NFL vet gives back to Notre Dame with free camp

Fighting Irish alum Patrick Johnson of the Eagles helps 70 youngsters polish their football skills

By Dan McWilliams

NFL veteran Patrick Johnson, a 2017 graduate of Notre Dame High School in Chattanooga, gave back to his alma mater June 20 by hosting a free football camp attended by 70 boys and girls from around the city.

Mr. Johnson, also an alum of St. Jude School in Chattanooga, is a 6-foot-3, 248-pound outside linebacker for the Philadelphia Eagles, who drafted him in the seventh round out of Tulane University in 2021. He played for the Eagles through September 2024, then appeared in 12 games for the New York Giants for the remainder of the season. On March 14, he signed a one-year contract with the Eagles, who are the defending Super Bowl champions.

He was enthusiastic about his first youth camp at Notre Dame, held on the school’s Hunter Field and Jim Eberle Field.

“It’s been so much fun. We have kids from all around the city coming, kids who we weren’t expecting to show up, which I just love even more, that they feel comfortable enough and their parents feel comfortable enough to bring them out here and trusting me with the kids,” Mr. Johnson said. “It’s huge—I can finally give back to the teachers, the coaches, the kids who helped build me and made me throughout my life. The chance to come out here has just been great.”

He said he “expects to do more camps in the years to come.”

Campers at Notre Dame during a break gathered around Mr. Johnson and asked him a number of questions, including how long he has played football (since age 6), how he handles distractions, who he found most challenging to defend in the NFL (Tom Brady), how much he bench-presses (365 pounds), who his least-favorite NFL team is (Dallas), and which was the best high-school team he faced while at Notre Dame (Alcoa).

He was also asked about NFL standout running back Saquon Barkley and the toughest teams he played against in college, which included Oklahoma with Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Baker Mayfield in 2017, Ohio State in 2018, and Auburn in 2019.

Mr. Johnson, 27, is the fourth Notre Dame graduate to play in the NFL. Pat McHugh played for the Eagles from 1947-51. Reggie Mathis played for the New Orleans Saints from 1979-81 before going to the New Jersey Generals (1983) and the San Antonio Gunslingers (1985), both of the USFL. He later played in the Canadian Football League with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats (1985) before finishing his career in the Arena Football League with the Detroit Drive (1988-90).

Kareem Orr of Notre Dame played for the Tennessee Titans from 2019-20 and the Los Angeles Rams in 2021, winning a Super Bowl ring with the latter team. He was briefly a member of the XFL’s Seattle Sea Dragons in 2023. Notre Dame alum Adarius Bowman played in the CFL from 2008-18 and again in 2022, winning a Grey Cup with the Edmonton Eskimos in 2015.

Mr. Johnson said he remembered “every single teacher who I’ve had here at Notre Dame and St. Jude,” including his high school head coach, Charles Fant, who led the Fighting Irish from 2012-23 and was an assistant at Mr. Johnson’s camp last month. He also mentioned camp helpers Bo Campbell, a Notre Dame football assistant coach, and Jason Campbell.

“The list can go on and on and on. Bo Campbell and Coach Fant here, Jason Campbell, all of them—for them to come out here and help me out and set all this up, even the new coaches here, has been great. I’m really blessed to have them in my life,” said Mr. Johnson, who also wrestled and played baseball, basketball, and golf at Notre Dame.

He said he was thankful for his Catholic education, which spanned from pre-kindergarten through eighth grade at St. Jude to all four years at Notre Dame.

“They really taught me how I want to live my life, living by my faith, putting God first, and making sure I’m doing things that He would want me to do in my life, just to touch others,” Mr. Johnson said. “Any way I can touch others, especially with stuff like this camp, seeing smiles on kids makes it good for me.”

Mr. Johnson is back with the Eagles this season.

“I’m going into year five with them now. It’s been great. I love the organization. They’ve always treated me with respect. It’s another reason why I came back,” he said. “We have a really good team, coming off a Super Bowl win. I think we’re all done talking about it now, moving forward, because it’s one thing to win a championship. It’s hard to repeat, so we’re going to try and do it twice. We say, ‘Let’s not be the hunted. Let’s be the hunters.’ That’s the approach we’re going to take for this year, and that’s what we’re looking forward to.”

The Notre Dame grad set the career record for quarterback sacks with 24.5 at Tulane, where he played from 2017-20.

“I had a pretty nice career, I would say, and got drafted in the seventh round by the Philadelphia Eagles. And now I’m going on to year five with them,” Mr. Johnson said.

The NDHS alum played at Tulane with Chase Kuerschen, a safety who graduated from Knoxville Catholic High School in 2017. Both played in the Toyota East-West All-Star Classic held at Tennessee Tech in Cookeville on Dec. 9, 2016.

“My boy Chase—we came in together” at Tulane, Mr. Johnson said. “Chase was like the very first person I knew when we hit campus. We played in the All-Star game together at Tennessee Tech. I got the chance to sit down and talk with him and have lunch with him, so that was pretty cool. He had committed to Tulane at the time. We were kind of committed at the same time, so obviously we hit each other up, and so when we got to campus we hit it off, great guy.

“If I’m not wrong, (the All-Star Game) is actually how my coaches at Tulane found me. They were actually watching Chase’s film, and I caught their eye. Being at Notre Dame, it’s not a huge school. Obviously, we have good football around here, but it’s hard to get eyes on you by all the coaches around the country.”

Mr. Johnson’s mother, Leah, had mentioned Tulane to him, he said.

“She said, ‘Are you going to look at Tulane?’ I’m like, ‘I don’t really even know where Tulane is. I don’t think so, Mom,’ because I’m having all these other offers. And sure enough, when she said that, Mom always gets what she wants. Once she said you’re going there, I said all right,” Mr. Johnson said.

Patrick Johnson is the son of Leah and the late Kevin Johnson, whom he called a “huge role model” in life. Mrs. Johnson and Patrick’s grandfather, “Papaw” Jerry Fitzgerald, parishioners of St. Jude in Chattanooga, also attended the football camp at Notre Dame.

Having a grandson in the NFL “feels great,” Mr. Fitzgerald said. “I’m proud of him. He works really hard.”

The grandfather said Mr. Johnson’s time at Notre Dame helped him prepare for professional football “without a doubt, quite a bit. Coach Fant and the whole coaching staff played a big role in that,” he said.

Mrs. Johnson said she is “very proud” of her son.

“His hard work has definitely paid off,” she said.

Patrick Johnson is Mrs. Johnson’s middle child, coming between two daughters. His being in the NFL is “very surreal” but “wonderful, getting to see any of my kids be able to fulfill childhood dreams,” Mrs. Johnson said.

She said her son’s years at NDHS “definitely prepared him for college. When he went away to Tulane, I remember him calling me up shortly after he started and thanking us for sending him here (Notre Dame). He saw how much more prepared he was for that level of education compared with some of his classmates and teammates.”

Brian Gill, director of athletics at Notre Dame, said the Patrick Johnson camp “is great for our school, great for our football program, just to have him come in here and do a free clinic. This is all free, for anybody in the public who could come out to it. It’s great for our school, and we thank him for doing that and giving back.”

The turnout was also great, Mr. Gill said, “just a great day for Notre Dame and Notre Dame football.”