Gary Kubiak on Pro Football Hall of Fame wide receiver Andre Johnson: ‘This guy is special, he stood the test of time’

CANTON, Ohio – Gary Kubiak had a couple of missed telephone calls while traveling with his wife, Rhonda.

It was Andre Johnson, and he had an important request.

In trademark fashion, Johnson, a man of few words with a quiet, intense personality, cut right to the chase when Kubiak, the former Texans coach, and Johnson, a retired All-Pro wide receiver, connected.

“I said, ‘Hey, bud what’s up?’ He said, ‘Hey, Gary, I want you to present me to the Hall of Fame,’” Kubiak recounted to KPRC 2 in an interview at his ranch north of Montgomery County. “I literally about fell out of my chair. It was very emotional for me. Probably the biggest compliment I’ve ever been paid from a player. That’s why you coach. You hope you make a difference in players’ lives and stuff.

“I really didn’t know what to say. I said to Andre: ‘Andre, you’re going to make me cry. It’s just a powerful moment. Makes you feel good about all the years and all the things you did to know that. I know how much it meant to me. That’s pretty cool.”

And, now, the moment has arrived. Kubiak is presenting Johnson into the Pro Football Hall of Fame on Saturday.

The Texans’ first player to be enshrined in Canton, Johnson was a dominant presence on the field feared by defensive backs for his size, strength, speed, polished moves and veteran savvy.

“So, this will be a very special moment,” Kubiak said. “I’ve been fortunate enough to go there for a lot of players and sit in the stands. For the first time, we get to walk up on stage. It’s all about him. I’m so happy for him and his mom and his family. Really, I’m happy for the city of Houston because in a lot of ways you’re going to bring a whole city with him to Canton.”

When Kubiak arrived in Houston as the second head coach in franchise history after Dom Capers, he immediately set in motion the playbook that boosted Johnson’s career into one of the most prolific wide receivers in league history.

Drafted third overall in the first round out of the University of Miami, Johnson quickly became the cornerstone of the Texans’ offense.

“When I got there, obviously he was the big piece of the team,” Kubiak said. “The minute I met Andre, just all business, all about what can we do to make the team successful. Probably, the first time I ever saw him practice is when I knew this guy is special. I’ve been around some Hall of Fame players, fortunate enough to do that in my career. And I told the coaches real quick, ‘Guys, you know, I know we got a long way to go, but this guy is special now.’ So, they built around him.

“I said ‘Andre, listen, the key to your career is going to be your ability to move around. So, I’m going to really challenge you mentally. I’m going to play inside out and put you in the backfield. We’re going to do everything with you because I got to get you involved for us to have a chance. And the best way for me to do that is to make it hard for defensive people. Andre can walk in a meeting room, without a pen and paper and just listen to you and take it right to the field. He had the IQ of a quarterback, and, that’s why he was such a great player.”

Johnson, 43, was an extremely imposing and strong wide receiver. At 6-foot-3, 229 pounds, Johnson was bigger and more powerful than his competition. Kubiak thinks he could even have played tight end, if he had bulked up.

“Could have been a Hall of Fame tight end, he had that type of body if he wanted to put on 20 pounds, I mean, he had great size for the position,” Kubiak said. “He was extremely powerful. And, what I mean by that is if you if you played off of him as a defensive back, his power would get up on top of it.

“Scared the hell out of you in a heartbeat. So, if you change your tactics and you went up there bumping, well, he would throw you all over the place. He was an extreme talent with his size and his power, his speed. But I’m going to go back to his football IQ and the way he understood the game. You don’t find that all those traits in one guy very often, but, he had it all.”

There was no route that wasn’t a good strategy for Kubiak to employ when it came to Johnson.

He lined him up everywhere, encouraging him to learn every position on the offense. He even lined up in the backfield.

“Everything we did, I tried to get him the ball,” Kubiak said. “Even if you threw it to him ten times in a game, you still wanted to get it to him a few more. Our franchise our team, was about No. 80.”

Johnson played with multiple quarterbacks. His most lasting and productive collaboration was with Matt Schaub.

“I think they just kind of both were in the right in the prime of their career, the right time, you know?” Kubiak said. “We’re fortunate to catch Matt at the right time in his career. You know, we became a pretty good football team. He was a big-play guy. That’s what I will always remember about him. He made big plays. He pushed the ball down the field.”

And Kubiak has planned a special speech that he taped with the Hall of Fame to honor Johnson.

“I went through a lengthy, probably three or four process of just basically being interviewed,” Kubiak said. “And there were things within the course that they want you to say at the end of the presentation and stuff, but for the most part, they let you kind of tell your story and they’ll go piece it together. They’re in charge of that, I’m sure. Hopefully it’ll be good. For me, it was easy. I wanted to relay how much he meant to that franchise because I watched it. That was important to me. I wanted to relay, just how great a player he was in an environment maybe that wasn’t so great for a period of time until it got pretty good, you know? So, all those things.

“It’ll be a special day, to be the first Houston Texan to be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. That’s really, really special. But you know what? Damn it, he deserves to be the first. The only thing missing from Andre’s career was probably that he wasn’t on a championship team. I’m sure he’s on one now.”

Johnson was a seven-time Pro Bowl selection, a two-time All-Pro who finished his career with 1,062 catches for 14,185 yards and 70 touchdowns.

Johnson didn’t always have a lot to say, but that quiet nature belied his bold actions on the field.

“When he spoke, everybody just turned their head because he didn’t do it too much,” Kubiak said. “Throughout my career, some of these guys I’ve run across, whether it was Jerry Rice in San Francisco, Shannon Sharpe or Terrell Davis, they’re tremendous. Kind of set an example that people couldn’t keep up with. And every great one that I’ve ever been with that I ever, ever went to Canton to watch worked just like Andre Johnson worked. He stood the test of time.”

Aaron Wilson is a Texans and NFL reporter for KPRC 2 and click2houston.com