Sometimes, Charles Johnson, the surprise standout receiver for the Vikings, still can’t quite believe it.

“There’s times where during national anthems I get a little teary,” Johnson said the other day. “I’m like, man, a guy like me from a small town, I’ve gone through so much, gone through ins and outs, gone through ups and downs, and I’m here.

“I don’t take anything for granted. I’m the guy who is going to take advantage of everything that everybody else takes for granted. I’m going to take advantage of what they take for granted. We’re not promised tomorrow.”

It’s not that Johnson ever doubted his abilities. In fact, he was so sure he could play football at a high level that he stuck with the game when others might have cried uncle and given up. And, actually, he almost did.

After stops at Eastern Kentucky and Antelope Valley Community College (Calif.), Johnson found himself home in Elsmere, Ky., taking biology classes and helping care for his father.

“My dad was ill,” Johnson explained. “I just decided to go home and help take care of him and work.

“But you never get the feeling again like you have in the locker room. I missed that feeling for a whole year, being at home with my father and my family. You want to get back in there. When people talk about it now that they are gone out of the league, they’re out of football, they still talk about that atmosphere in the locker room. You can’t replace that.”

The question was: how to return to the game? A few major colleges still had interest. But the rules state that Johnson would have to sit out a season before playing, meaning he’d be left with one year of eligibility. So he decided to take a different route.

“Actually, I went on Google and Googled: ‘Top Division II programs in the nation,’ ” he said.

There, near the top, was “Grand Valley State University” in Michigan.

Cool.

“I shot the coaches an email, and they gave me a call,” he said. “They were interested. I went up there and had a workout with them and they offered me a scholarship. I had no idea about Division II football until I got on Google that day. I just wanted to play. Going back to Division I, I’d have had to sit out a year and only be able to play one year.”

After two good, if rather obscure, seasons at Grand Valley, he was drafted in the seventh round, 216th overall, by the Green Bay Packers in 2013. On the second day of organized team activities, he hurt his knee. He hobbled around on the Packers’ practice squad for a while. Then he was picked up by the Cleveland Browns and assigned to their practice squad. He was 25 and hadn’t yet played in an NFL game.

Enter the Vikings. With Adrian Peterson suspended and Jerome Simpson sent packing, Minnesota had an opening for a player on offense. The Vikings signed Johnson, who was familiar with offensive coordinator Norv Turner’s system from their time together in Cleveland.

And suddenly, in a season filled with disappointment and bad breaks, the Vikings got lucky. Johnson has been very good. He has developed good chemistry with quarterback Teddy Bridgewater and now is the starter ahead of Cordarrelle Patterson, who has been missing in action all season.

The fact that Johnson is starting ahead of Patterson, who has a star on his dressing-room door, has become something of a mini-controversy. Yet Turner stands behind Johnson.

“C.J. is playing at a high level,” Turner said. “C.J. is the starter at X. That’s the position Cordarrelle plays. We’re going to do what we can to get (Patterson) some opportunities to play there, but C.J. is playing at a real high level right now.”

For his part, Johnson says all the right things and downplays the significance of starting. He’s rather quiet to begin with. Yet he knows this is the opportunity he’s been waiting for and is grabbing hold and squeezing tightly.

“It shows that if you are willing to work and you are willing to give it all you’ve got each and every day, jumping from place to place, battling injuries, nothing should be able to stop you,” he said. “I always say that once hard work meets opportunity, you create your own success.

“I’ve worked so hard, and now I’m finally getting that opportunity to create my own success.”

Tom Powers can be reached at tpowers@pioneerpress.com.