How a Packer legend guided KJ Osborn to the NFL
Four-time Pro Bowl running back Ahman Green was a mentor to Osborn from an early age
By Matthew Coller
EAGAN — Before the Minnesota Vikings played the Green Bay Packers at Lambeau Field last year, KJ Osborn took a minute to himself to look around and think about how far he had come. The last time he was there was the same day that Osborn truly knew that he wanted to play in the NFL.
It was Green Bay’s annual Family Night during training camp 2009. Osborn stood on the field at the hallowed grounds at Lambeau Field and looked around in a circle. The stands were packed. Fireworks exploded overhead. The video board played highlights as We Are the Champions by Queen blared over the loudspeaker.
Yeah, that’s the life he wanted.
“It was surreal,” Osborn said on Friday. “That’s kind of when I knew.”
Osborn was on the field that night because he’d been invited by Packers running back Ahman Green. The four-time Pro Bowler’s brother was in the Army with Osborn’s Godfather Steve. The families were so close that everybody thought of everybody else as brother, dad, uncle, cousin, nephew.
KJ, Steve and Steve’s son EJ made trips to Lambeau with Green providing tickets to games, though the kids still rooted for their hometown Detroit Lions.
“I was like, wait a minute, I’m giving y’all tickets to our games and you’re still rooting for the Lions?” Green said laughing on the Purple Insider podcast. “‘Yeah, we’re Lions fans all day Ahman.’ I’m like come on. It was fun and that’s how we got to know each other.”
At one point, Steve told the Packers’ all-time leading rusher that KJ and EJ were showing signs of having some special athletic ability. Steve asked the boys if they were interested in trying to play in the NFL someday and they both said yes. So he asked Green if he might be willing to work with them.
Since you already know that Osborn made the NFL, it doesn’t seem quite as crazy to think about him making the league until you consider that the odds of a junior high football player someday being drafted are astronomical. Only 6.5% of high school players play in college and only 1.2% of those players end up getting drafted.
But Ahman took the request seriously.
The summer after he retired from the NFL, Green had the time to work with a couple of kids with big dreams and it gave him something to focus on other than video games. So KJ and EJ spent several weeks with him in the summer in Wisconsin before the 2010 season to work out with Green and find out what the life of an NFL player was like.
Green wanted the boys to wake up early and get right into their cardio, agility and endurance training. When they weren’t arriving on time, the Packers legend had a heart-to-heart with the kids.
“I was like, ‘Hey, let’s have a talk, if y’all are serious about this, you have to be here on time because I could be playing video games right now, I could be doing something way better than this,’” Green said. “From that conversation, I could see him flip the switch.”
Suddenly KJ started running through Green’s hilly neighborhood like Rocky, leading the way. He began paying attention to everything Green did to get himself in NFL shape.
“When he’d be working out with us and you’d see it,” Osborn said. “I remember we were doing a ladder drill and I’m just going through the ladder like bah, bah, bah, whatever and he goes and it’s like, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, it’s like 100 percent. It’s like, we’re in the offseason and nobody is looking and we’re just doing a warm-up and he’s going 100 percent.”
Green started to get the sense that something special in KJ when his young pupil wanted to understand parts of the game that often take kids until college to grasp.
“He’s asking me about coverages, ‘What’s a cover-2 like? What’s a cover-3 look like? What happens when the DB is pressing you in man [coverage]?How should I get out of that?’” Green said.
Osborn said he wanted to take full advantage of his unique opportunity to hang around with one of the best athletes in the world and soak up all the information he could get his hands on.
“That’s the dream as a kid talking to an NFL person, I want to know everything,” Osborn said. “I want to know every detail. It’s cool running the plays and the facilities and cars and fans but I want to know the work, the X’s and O’s and what goes on inside the facility, reading coverages and all types of different things. That was something I wanted to pick his brain. Not everybody knows Ahman Green, not everybody has that relationship with him so I just wanted to pick his brain. He was so open to me and my friend EJ to answer any and all questions.”
The summer KJ, EJ and Ahman shared together wasn’t entirely spent grinding. They would take the hour ride to Green’s lake house to jet ski and hang out. On the way there and back, Green would talk with the boys about his life as a pro athlete and the things they needed to do in order to get there. How to carry yourself away from the field. The importance of getting good grades. How to take care of you body. How handle social media and stay focused.
Osborn took those conversations with him as he earned a scholarship to IMG Academy in Florida and then was recruited by Lance Leipold at the University of Buffalo. He eventually transferred in his final season to Miami, where he emerged as an NFL prospect and was drafted by the Vikings in the fifth round.
Along the way, Green always picked up the phone when KJ called.
“I called him when I had questions about where to train for the Combine, how to get an agent, what are the things I should be looking for when handling money in Year 1, getting to the facility, situations that happen in the locker room or on the field, how do I handle that,” Osborn said. “If I’m feeling this way, how do I go about this. He’s been in it. He’s done it. He’s been in my shoes so he’s a point of reference. I can’t call my mom or dad to ask them that. I can’t call my uncle or my best friend, I have to call someone who’s done it. I’m blessed enough to have that relationship with him.”
Green, who now does a Packers podcast and works as an Esports coach, has enjoyed watching from afar as KJ has emerged as the Vikings’ No. 3 receiver. He has 29 catches for 341 yards and a game-winning touchdown against the Carolina Panthers.
“All that hard work and effort is coming through,” Green said. “This is just the start. He’s going to continue to ascend.”
On Sunday, Osborn will have another moment to look around in a circle and take in the fact that he’s playing in a Vikings-Packers game after having grown up learning the ropes from one of Green Bay’s greats.
He’ll be able to reflect on how unlikely it was that the 13-year-old kid who was in awe of Lambeau Field would some day be playing against Aaron Rodgers, who was quarterbacking the Packers on that memorable Family Night.
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Great story... KJ also worked his butt off this last offseason with a lot of top stars...And focused a lot on learning their mindset... A very impressive young man