Me-Shawn no longer; Johnson cares about wins, not stats

Johnson doesn't run away from defenders; he uses his smarts, his big body and his precise route running. In his first 10 seasons, he caught at least 70 passes in eight of them. The only two times he didn't were in his rookie season when he caught 63 and in 2003 when Tampa Bay deactivated him for the final six games for insubordination.

That consistency is something Johnson is proud to talk about. In doing so, he takes his hand and flattens it out in front of him and moves it across his body from right to left to show his career pattern -- one straight line.

"Look at it," Johnson said. "There are no ups and downs. When I play, I put up numbers. There aren't a lot of guys who can say that for as long as I've done it. It's the same every year."

If you think Johnson sounds like he thinks highly of his abilities, it's because he does. Some of the best conversations I've had with any NFL player have been with Johnson. A couple of years ago when he was with Tampa Bay, he insisted that he was better than cousin Chad Johnson of the Bengals.

To prove his point, he talked about how Chad Johnson got all his catches because at the time the Bengals were playing from behind. Last year, I asked him if still thought he was better than Chad.

"Look at the system he plays in," Johnson said. "He's going to get catches."

So I guess the answer is yes. We won't go that far, but it's hard to find a receiver who plays with more desire.

With his team's season on the line last week, he came up big.

"When you're 0-2 ... it wouldn't have mattered who we were playing," Panthers coach John Fox said. "We were going to lean on Keyshawn big."

What's interesting is this was to be his supporting actor role, which it still might be. But Smith was out the first two weeks with a hamstring injury, making Johnson the go-to guy. Smith caught seven passes last week in his return, which will make Johnson even better.

Smith is the deep speed, Johnson the underneath guy who does the dirty work. With Smith taking coverage deep, it should open up things for Johnson underneath, making him a perfect complement.

"I can't wait to the little man is all the way back," Johnson said pointing over at Smith. "We're going to do some big things."

In the week leading up to Sunday's game, there was a lot made of Johnson returning to Tampa to play the Bucs. After all, he helped the Bucs win a Super Bowl in 2002 but then was dumped the following year after coach Jon Gruden and general manager Rich McKay deemed him a distraction. At the time, Johnson thought he was underused.

So he went home, with pay, and sat out the rest of the season, setting up a week of stories leading up to last Sunday's game.

The more mature Johnson downplayed it all. Before the game, he said this was not a T.O.-returns-to-Philly situation. It's hard to believe this is the same player who was a walking sound bite early in his career, which made him a media darling in New York.

"To win this football game was really the most important thing right now," Johnson said. "Outside of that, all the other stuff is really for Internet chatting and people that want to write on the Internet, newspapers and televisions. ... For me, it was just another team and trying to get a win. I didn't come here at 3 o'clock in the morning and turn on the lights and sit in the stadium. It wasn't like that. I didn't drive by One Buc and say, 'Wow, I used to be in the building.'"

No, he did what he does best: He helped his team win a game.

At 34, he can still do that. His per-catch average of 15.2 this season is the highest of his career, which shows that he's still playing at a high level.

"It's about getting the job done," Johnson said. "That's what I do. You look at what I've done. I'm a player."

The kind you have to have to win.