ST. LOUIS — When Rolandis Woodland was a senior wide receiver at Rockwood Summit High School nervous to play in front of college scouts, Demtrious Johnson hugged him and told him, "big-time players make big-time plays in big-time games."
Woodland won a football scholarship to the University of Missouri-Columbia that night.
Years later, after watching events unfold after the death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Johnson inspired Woodland to leave a job with an oil company in Kansas City to become a police officer in University City.
And weeks ago, Johnson called Woodland just to say he was thankful God brought them together.