It was a suitably overcast, foggy day when my favourite Micah Johnson quote came to mind.

“There ain’t no sunlight down there.”

Those words were uttered in late June of 2024, when I asked the veteran Saskatchewan Roughriders defensive tackle to describe life in the trenches.

Johnson capped that season by being named an All-CFL selection for the fourth time. He cracked the select squad once more in 2025 — a championship season for the Green and White.

Then, still at the top of his game at 37, he retired as a player to become the Roughriders’ Defensive Line Coach. The announcement was made over the noon-hour on Monday, not long before it began to snow in the greater Regina area — not a sunkissed region at the time of this writing.

This scribbler dealt with a flurry of emotions while capsulizing the career of one of the finest defensive linemen I have seen in 50-plus years as a devotee of Canadian professional football.

Yet, some of my favourite memories were created in non-game situations.

Interviewing him — or simply chatting with him on an informal basis — was always a joy.

We take you back to the aforementioned story, pertaining to the jousts between offensive and defensive linemen.

“It’s the darkest trenches,” said Johnson, instantly warming to the subject. “You’re down there in Mariana’s Trench.

“There ain’t no sunlight down there. You’ve got to fight for your damn life, bro.”

In hindsight, Johnson should have received a writing credit for the story, which quickly became a stenographic exercise on my part.

I could at least take credit for the story idea, except for the fact that it was suggested by Arielle Zerr.

Arielle (Director of Communications) and Micah both joined the Roughriders organization in 2019. From the outset, Arielle spoke highly of Micah as a person and a personality.

It wasn’t until being hired by the Roughriders in 2023 that I really got to know and appreciate Micah.

His talents on the field are well documented. Five All-CFL selections. Seven divisional nods. Three Grey Cup championships. Et cetera.

But he is every bit as remarkable off the field.

As a player ambassador for the Saskatchewan Roughrider Foundation, he instantly connected with youngsters while visiting schools to promote mental health (via the Win With Wellness initiative) and literacy (Rider Reading).

He also did his part for literacy by providing instant gold every time an interview was requested.

Again, we refer to a line of work that entails scrapping and clawing along the line of scrimmage.

“I think it’s fun,” Johnson said with a smile. “I like it. I think you survive longer if you like it. If you don’t like it, it almost gets worse, so you’ve got to embrace it and enjoy it.

“I’m going to hit the guy in front of me harder than he’s going to hit me. I think it boils down to not just doing it once. It comes down to who can do it over and over and repeatedly do it.

“Thankfully, I’ve been one of the guys who can do it.”

Or there’s this — extracted from an interview conducted during my first month as the team’s resident Senior Journalist (translation: old) and Roughrider Historian (really old).

“Week in and week out, you have to game-plan for me,” Johnson said in March of 2023. “If you don’t, I’m going to wreck the game. If you leave me one-on-one more than you double-team me, I’ll wreck the game, and that still goes.”

Later that year, we discussed his family’s decision to make Regina a year-round home, even though the alternative was a winter (?) in Florida.

“Last year was kind of the tipping point for me, living in Hamilton,” Johnson, who spent the 2022 season with the Tiger-Cats before rejoining the Roughriders, said in October of 2023.

“I was paying for my rent in Hamilton and I was paying for the mortgage back at the crib (in Florida). I was constantly sending money … and then the Canadian dollar drops. It’ll turn into a crazy situation where $15,000 or $20,000 is vanishing.

“My wife understood that, and now I can do more for her.”

Johnson’s wife, Saqouya, was present at Monday’s announcement, along with the couple’s four children — JaCorian, Micah Jr., Jaxson and Kaleia.

An impressive athlete in his own right, JaCorian (a.k.a. J.C.) now proudly represents the LeBoldus Golden Suns in Regina High Schools Athletic Association competition.

Time does fly. Rare is the active professional football player who has a teenaged son. An even more exclusive group consists of defensive players who have earned All-CFL recognition at age 37.

The list consists of Micah Johnson.

Truly one of a kind.