back and forth from Indianapolis and Minnesota. Just the thought that I can do what I love in the city of Houston, she can keep her job and do what she loves and to have our baby girl in Houston around our family with the hometown team – we knew how heavy this job was.”
The Houston Texans play their final preseason game on Sunday against the New Orleans Saints and then open the 2023 regular season on September 10 at the Baltimore Ravens. The Texans' first home game is September 17 against the Indianapolis Colts at NRG Stadium.