How roosters and peewee football made Alexander Johnson into an NFL linebacker

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — The man who answers to “Dino,” the inside linebacker who has been known to squawk like a velociraptor, actually had another identity when he first began playing football at the age of 7.

“Headhunter.”

When Alexander Johnson first started playing football, he lined up all over the place — running back, tight end, wide receiver. He grew up watching and trying to mimic the on-field work of NFL players such as Michael Vick and Marshall Faulk. The NFL was always his goal.

But unlike many eventual pro-football players who land on defense after growing up flourishing on the offensive side of the ball, Johnson honed in on linebacker.

“It’s in my DNA,” he said.

Turns out, Johnson already had the nickname when he cemented it by getting thrown out of a game.

Ejected. At age 7.

“It was on the sideline,” Johnson said. “I grabbed [the opposing player] and I threw him and he went flying and he started sliding on his head all the way to the bench, and hit the bench. And a referee ran up on me, and he was like, ‘You’re out!’ and I got mad and I started crying.”

Not much has changed about what his reaction to an early dismissal would be — except for the tears.

“I’d get mad today if I got kicked out! I probably wouldn’t cry, but I’d be real mad,” he said. “I cried when I missed practice when I was a little kid. I love going to practice and having fun and competing, and I had to miss practice one time, and I was mad at my mom and I started crying.”

Every game, every practice was an opportunity he savored.

But Johnson’s preparation to make his childhood dreams of pro football come true went beyond the playing field to the farm that was in his family.

Johnson grew up in the Atlanta exurb of Gainesville, Georgia. But when he had some time off, he and his brothers would go to the family farm in South Carolina. They often had a task: to retrieve eggs from the hens without the rooster stopping them.

Early attempts ended in the rooster rushing at them.

So like any football team, the siblings huddled up and talked strategy.

“We all got out and were like, ‘We need a game plan for this,'” he said.

Good linebackers aren’t just physical forces of nature like Johnson was — and is — on the field. They’re problem solvers. Whether it’s containing a running back like Dalvin Cook or keeping a rooster distracted, you need a good plan.

“Two of us were distracting the rooster, while the other one of us was taking the eggs while we were trying to distract the rooster with sticks and berries and stuff,” Johnson said.

“We were able to get the eggs.”

So the “Headhunter” can use his head, too.

No wonder Johnson appears to be the complete package for the Broncos at inside linebacker.