man, I do it to honor God because I feel like God gave me a second chance at life. And so I feel like I'm doing what God put me on this earth to do. You see, my mother had me when she was 15 years old, right?
Over on the east side of Atlanta, we came up in this neighborhood by the name of Kirkwood, drug dealer on every corner, gang members in the neighborhood, two-bedroom home, 14 people. We used to sleep on the floor. Got the opportunity to sleep in the bed one time out of the week.
There were six of us in the bed, three at the foot, three at the head. And I came up with this dream pretty quick. I said, man, I want to go to the NFL because I had eight uncles in that house, all eight of which are still going in and out of prison.
And so pretty quick, I said, man, I want to go to the NFL. So I went to my big cousin tomorrow night. I said, man, listen, I want to go to the NFL.
So we got to work for this thing. So the thing we're gonna do every night, we're gonna be patient, we're gonna engage in consistent action. Every night we're gonna race light pole to light pole with no shoes.
So every night we would get out on the street, race light pole to light pole. One night a coach came down the street, he signed me and my cousins up for organized sports, right? First time being in organized sports.
We get in organized sports. The thing was, after practice, everybody would leave to go home and I always had to sit on the bench and wait on my mother because she worked that window. And so when my mother would show up in the park, it would be about 10 o'clock, 10.30 at night. So I'm sitting there, and when my mother would pull up, she drove her old Rick Regal hubcaps off the car seats. Growing up, the car was all beat up.
And she would pull up in the park, 10.30 at night. I would jump off the bench. I would spin over to my mother.
I would say, Mom, if you don't mind, can you please sit back in your car and turn on your car lights? I have to do some extra drills. I have to go to the NFL. She would never have to work another day in her life. And I knew my mother was hot.
And every night my mother would sit back in that car and those car lights would hit that field when he had a seven year old kid doing back-pelling drills, running sprints, running laps, chasing his dream to go to the NFL. But just beyond those car lights, I could always connect with my mother's eyes. So it made me dig a little bit deeper, it made me push myself a little bit further, it made me work a little bit harder. It created a certain level of sweat equity in what I was doing.
It created a certain level of pride. And so I went to Crim High School, one of the lowest performing public schools in the whole state of Georgia. Dropout rate higher than the graduation rate. People didn't go to college.
I went to CRIM my first day I walked through the doors a metal detector cop said what's your plan little man? I said my plan is to go D1. He said nah, you'll probably end up in cell block D1.
I said nah, you got the wrong guy. He said nah, you'll probably end up in cell block D1. I said nah, you got the wrong guy.
After my freshman year my mother and father both came to me They said Enki, we're transferring you from this place. You got a scholarship at Tucker High School They said all you have to do is come and play your next three years. They guarantee you a scholarship to Georgia. I said, please, leave me at one of the lowest performing public schools in the whole state of Georgia. I can get a scholarship from this place.
Son, nobody goes to college from there. Please, let me stay here. I can make it from this place.
They transferred me anyway. First football game, tore the ligaments in my ankle out for the season, ended up in a wheelchair. Went back to my parents, will you please transfer me back to one of the lowest performing public schools in the whole state of Georgia?
My pastor said, Inky, you really want to go there? I said, please transfer me back there. I need to go back there.
And so the summer going into my senior year, we got blessed with a new coach. He came to me. I was done with football.
He said, man, please come and work out for me. Just do one workout for me. I said, okay, coach, I'll come out.
I'll work out. I ran a 40-yard dash. I did some cone drills.
He came up to me after the workout. He said, son, what college do you want to go to? I said, man, I just want to go D1.
He said, no, you're not hearing me. Son, what college do you want to go to? I said, man, I just want to go D1.
He said, after the first couple of games, We'll put together a tape and we'll see what happens. After the first two games, I had nine touchdowns. It was all she wrote from there. And I'll never forget the day the University of Tennessee came in and a coach took a chance on me.
He sat down with me and he said, Son, I want to offer you a full scholarship to the University of Tennessee. It was so crazy, I responded and I told him I'm coming. And he laughed. He said, Son, I don't even think you understand how the whole process works.
I said, No, I don't think you understand. I said you talking to a kid that comes from a two bedroom home, 14 people. You're talking to a kid that every morning when I caught the bus, I would race to be the first one at the bus stop. Now I'll be standing there shaking my book bag and my jackets out to make sure there were no roaches and rats.
So when I tell you I am coming, I am coming. You don't even have to waste the university's money. I don't have to see the campus. I don't have to see the city. You offer me a scholarship, I'm coming.
He said yeah, Ink, but I still want you to take an official visit. I agreed. I went up on a Friday night.
I'll never forget they took me to Calhoun's on the river. It's a restaurant in Knoxville, Tennessee. We come out, we got a host, right?
And so the job of a host, that's supposed to show you a great time on campus, take you to parties, make you fall in love with the place. And so I come out with my host and he said, Ink, there's a sorority party, there's a barbecue and there's a basketball game. Which one would you like to go to?
I said, man, if you don't mind, can you take me to my hotel? We pull up to the hotel, I'm getting out of the car. He said, wait, are you sick?
I said, no, I'm not sick. You see what my host didn't understand? That night at the Marriott, that was my first time standing in bed by myself. Think I cared about a sorority party? Think I cared about a barbecue or a basketball game?
