For the first time since he was shipped to the Houston Texans in a trade that brought DeAndre Hopkins to the Arizona Cardinals, running back David Johnson will be back in Glendale to play football on Sunday.
Johnson tried to look back on the moments after he learned of the trade that reverberated across the league in 2020 and how it affected his life, per Aaron Reiss of The Athletic.
“I was in such a fishbowl,” Johnson said. “Everything I did was going to be magnified because of the trade. Honestly, I felt like if I was traded for anyone else, it wouldn’t be as bad. I think just the magnitude of the trade is what made it so stressful.”
Johnson knew that pressure will be high on him with the Texans because of the major piece involved in the trade, which was Hopkins, arguably the best wide receiver in the NFL not just last year, but today.
“I felt like I was constantly having a lot of adversity thrown at me,” Johnson said. “I was just getting real frustrated, really mad. The biggest thing for me is I was bringing it home to my wife and kids, being stressed and carrying it over from the game or the facility to my wife. I felt like they didn’t deserve that.”
Johnson's wife ended up seeking help for the Texans tailback, contacting a mental conditioning coach to assist the running back into getting back to his feet, psychologically.
Johnson's best days in the NFL were when he was with the Cardinals. Before landing on the Texans, he played from 2015 to 2019 in Arizona and accumulated 3,128 rushing yards and 33 rushing touchdowns. It was also during his time in Arizona that he made his first, and so far only, Pro Bowl appearance.
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