Johnson a man of big numbers, few words

[Tailgate]

More press for AJ... nothing we don't already know. Still, this is going to be the year of Andre Johnson.

HOUSTON – When you’re climbing a mountain, there’s no time for wasted breath. Expending even the smallest amount of precious air on idle talk is going to just slow down the process.

Perhaps that’s why Houston Texans wide receiver Andre Johnson(notes) parcels out words the way bankers loan money these days. For Johnson and the Texans, it’s about making the climb – not telling people all about it along the way.

In the look-at-me era of NFL receivers – where Terrell Owens(notes) has a reality show and Chad Ochocinco(notes) rambles endlessly on “Hard Knocks” – Johnson is unconcerned about his lack of notoriety. Though Johnson led the NFL in catches (115) and receiving yards (1,575) last season and is considered by many coaches and executives to be among the top handful of receivers in the game, getting him to talk about this is like trying to run through a cinder-block wall.

“All the stories I have about ‘Dre aren’t really about him,” said David Anderson(notes), another Texans wideout and resident entertainer, given his impressions of boxer Ricky Hatton or quarterback-turned-analyst Ron Jaworski. “They’re about the things we do to him to make him talk. You really have to grind on him to get something out of him. He’s fun and he’ll joke around, but it takes a lot to bring him out.”

http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/news;_yl...yhoo&type=lgns

[Wolf]

Johnson seems to plot a course with that in mind. While teammates and coaches unanimously call him that rare combination of best player and hardest worker on the team, Johnson doesn’t preen in his workouts. At 6-foot-2, 228 pounds, he is built more like a linebacker, but he doesn’t show it off.

“We were lifting one time and ‘Dre has about 30 pounds of muscle on me,” said Anderson, who is all of 5-10, 194 pounds and often goes unrecognized as a football player. “His body is ridiculous. But we’re doing the incline press and we’re both doing the same weight, like about 185 pounds. I’m kind of looking at him like I can’t believe I’m lifting the same amount as him.

“He starts joking about how his muscles are just ‘air’ muscles, just pumped up with a lot of air … so I laugh and go on to the next thing. I turn around and he’s thrown another 90 pounds on the press after I left. It was like he didn’t want to embarrass me.”

That’s exactly the case.

from the link LOL