SportsPlace InterviewZone Exclusive: Fred Johnus, 7-time MVP

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SportsPlace InterviewZone: Fred Johnus needs no introduction, of course, but just for fun: Fred, how would you introduce yourself?

Fred Johnus: I am a man. I was here, once. I ran, I sweated, I loved, I cried. My heart was not pure, but it was honest. My successes belong to the fans, and my failures are my own. When I pass on, my successes will remain, and I will carry my failures with me to the next life, where I will atone for them.

SPIZ: ...That's really intense! I would have maybe said something about how you're arguably the best goalball player to ever live.

Fred: I do not believe that I am, but I have learned not to argue with those who claim this.

SPIZ: Um, okay. So, tell me about how you got started playing goalball.

Fred: In my youth, I would play goalball in the park with the other children. Life was simpler then. There was no league to keep score. No bitter rivalries. Nothing to worry about but the setting of the sun, and not being late for dinner. Sometimes we would go to the corner store, and George would buy us each a soda, from the fountain. George's parents were quite wealthy, and gave him generous pocket money.

SPIZ: That sounds really nice!

Fred: George died in the war. A sniper's bullet does not stop to check how much money your parents have.

SPIZ: Oh no!

Fred: If he is looking down on us now, I want him to know I am still grateful. I still remember your kindness, George. May your memory live on forever.

SPIZ: Uh. So you played college goalball before signing with the Lizards, right?

Fred: Yes.

SPIZ: What was that like?

Fred: I remember it like a mirage. In the distance I can see my two selves. A young man eager to learn, wearing spectacles. He writes journal entries and thoughtful essays, he devours books like he's afraid his brain will starve.

The other young man is anxious to prove himself. He runs, he leaps, he trains every night. He barely sleeps. He works his body to its limits and beyond. He hardens himself, fearful of weakness, fearful of vulnerability.

In the end, the anxious man kills the young man that is eager to learn. He buries the corpse deep inside himself. He closes his eyes and his heart. There can only be strength, and success.

SPIZ: Oh my god.

Fred: He is a fool. His ideas of strength, his threshold for success, they are illusions. Smoke blown in his face from the cigars of powerful men, who see him as a beast of burden, a resource to be exploited. They laugh at his blindness.

SPIZ: So. So, uh, you got signed to the Death Valley Exclusion Zone Lizards, after college.

Fred: Correct.

SPIZ: Tell me. About that?

Fred: Having shed the skin of education, the snake can move unrestricted. The bites come faster, the venom runs deeper. The poison makes a home inside, it will never leave.

SPIZ: What?

Fred: It's a metaphor.

SPIZ: Right, I understand that. I'm just not clear what it means.

Fred: Without the pretense of college education, the sports industry was more ruthless and uncompromising. In the snake metaphor, the venom is the lasting trauma I endured during my career, to my body as well as my mind.

SPIZ: I see. Thank you for explaining.

Fred: A lesson cannot be taught in darkness. The light of truth is harsh, but necessary.

SPIZ: Are you okay?

Fred: Do I fucking sound okay, man?

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