Emotional return for Ben Johnson to Ford Field means beating 'family'

“We texted back and forth a few weeks ago," Johnson said of Campbell. "We have been in touch. That friendship is always going to be there. I view him like family and I think he would tell you the same thing. That will never change.

"We have fond memories of back when I was just a young, snot-nosed computer punk, as he likes to call it, in Miami. We’d both grown up in this profession of coaching; he’d been in it for a long time as a player and we’ve both come a long way. So you look back at that Miami staff back in 2012 and 2013 and there were a lot of really good coaches on that staff. That’s part of the journey is seeing where everyone goes.”

A Detroit writer at Halas Hall on Wednesday was looking out for the Detroit fans and asked Johnson if he ever took into account what leaving there would mean to them.

“I would say this: Yeah, everything last year ran through my head, and that was one of the unfortunate parts of making that decision was you were saying goodbye to a lot of friends and a great place," Johnson said. "My family, myself, we’ve got a lot of strong relationships there in that community.

"Hopefully that continues to stay that way as well. But we felt like this was the best opportunity for myself and my family and we were really excited about coming to Chicago. At times you have to make tough decisions and that’s really how that went down.”

Beyond that, the fact he knows Detroit so well helps especially in the personnel aspect.

Often coaches will try to squeeze information on opponents from former players now on their roster. In Johnson's case, the head coach himself has this advantage. He's his own best spy.

Johnson said his own coaching staff has a good handle on this already, anyway.

“Yeah, I think they know, they watch the tape, they’re really good coaches, and so they know who their playmakers are and maybe some perceived weaknesses on their roster," Johnson said. "Every team has strengths and weaknesses. I let them do their due diligence and it’s always good to have different eyes on it and we talked last night about their roster a little bit and we’ll continue to do that over the course of the week here.”

Either way, it's two straight games with a huge focus on Johnson himself because last week was his debut. This time it's definitely more personal for him than the opener was.

And if he thinks that’s personal, next week he gets to coach his offense against the defense of the former head coach he followed in Chicago.  That one might be personal for all Bears fans, as well.