Mail from Manchester: Postcards with Roschon Johnson | March 28

As told to Gabby Hajduk

Bears running back Roschon Johnson is in the United Kingdom to help kick off a new season of the Bears' UK girls flag football league, which has now expanded to three cities — Manchester, Birmingham and London. Check out Johnson's postcard to see what he's been up to during his first couple days in Manchester.

What's up Bears fans,

It's Roschon checking in from Manchester. I'm excited to be here with the Bears and travel all across the United Kingdom throughout the next week as we celebrate our girls flag football leagues.

I've been to London a couple times, so the UK is not totally foreign to me, but it's my first time in Manchester and I'm really loving it. I flew in Thursday and spent the evening sightseeing and exploring the city. It's definitely a more reserved, less compact version of London. In my opinion, Manchester is to London as Chicago is to New York — still a major city, but more laid back. The people here are super friendly and I've really enjoyed it.

We spent the night around Market Street, which felt a lot like Oxford Street in London. We did some shopping at Selfridges, popped into a couple little stores along the way and hit a couple good restaurants. So far I've been to this nice Caribbean spot for dinner and then Nando's, since there's one right across from our hotel.

It was cool to be able to explore a new city and really just learn more about the UK outside of London. Our real action started Friday, though, with our first girls flag football event.

This is the second year we've had a league in Manchester, and it's doubled in size for 2025 which is cool. I was really excited I got the opportunity to support these leagues this year because girls youth sports is something I've definitely gravitated towards lately.

Now having young girls in my family who I'm an uncle to or an older cousin to, I'm experiencing firsthand the positive impact that sports have on young women. These are definitely opportunities I'm all for and things I want to keep supporting. Seeing the sport of football, especially, expand to young girls is encouraging and I feel like it could open a lot of doors for them.

I had a lot of fun getting to know some of the girls in the Manchester league. It was a great group — some of them were shy at first and others were outgoing and hitting me with questions right away. It was cool to see them interact with me and drop their guard down as I got to talking and building a relationship with them through the short time I was there.

I really appreciated seeing them enjoy the sport that I've loved my whole life. They were definitely competitive and asked me to give them tips for flag football. It's obviously different than tackle football, so my version of making somebody miss isn't the same as their version, but it was cool trying to explain things I've done for years in a way that worked for their sport. Some of them had never played football or didn't know how the sport was played, so I was able teach them a little bit.

Once we wrapped up that event, we headed over to Manchester United to do a tour of Old Trafford, home of Manchester United. I've become more of a soccer fan recently. I typically only follow certain players, but I'm expanding a bit. It looks like I'm gonna be a United fan going forward.

I had the chance to see the team's facility and their pitch, which was super cool. I think the most interesting part is just seeing the history behind the club. They've been up and running since the 1870s, so to see all the adversities and successes they've endured over time is cool. It definitely adds to their history and tradition.

We're wrapping up our time in Manchester now, but I'm excited to head to Birmingham and London soon. I'm looking forward to meeting all the flag football players in each of the cities, have a chance to interact with them and watch them compete.

Thanks for following along!

- Roschon