Rob Johnson has some pretty wild tales from the Music City Miracle
Johnson said he did not very much enjoy being Doug Flutie's backup, among other things.
By
Jared Dubin
•
5 min read
Rob Johnson played in the NFL for nine years. He played for five teams and started 29 games. He completed 61.3 percent of his passes for 7.2 yards per attempt and threw 30 touchdowns against 23 interceptions, all of which combined to give him an 83.6 career passer rating.
But pretty much nobody remembers any of that, because Johnson is mostly just known as the quarterback that started for the Buffalo Bills when they lost to the Tennessee Titans on the Music City Miracle. And Johnson, via the Buffalo News (in an oral history of the game that is well worth reading in its entirety), has some pretty wild stories about those days, starting with the story of his reaction when he found out he'd be starting.
Doug Flutie had been starting for the Bills all year, and though his performance was only slightly better than average, he led the team to a 10-5 record. Johnson started the final game of the regular season as Flutie was rested, and Johnson passed for 287 yards and two scores. Unexpectedly, Johnson was then named the starting quarteback for the playoffs.
That Monday, Wade comes up to me and says, “You’re starting.” I said, “You’re joking. Really?” I looked at him and asked, “Is this your call or Ralph’s call?” I can’t believe I said that. I think I was just fed up with the whole year. And he said, “It’s my call.” I was so pumped. I called everyone. I had about 20 people at the game.
Phillips later admitted on NFL Network that it was in fact not his call, and that he'd been ordered by owner Ralph Wilson to start Johnson against the Titans. The players on the team were ... not happy with that development.
- Kicker Steve Christie: It was more of a political decision. In fairness to Ralph Wilson, you don’t make that decision going into the playoffs. You hired your head coach to make that decision. We were in the locker room going “What?!” We thought it was a joke at first. Then we weren’t smiling when we found out this was true.
- Wide receiver Eric Moulds: I kind of knew something was up when my position coach at the time said, “You may not like this decision that’s about to happen.” Then Wade made the announcement in a team meeting. There was complete silence. You could see players looking at each other in confusion.
- Cornerback Donovan Greer: Let’s be honest, Rob had all the tangibles to be a great quarterback but there was something magical about Doug. Whoever’s the best guy, put him in. Guys don’t like the politics in professional sports.
- Moulds again: I felt that with the chemistry myself and Doug Flutie had, it took away from that. When you’ve got chemistry with a quarterback and the offensive line has chemistry, you don’t want to mess with it. So I was shocked like everybody else was because I felt we were on our way to big things.
- Christie again: What do you have to do to keep your starting position? He won 10 games. It really made no sense. No sense whatsoever. And ultimately the football gods made something happen that day.
The year after the Bills and Titans played the famous game, they played each other again during the regular season. The Bills wound up winning, but Johnson said he was later told by then-Titans defensive coordinator and future Bills head coach Gregg Williams that there may have been some shady stuff going on.
The worst one was when we played them the following year on Sunday Night Football. Sometimes in training camp, you’ll have a high school coach or someone help out. And Gregg Williams told me he had a coach in our training camp who knew all of our plays and all of our blocking schemes. We beat ‘em -- karma -- but he had someone in our training camp get all of our plays. It’s crazy. I’ve never heard of anything like that. I was sore for like three weeks after that game. I hope it doesn’t get him in trouble. He can just deny it and say I made it up. I was pissed. I said, ‘Gregg, that sucks.’ They knocked me out.
Johnson also spoke at length about what it was like to be Flutie's backup during that time, and it apparently wasn't all it was cracked up to be. Johnson felt Flutie was not very supportive and that Flutie undermined him in the press.
It was always fine when Doug was playing because he’s not a guy I’d hang out with but when I started to get the reps and attention, there was a lot of whispering behind my back. It was bad. I don’t like that.. I’m a team guy. I never complained outwardly to anyone about Doug playing and me having to sit. … There would be anonymous quotes that I take sacks so I don’t get incompletions for my quarterback rating. That was complete BS. He was not helpful like you think a vet would be to a 25-year-old kid.
I wish I had free run without the most popular guy ever sitting behind you. It would’ve been nice to see what could’ve been. Because every play, I thought I could be pulled. I’d shoot up for practice so I wouldn’t lose my job. It wasn’t a great situation to develop a young quarterback.
Johnson also told the News that he plans on flying back to Buffalo with his kids for a game at some point this season. As for what kind of reaction he'll get, “The fans might boo me,” he said.
