- April 29, 2024
-
-
Loading
Loading
Every Friday night, Warren Sapp II and Andrew Johns put on their battle gear and take to the field together.
Down in the trenches, they fight side-by-side in the mud and sweat — forcing pressure on both ends of the line until finally breaking through no-man’s land and rampaging on to the other side.
Between the two, they have terrorized quarterbacks game in and game out — to the point at which opposing teams go into games knowing their names.
It’s there, on that frontline, where the bond between Sapp and Johns was molded and formed into something more.
“On the field, we are always competing; you can see it in the stats — we’re always neck and neck,” Johns said. “But it’s a healthy competition — it betters our team. When we get on that field and we start making plays, it almost turns into a joke, (because) we’re having so much fun. It’s hard to explain the connection that we have.”
That constant competition has fueled a stats war that has raged all season between the two senior captains, who are among two of the best defensive linemen in the state.
On one end, you have the 6-foot-1, 210-pound Sapp, who, after racking up two sacks in a 61-41 win over West Oaks Academy, now holds a state-best 19 sacks on the season. On the other side you have Johns’ 6-foot, 200-pound frame with a team second-best 17 sacks (two of which he picked up last week).
If you take a peek at the rest of each player’s stat line, you’ll see an incredible amount of similarities.
Throughout the Lions’ nine games, Sapp has picked up 83 total tackles (54 solo), while Johns has amassed 75 total tackles (43 solo). The pair has caused four of the team’s 11 forced fumbles (one for Sapp and three for Johns).
Stats of that magnitude don’t appear overnight — they’re the product of hard work and years of competition between the two that started back in 2016, when Sapp first joined on at Foundation as a sophomore.
“When I came to Foundation the first year, it was a thrilling ride for me, and I met Andrew,” Sapp said. “I tried to beat him in board drills all the time — those were the fun days.”
Although Sapp, the son of NFL Hall-of-Famer Warren Sapp, wasn’t that big of a fan of the sport when he first tried out, these last few years have proven to be bit more enjoyable.
“When I got older and started getting used to it, I started to have more fun,” Sapp said. “It started really getting fun my sophomore year being there with my brothers and all the coaches.”
Unlike Sapp, Johns has been at Foundation for quite a while now — it’s where he got his very first taste of football.
As a kid, Johns competed on the school’s flag football team in fourth grade before making his way to tackle football in middle school. And those early days were not cakewalks, Johns said.
“Then comes the end of my seventh- and eighth-grade year, we would move up and help the varsity team practice,” Johns said. “So you’re going up against what seems to you as huge players, and you’re just getting pile-driven each play.”
Although some players stick to just working together on the field, Sapp and Johns have taken their friendship off the gridiron.
When they are not out practicing or watching game film, the friends spend time hanging out at each other’s homes or grabbing food. Anything they can do together, they do.
“Off the field — oh goodness — we can’t be in the same classroom without making jokes,” Johns said with a laugh. “We have so many inside jokes. All we have to do is look at each other, and we know what we’re thinking. And I think that’s what helps us … off-the-field bonding and connection and that contributes to our success, too.”
“The relationship we have, you cant really explain it — it’s really heart-to-heart,” Sapp said. “I’m proud to call Johns my brother.”