But the next day when I saw that coach I thanked him and I still do this until this day when I see him. I said thank you not only for changing my life but changing a whole generation's life that you don't even know you touch. So when I got back to Kirkwood I went to everybody that told me I wouldn't make it. I went to that cop in that lunchroom and I said I told you you had the wrong guy.
So now everybody's response was, Ink why did you fight so hard to come back to Quim High School? You had a guaranteed scholarship across town at one of the top programs. Why did you fight to come back when the dropout rate was higher than the graduation rate, son?
Why did you fight to come back to this place? And I said, you guys are missing the boat. And the thing that people didn't understand, the reason I had that decision and choice to make, it wasn't about Inky Johnson.
Every night I slept on that floor with those roaches and rats. I had three little cousins that slept on that same floor as me. And you know what happened? When I went to college, you know what all three of my... I was the first one in my family to go to college.
You know what all three of my little cousins did? Man, I don't have to sell dope. I don't have to join a gang, I don't have to end up in prison, I don't have to end up dead.
All three of them got up off the same floor, went to college and graduated, and now they serve in the army. That is why I went back to Crim High School. It had nothing to do with me.
If every decision and choice you make is just about you, at a certain point you're going to hit something that's a lot tougher than you, and it's going to make you quit because you don't have a driving force for why you do what you do. But when I got up to the University of Tennessee, it was simple. It was simple for me to give everything I had. My freshman year I played special teams, my sophomore season I broke the star lineup.
had a really strong sophomore season, the summer heading into my junior year I still remember the day while I was sitting in our film room and I was watching film on the California Bears, my defensive backs coach Larry Slade came in the room, he said, Inky I got some good news for you I dropped the clicker, I said what is it? He said man you're projected top 30 draft pick son he said all you have to do is play the next 10 football games, you're an automatic multi-millionaire I went out of the room, I called my mother and my grandmother on the three way I said after this season there will be no more struggling I said we would never miss another meal. I said we would never experience another Christmas where we have to stand on the side of the curve and just be grateful. And I hung it up.
First football game, I went out and played great. Got an interception, shut Cal down. Second game, we're playing against Air Force. Got late in the game, fourth quarter. Guy dropped back, he threw the ball to a receiver coming down my sideline.
Me and the guy, we went head on. Soon as I hit the guy, I felt as if every breath of my body left. Body went completely limp, fell to the ground, I blacked out. Never happened. My eyes open, I'll never forget my teammates ran over, they said, Ink, get up, let's go.
I said, I can't. I can't move. They said, what do you mean you can't move?
You're on lockdown corner, man, we need you, let's go. I said, I know, man, but this time I can't move. I flipped my head up to the sky, I said, God.
I said, surely nothing is happening in this moment that can alter my life. They got me over to the hospital, they took me back, they ran CAT scans, they brought me back into my room, and all in a 15-second time frame. The doctor came running in from the opposite side. He said, hey, get in there. We got to rush this guy back to emergency surgery.
He's about to die. I said, what? He said, son, you have busted up subclavian artery in your chest.
You're bleeding internally. We have to rush you back. Take the main vein out of your left leg, plug it into your chest in order to save your life. When I opened my eyes from recovery, the same doctor was over me. He said, son, I have some good news and some bad news for you.
I said, you got some bad news for me? I have to tell him I was about to die. I'm still alive. How bad can it get? I'm still here.
He said, the good news is we saved your life. I said, thank you, sir. He said, the bad news is, Inc., you have nerve damage in your right shoulder. I said, okay, cool.
He said, but son, it's a strong possibility that you probably can never play the game of football again in your life. I said, no way. I said no disrespect to you doc, but I've been working for this ever since I was seven years old I said no disrespect to you doc, but you wasn't in the park with me and my mother I was seven years old and she was sending that beer we got she got done working at Wendy's no disrespect to you doc But you didn't come up and that two-bedroom home 14 people sleeping on the floor no disrespect to you doc But you didn't miss those meals and stay focused and never made an excuse. I never cheated. I never cheated Like my conscience still until this day won't let me, like I can't cheat.
I can't look myself in the mirror and say, Inc, you did a good job knowing that I cheat. I can't cheat. One of the greatest pieces of advice that my mother gave me was this, Son, whenever you start, you make sure you finish.
And the problem with the world today, people get involved with things and if they don't like a certain person, if they don't like the process, if it's not what they thought it was, they quit. And what they don't understand about quitting, quitting becomes a habit that doesn't just affect you. Later on in life when you get a wife and you get some kids or you get a family, it's going to come back to haunt you and it will one day affect them. That is why I tell you the process is more important than the...
product it's not even about the outcome for me it's about can you take pride in what you do as an individual and every night when you look in the mirror knowing that you gave everything you had to it and we have to get to the point where we're willing to impose our will on certain things impose your will your will on it my life totally changed and they gave me an opportunity to stop and most people when you give them an opportunity to stop while they're chasing something they take advantage of it because they feel as if man why did this have to happen to me I felt as if why not me this is the perfect opportunity to use this to be a blessing to somebody else and you know what it's not even about me to be truthful it's not even about me now it's about repairing the people that invested in me and saw something in me when I couldn't see it in myself at a certain point in life It can't just be about you. In the moment that we understand that and every day we wake up, we understand that life is a blessing and life is a gift. And if you were to check out today, how would you want to be remembered? It's bigger than you.
And no money doesn't have to be attached to it. It's about learning to work from the inside out in life and not from the outside in. When you work from the inside out in life, you understand your why, you understand your how, and you understand your what.