EDDIE JOHNSON VIDEO DIARY

CHECK OUT EDDIE JOHNSON'S DAY 2 VIDEO DIARY. EDDIE, STU, COLE BERQUIST, AND RYAN DINWADDIE


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Saskatchewan Roughriders punter Eddie Johnson is writing a daily Grey Cup diary for the Leader-Post. Here is the fourth instalment of a five-part series. In addition, check out Johnson's video diary at leaderpost.com. And now for the written version . . .

EDMONTON — On Sunday, I will play in a championship game for the first time since 1996. Yes, it has been a long time between this year's Grey Cup and the 1996 Orange County high school football league final in southern California.

Back then, I was 15 years old and punting for the Newport Harbor Sailors in my hometown of Newport Beach. We played the Santa Margarita Eagles, whose quarterback at the time was Carson Palmer — who went on to star at the University of Southern California (winning the 2002 Heisman Trophy as the best player in U.S. college football) and is now the Cincinnati Bengals' starting quarterback.

We got smoked by Carson Palmer. He was just a man-child. He was like a grown man. It was like playing against John Elway in high school. It was 38-0 at the end of the first half, and then we held them for the rest of the game. It was a bad one.

As it turned out, I tried out for Cincinnati in 2004, after spending the 2003 season with the Minnesota Vikings. I remember sitting next to Carson Palmer at the breakfast table and saying, "Man, dude, you guys smoked us in high school!'' Of course, he was really humble and nice about it. He's a beach guy, too, you know?

That game against Santa Margarita was in my sophomore year in high school. That shows how few and far between these opportunities are.

You hear a lot of pro athletes talk about, "Man, I thought I was going to go to the Super Bowl every year after I went there in my rookie year.''

Look at me. I'm in my first year with the Saskatchewan Roughriders, and I get to go to the Grey Cup. It seems to happen easily, even though you know it doesn't happen easily. You could easily fall into that hole of,

"This is going to be a natural thing. Yadda yadda yadda,'' but it is not that easy. I'm excited to go out there and hopefully seize this opportunity.

Just like I was when I was playing in Orange County, I'm almost like a fan who gets to go on the field and punt the ball to the other team. It's like Kick For A Million, but you just kick it to the other team. You don't get a million bucks. You just get to play every week. Maybe it's Kick For The Minimum. You cruise out there. You get to grow some facial hair. It's a good gig — especially this week.

Everybody on our team has been taking care of business all week, and they were professional. I feel like the guys got a really good practice in on Friday, but they were still loose, too. They had just the right amount of professionalism balanced with the relaxed kind of feeling.

The guys know it's the end of the year and they know it was the last practice on Friday. This is the last game coming up. It's for the whole deal. If there's ever a time to focus in and leave it all out there, now's the time. The guys are still loose, which is good. You don't want to be too stiff and you don't want to be too loose. You want to be just right. I feel like things are just right. Hopefully it carries over into the Grey Cup game on Sunday against the Montreal Alouettes.

I think a couple of guys are nervous, but nerves are good. As long as you use those nerves to your advantage and not against you, that's when you do well. When I'm nervous, I know I'm where I need to be as far as preparing for the game. I'm sure I'll probably be a little nervous before the game. It's going to be a huge game, but all you can do is your best. As long as you can go out there and do your best, you have nothing to worry about.

We have a walk-through today. When I go to bed tonight, I think I'll do what I usually do. I'll just take my mind off it and maybe watch a movie.

I'll probably read the Keith Richards autobiography that I just picked up. There's nothing like reading to put me to sleep, although Keith Richards' autobiography is pretty good — like the diary, of course. I'll probably do a little reading of the book, chill out, get to bed early and get a solid eight hours of sleep. Hopefully we'll have some "Satisfaction'' on Sunday.

The Grey Cup game is going to be another great opportunity to go out and showcase what we've all been practising all year. Opportunities like this are few and far between in football — 14 years apart, in my case.
I'm excited for it. We all are. We're all going to go out there and lay it on the line on Sunday.

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