‘He’s the smartest football mind in the room’: How Ben Johnson’s background shaped the Bears coach’s rise
ASHEVILLE, N.C. – Displayed in a wicker chair on the front porch of Ben Johnson’s boyhood home, atop a hill 15 minutes southeast of downtown, is a framed sign with North Carolina Tar Heels logos that reads, “Whatever It Takes.” It represents what the region the new Chicago Bears coach hails from is going through: cleanup and rebuilding from the devastating aftermath of Hurricane Helene as residents work to put lives and businesses back together. The Asheville airport recorded 13.98 inches of rain from Sept. 25-27, with some areas in the Blue Ridge Mountains getting more than 2 feet and Busick, an hour away, measuring nearly 31 inches. Johnson’s parents, Don and Gail, moved back into the home Jan. 15 after being displaced for 111 days. Three trees fell on the house, creating a hole large enough to drive a truck through. Unfinished work remains for contractors. Drinking water wasn’t restored until last month at nearby A.C. Reynolds High School, where Johnson graduated and quarterbacked the Rockets to a state championship in 2002. According to FEMA, Helene destroyed nearly 1,000 homes when it ravaged the western part of the state, including 340 in Buncombe County, where Asheville is located. More than 9,000 residences in the county were damaged. Businesses were wiped out. Jobs were lost. In December, the Office of State Budget and Management estimated damage at $59.6 billion.
“AVLSTRONG” signs are in storefront windows throughout the city, and the slogan is painted on car windows. At Grace Covenant Presbyterian Church, the Rev. Marcia Mount Shoop – the wife of former Bears offensive coordinator John Shoop – remains busy providing funding to those in need of rent relief. “In the areas where flooding did not occur, people have been able to get back on their feet and get going again,” Asheville Mayor Esther Manheimer said. “But if you talk to a restaurant owner, they’ll say, ‘Eh, things seem a little slower than they were before. We’re not quite back. I’m having a little trouble hiring staff because a lot of people who worked in the gig economy relocated during the storm and haven’t come back.’
“During the event itself it was really amazing to see people come together and help each other. A lot of people couldn’t work. Kids couldn’t go to school. There was no power or water. People did incredible things for one another. Just really, really incredible.” Maybe the community’s resilience is reflected in Johnson’s rise through the NFL ranks to become a head coach at 38, the second-youngest in the league behind the Seattle Seahawks’ Mike Macdonald, 37.
With the Bears stuck in a maddening search for sustained success, there’s certainly rebuilding to do at Halas Hall. Putting the puzzle together Gail Johnson’s first inkling that her son was obsessed with football came when he was 9 or 10 and sharing a bedroom with bunk beds with younger brother Kyle, who went on to play quarterback at MIT. She would find scraps of paper all over with football plays drawn on them – X’s and O’s, diagrams from a mind drawn to the analytical side of the game.
