Larry Johnson was likely one game away from being the Chief’s all-time leading rusher, he’s still a productive runningback who could easily be a starter on several teams in the league (Kansas City being one of them), but the Chiefs did the right thing by releasing L.J. on Monday.
Coming off of a suspension for “conduct detrimental to the club”, the Chiefs’ front office and coaching staff decided that the best thing to do for all involved would be to release Johnson from his contract. Despite winning a combined 6 games in 2007 and 2008, the Chiefs are still getting roughly 70,000 fans to Arrowhead Stadium for home games – which says a lot, considering the Chiefs haven’t won a game in Missouri dating back to Week 4 of last season and they traded away their perennial Pro Bowl Tight End – Tony Gonzalez. The fans were calling for L.J. to be released – frustrated by the idea that he would likely become their team’s leading all-time rusher if he played another game.
Even if the fans weren’t calling for his release, the head coach should’ve been. Over Twitter, L.J. called out head coach Todd Haley for a perceived lack of experience, basically saying that Haley didn’t have the credentials for the job. Talking badly about his boss? I guess L.J. thought he was more important to the team than Haley, and as a new head coach, Todd should’ve been the biggest proponent of Johnson leaving town. Whether Haley had experience or not (he has been on coaching staffs since 1995 and prior to that, he shadowed his father who has been involved with the NFL for the past 50 years in one capacity or another), the Kansas City ownership chose Haley to be the Chiefs’ chief, and that’s enough in my book to demand more respect out of the guys on that roster than Larry Johnson was showing him through his various messages about Haley being more of a golf guy than a football guy.
Although they released a potentially valuable member of their team, the Kansas City Chiefs did the right thing by releasing him. By doing so, the front office showed its fans and head coach where their priorities were, and they should be commended for it. For now, Priest Holmes will be the Chiefs’ all-time leading rusher until Jamal Charles or someone else overtakes him, but the fans can rest assured that it won’t be L.J. – a guy who clearly doesn’t respect the organization who drafted him out of college.
Now the Chiefs can continue on their way to finding the keys to success and filling the final 10,000 seats which have been typically vacant on gameday.
This was for sure the right move, someone that provides that many negative distractions just isn’t conducive to taking steps forward, which god knows, the Chiefs need to do. I do, however, wonder what teams will give L.J a chance. There have been talks that with Westbrook out the Eagles could conceivably want him for a minor stint, but with Vick already there you have to wonder how many “New Hope” contracts they’re willing to shell out. Plus, what teams are willing to risk the obvious baggage he comes with.
I agree 100%. Seems to me that LJ had become nothing but a detriment to the Chiefs. If not for his his laundry list of off-field shenanigans, then for his selfish attitude since joining the Chiefs in 2003. This guy never even WANTED to be on the Chiefs in the first place and made it well known that the only team he ever wanted to play for was the Pittsburgh Steelers. Good riddance, I say. He may yet still do some good for another team like the Bears, but as far as the 1-7 Chiefs go, I think it was a good decision.
Johnson had a huge history of being a sort of cancer in KC ever since he first got there. If it wasn’t demanding playing time, it was getting in trouble off the field. Talk show hosts and fans alike were beginning to call for his head around 2007. When he began the season ‘playing nice’ and complimenting Todd Haley, people wondered what was up and how long that was going to last. They figured it was a matter of a new coach coming in and LJ wanted to get on his good side–but what would happen if/when the season turned sour? We found out. Chiefs fans knew going in this was going to be a long season, and they know next year isn’t going to be too good either, so really the only thing to do personnel-wise is to give the young guys a chance and keep the team’s image credible. While Todd Haley’s college sport was golf and he barely (if at all, I’m not sure) played in high school, he must have done SOMETHING right to get where he is now. Granted, some in the media in KC are questioning that he overdoes practices during the week and already has a pattern of inactivating players that don’t meet his standards during the week’s practice, regardless of what they had done the week before–but that’s for another time and place.
My friends in WI had been wanting LJ on Green Bay before last season and my initial reaction was, “Oh no you don’t!” One-plus year later, looks like I was right, and they’re just as glad the Pack never traded for him.