WR Johnson lightens up with Foster, Ed Reed

HOUSTON Sometimes, Andre Johnson says, will get a text message from Arian Foster and he will open it and it will turn out to be a photo of Foster feeding ducks or something. "You get a text message from your teammate and you're thinking it's something important or something they have to say, and it's a picture of feeding ducks," he said. "I don't know what that was all about. He does stuff like that." This says a lot about Foster, the thoughtful Texans running back who often answers Twitter messages with an Indian saying (Namaste, which means, "I recognize your existence.) and generally carries himself like a guy trying to make sure his identity is not wrapped up entirely in football. "Some people say he's different," Johnson said. "He's a cocky guy, but I don't think he's cocky in a bad way." But it also says a lot about Johnson, who speaks quietly and not very often. He is the kind of guy his friends like to mess with, because it's fun to see if they can get a rise out of him. This includes Foster, and it includes Baltimore Ravens safety Ed Reed, who was a teammate of Johnson's at Miami. After Foster scored a touchdown in the Texans' wild card-round win over the Cincinnati Bengals last Saturday, he walked over to Johnson and took a bow, which is his signature touchdown celebration. "I was just like, Man, get out of my face,'" Johnson said. "He's always bothering me for some reason." Johnson plays this for laughs. He is not trying to make anybody think he doesn't like Foster. It's just that his serious nature has turned him into something of a pin cushion to his buddies. He is anticipating similar treatment this Sunday from Reed, whom he considers one of his best friends. "Sometimes I hate playing against him because he cracks jokes when we're out on the field," Johnson said. Johnson was asked what sorts of things Reed considered good jokes during the course of a football game. The question was difficult to answer. "He just messes with you, because he knows I don't talk very much," Johnson said. "He'll just say something to try to get me to respond to him. He'll say my name in a funny way or something. We had two guys we went to school with, and every time they called my name, they had these squeaky little voices. Every time he calls me, he always mocks those guys. He'll probably call my name a few times Sunday." As for a response? Well, Reed figures to get the same treatment as Foster's ducks. "I just don't respond," Johnson said.