ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. (AP) - Buffalo Bills receiver Steve Johnson’s T-shirt said it all.
Walking to the microphone before practice Wednesday, Johnson sported a shirt with the words “It’s all good” emblazoned across the chest.
“Yeah I’ve been able to put it behind me,” Johnson said. “I haven’t forgotten about it, but I’m ready to move on from it.”
“It” is Johnson’s costly endzone drop in overtime Sunday that prevented the Bills from upsetting the Pittsburgh Steelers, and the ensuing public storm that engulfed him after news circulated of the message he posted on his Twitter account an hour after the game, wondering how God could do this to him.
An upbeat Johnson talked candidly Wednesday about the drop and his controversial tweet.
“God is everything,” he said. “I feel like he’s the Creator, and he’s 100 percent good. I simply just asked why. I was not blaming him or any of that. Why would I? But it happened, and the way people took it, is the way they took it. They can say what they want, it’s fine with me. I’m still going to keep doing what I have to do to keep being a good receiver.”
Johnson’s been much more than a good receiver for the Bills. He’s emerged as quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick’s go-to guy, and leads the team with 59 receptions, 796 yards and nine touchdowns.
But it’s the would-be 10th touchdown falling out of his grasp that’s taught Johnson that sometimes he isn’t in the driver’s seat with what transpires on the field.
“When plays are called, I just felt like I was in control,” he said. “But when it came down to (making the play), I didn’t. So I’m not in control of that.”
Though the drop has been on countless highlight shows over the last couple of days, Johnson said he hasn’t seen it on television, nor does he necessarily want to.
“I didn’t try to avoid it,” he said. “I was in the play, so I know exactly what happened.”
Johnson said he’s been getting a tremendous amount of support from his teammates, friends, family, and even Buffalo’s all-time leading receiver, Andre Reed, who called Johnson Tuesday.
“He just said it happens to the best of us,” Johnson said.
Fitzpatrick once again rallied around Johnson, and said he’s confident the 2008 seventh-round draft pick will show no ill-effects Sunday when Buffalo (2-9) plays at the Minnesota Vikings (4-7).
“In the NFL, you can’t get too high and you can’t get too low,” Fitzpatrick said. “I think the message that everybody has tried to give to him and the message in general to the team is move on, and that’s what we’re going to do.”
This is the second instance where controversy swirled around a tweet made by a Bill. Rookie running back C.J. Spiller apologized for using a derogatory term toward gays that he posted to his Twitter account last month.
Johnson didn’t regret posting his Sunday tweet, and said if he had Twitter back in high school, he would have said the same thing if he failed a test. But Johnson understands now that public figures have become that much more public in this day and age of social networking.
“We’re an internet generation now, and maybe I shouldn’t have done it,” he said. “It’ll take a while for me to get back into it, but I’ll still be the same person.”
The Bills hope he’s the same receiver that’s been posting big numbers on the field.
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