Up Close: Meet Roughriders receiver KeeSean Johnson
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Any game-day superstitions?
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'Since I had children, I have to talk to my children before I go out there and play, before I leave the locker room … That's who I do it for, obviously. That's what I strive for is to give them the best life.
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'I talk to my mom, talk to my dad. Me and my mom, we say our prayer together; me and my dad, we talk ball together.
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What would you be doing if you weren't playing football?
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'If wasn't playing football, I would probably be coaching or probably helping somewhere with the youth, doing something in that form.
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'That's always something I enjoy is spending time with younger kids and being able to give them something positive and showing them a positive role model.
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'Growing up in a tougher area, obviously you see different things, and you can still, you know, the sky's the limit. You can do whatever you want, whatever you put your mind to. No one tells you no other than yourself.'
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'No, my mom worked so hard to take that stress off of me and just let me and my brother be kids when we were kids and let us focus on school.
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'She worked really hard. That was something that she always took pride in, working really hard and making sure if we do good, we get things that we want. And that's what I kind of try to throw into my kids now — as long as you do what you need to do, I can provide for your life and take stress off you to have you focus on what you what your goals are.'
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'I'm pretty good at bowling. I can say that. I got into that when I was in Philly. One of my teammates, him and his mom took it really serious.
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'I went with them one day and it was like, 'OK, I'm not good at bowling, like at all.' And then it's kind of just, the competitor in me, started to just go, ended up buying my own balls and figuring it out. And now I'm pretty good at bowling.
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'When I'm back home, me and my boys, we tend to have a day here and there to go out and bowl.'
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What else should people know about you?
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'I'm very competitive. I don't like losing. Losing is something that's not in me; I could take it, but it's not in me.
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'I don't like losing; don't like being wrong. I like to go out there and I try to do my best to be right. I try to do my best on the football field.
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'In life, there's obviously ways that you can be wrong and learn different things, but on the football field, I try to do my assignments (and) make sure I know my assignments.'
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