By RYAN ARENA

L’Observateur

EDGARD — Back at home in Edgard, and in the midst of the NFL Lockout, Green Bay Packers’ fullback Quinn Johnson still speaks like a man with his mind set on one goal: the next one.

It could be his next workout. It could be making an impact at training camp once the players and owners settle. His next preseason game, then regular season, then playoff affairs.

One thing is clear when speaking to the former West St. John Ram and LSU Tiger: he’s not one to live in the past. Even if that immediate past includes a certain victory on the sporting world’s biggest stage: the Super Bowl.

“It definitely feels great,” said Johnson, fresh off of sponsoring the Rudolph Dinvaut Golf Tournament with former Rams and Tigers teammate and current NFL colleague Tyson Jackson. “But at the same time, this is only my second year. I want to get more rings. I take this one and appreciate what it took to earn. But I put it on the shelf. I have a lot more to accomplish.”

Johnson’s won championships at every major level now: prep, college, and the pros. But for awhile, it looked like he might have to wait on that last level.

Green Bay stumbled out the gate last season relative to its preseason expectations, beginning 3-3 — that included losses to eventual non-playoff teams like Washington and Miami, with another coming to archrival Chicago on Monday Night Football.

But then, here came the Packers, winners of four straight and immediately back in the conversation for home field throughout the playoffs, boating a 7-3 record as of a Nov. 28 matchup with Atlanta, the holder of the best record in the NFC at the time (and as it would finish).

Atlanta won what was a heartbreaker for the Packers, and two weeks later potential disaster struck when star quarterback Aaron Rodgers was knocked out of a game at Detroit with a concussion. Green Bay lost that one, then another close game a week later at New England without Rodgers.

With six losses and the season on the brink, it was time, Johnson said, for things to change.

“We had a players only meeting,” he said. “And the main thing we got out of that was that people were starting to treat this like a job. We needed it to be fun, and we needed to go out and enjoy playing the game.”

Green Bay responded. It blew out the New York Giants and eeked out a win over Chicago in the season’s final game, 10-3, in a game Chicago didn’t need to win but tried to nonetheless to keep their rival out of the playoffs — a move that, in hindsight, may have indeed been the smart play for coach Lovie Smith.

Johnson’s Packers went through a whirlwind season in some ways. Yet, in others, it had a consistent calmness about it. Through it all Green Bay never trailed by more than seven points in any game of the season. Despite a record indicating the Packers as one of the league’s most inconsistent teams entering the postseason fray as the sixth and final NFC seed, Green Bay’s level of play stayed even.

In the playoffs, Green Bay defeated Philadelphia in a rematch of its season opener, then asserted themselves as a favorite when it decimated top-seeded Atlanta 48-21 in the Georgia Dome. Green Bay advanced to the Super Bowl with a 21-14 rubber match win over Chicago. Johnson helped pave the way – rookie James Starks, who wasn’t active until late in the season, saw his first real extensive action and piled up 263 yards over three games.

But before the Packers would take the field to face the Pittsburgh Steelers in the Super Bowl, Johnson received some disappointing news: he would not be active for the game. The Steelers run defense was the best in football by far, allowing just 62 yards per game — no other team allowed less than 90 per. The Packers, then, went in with a plan to spread the field and attack Pittsburgh’s secondary — the collateral damage was that it deemphasized the fullback position.

Johnson took it in stride.

“I didn’t find out until the day of the game, but I knew it was a possibility,” said Johnson. “I can’t say I was happy. But looking at it, if that’s what it took for us to win the Super Bowl, then I’m on board.”

That’s what the Packers did. Despite losing multiple key players to injury, Green Bay held off a late Steeler rally to win 31-25.

Even as the Packers became more and more depleted even as he saw his team’s 21-3 lead dwindle to 28-25, and even as Ben Roethlisberger and the Steeler offense took over with two minutes left with a chance to win, Johnson said his confidence would not waiver.

“I never thought we’d lose,” he said. “No matter what is going on, you don’t count yourselves out. You expect someone to make a play.”

For Johnson, it’s now on to this season. The Packers are slated to open the regular season as defending champions with a high profile matchup at Lambeau Field — the New Orleans Saints come to town for a clash of the last two Super Bowl champions.

Many from this area would likely be awestruck by such a contest — after all, most grew up Saints fans, so the season opener almost seems like a dream scenario.

But Johnson said that it’s not his way to get caught up in the hype.

“I don’t look at us as the defending champions. I look at it like, okay, it’s another season. There is no champion, it’s up in the air and we have to earn it again. I don’t look at rankings, I don’t even look at our schedule. I just want to know who we play next.”

But even for the focused man who ignores the hype, one bit of off-field attention did indeed touch his heart: the outpouring of support from his family and friends in Edgard, many of whom made the trek to Dallas sporting Quinn-themed shirts.

“It came kind of as a shock,” he said. “It still feels surreal, just seeing everyone so excited about it. But it brought everyone together. And, to me, that what was more exciting about it than anything.”