Fighting to last

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Packed for a day at the beach, Eddie Johnson answered his phone and almost instantly headed to Los Angeles International Airport.

Cleats and beachwear were about all the former Idaho State punter had with him, but there was no time to go home for more.

The NFL was calling. He wasn't about to turn it down because he was underdressed for a flight to Detroit.

His whatever-it-takes sentiment carried into Lions practice a week later, when coach Rod Marinelli told him he was going to kick field goals in the team's preseason opener.

Never mind that Johnson hadn't attempted a field goal ever in college or during his five years of roaming through the NFL.

"I said, 'You know coach, whatever I've got to do to stick around and get some film, I'll do,'" Johnson said by phone Friday. "I'll do whatever you guys want me to do."

As current Idaho State coach John Zamberlin is fond of saying, the NFL also stands for "Not For Long," and perhaps no former Bengal knows the veracity of that statement better than Johnson.

But others are finding it out, too.

As of today -- because it could change as soon as tomorrow -- there are six former Idaho State players in the NFL. Among Big Sky programs, only Montana can boast as many.

They are scattered across the country like mercenaries, accepting jobs from almost any NFL team that offers. Of the six, only Jared Allen, whom the Minnesota Vikings made the highest-paid defensive player in the league in the offseason, can be considered safely planted.

The others aren't so certain. Jeff Charleston is trying to earn time on Indianapolis' defensive line. Linebacker Pago Togafau wants to prove he can anchor Philadelphia's second-team defense. Matt Gutierrez, a clipboard holder last season in New England, is clinging to a spot behind quarterback Tom Brady.

There's also the next class, including wide out Clyde Logan, who still gets starstruck playing alongside Chad Johnson and T.J. Houshmandzadeh in Cincinnati.

And there is Johnson, now with his seventh team, giving his leg one last year to earn him another starting job in the NFL. It served him well Thursday, when he kicked the game-winning, 41-yard field goal in Detroit's 13-10 victory in its preseason opener against the New York Giants.

It was his first appearance in an NFL game in three years, and if Detroit cuts him tomorrow, it might be enough to land him in another camp this month.

For him, for all of the former Bengals, the allure of the pros is stronger than the one pulling them away from it. They aren't going to fight it.

Not yet.

For Charleston, the alternative isn't only unappealing in theory. It's awful in practice, too.

Following the 2006 NFL Draft, the Houston Texans signed Charleston, who earned a team-best 12 sacks in 2005 at Idaho State, as a free agent and kept him for every preseason game. But he missed the team's final cut, and he was jobless.

While the NFL season wore on, he wore himself out putting up roofing and siding in Oregon, his home state.

"It's heartbreaking to go that far and not make it," Charleston said by phone last week. "It was the first time in my life not playing football. I had to think about entering the real world. That's what I did."

But he wasn't away from football for long. During the offseason, the defending Super Bowl champion, Indianapolis, signed him to a free-agent deal, and once again he was in an NFL camp before the 2007 season. That time, he made the team, and Charleston played in all 16 games.

He even started the last three and has 24 tackles, a sack and a forced fumble to his name.

On ESPN.com, he is listed as all-pro Dwight Freeney's backup at defensive end, and in the Colts' preseason opener Aug. 3, he recorded four tackles and half a sack.

Though those facts suggest Charleston should survive the 53-man cut again this season, he's hardly forgotten the lesson he learned when the Texans released him.

"You see the business side of it because you see people coming and going," Charleston said. "It's football."

Togafau understands that as well.

He also is happy his rookie year is over -- and that he's still around for a second.

An all-Big Sky linebacker during the Bengals' 2006 season, Togafau was never the massive. Most NFL linebackers are taller than the 5-foot-10 Togafau, but he has illustrated that speed still counts for something, too.

"I'm still not the biggest guy," said Togafau, who has bulked up nearly 40 pounds from his college playing weight. "It's not a hurdle, just extra motivation."

Signed initially by the Arizona Cardinals in April 2007, the former Bengals captain was released at the end of the following August and worried that he, like Charleston, wouldn't be playing football in the fall.

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