Monday Chiefs commentary: LJ's dismissal brings finality to a prolonged problem

November 9, 9:03 PMKansas City Sports ExaminerCharles F. Rouse III

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Veteran RB Larry Johnson released by the Chiefs on
Monday after 7 years in KC.  AP file photo.

The big news in Kansas City today is not the Chiefs’ too-little-too-late comeback effort yesterday against the equally inept Jacksonville Jaguars, but rather the dismissal from the team of seven-year veteran running back Larry Johnson.

Let’s put this move by the Chiefs’ brass – aka GM Scott Pioli and head man on the sidelines, Todd Haley – in proper perspective. Finally removing two-time Pro-Bowler Larry Johnson from the Chiefs’ roster is good news, not something to get all worked up and angry over. This is seemingly abrupt action was inevitable, the predictable consequence of allowing a persistent problem to linger on and get progressively worse without addressing it head on at the outset.

Now the matter, at long last, has been brought to closure – rightly or wrongly – and the Chiefs can and must move on with their business.

The latest episode in the life of Larry Johnson as a member of the Kansas City Chiefs, and the apparent last straw in a continuing string of poor judgments on the part of the controversial star running back, occurred just last week when Johnson sent out a Twitter message that was highly critical of his head coach’s ability and some of the decisions being made on the field. Johnson also made racial slurs in a subsequent e-mail message that was broadly distributed. 
 

The Chiefs’ response to LJ’s latest display of public discontentment was to suspend him for two weeks. One of the weeks was meaningless because it fell during the Chiefs bye week, but Johnson also missed the game with Jacksonville. He might have been reinstated for this week’s game at Arrowhead against , but that’s all a moot point now.

There were high expectations when King Carl Peterson, then the Chiefs president and general manager, drafted the former star running back out of Penn State with Kansas City’s first pick (27th overall overall) in the 2003 NFL draft. His final year in college, Johnson amassed more than 2,000 yards on the ground, and there was a lot of excitement about the rugged one-two punch the addition of Johnson would bring to the Chiefs offense, which already had one of the best multi-purpose weapons in the league in Priest Holmes.

But this wasn’t to be, not at first anyway. With Holmes carrying most of the load in the Kansas City backfield when LJ joined the team, the Penn State rookie received very limited playing time and found himself watching most of the game action from the sidelines, something he was not accustomed to in all of his previous levels of football. He saw action in only six games his rookie season, pounding out 85 yards on 20 carries for a respectable 4.2 yards per carry. He saw more action in his second season. In 10 games, LJ rushed for 581 yards in 121 carries and pulled in 22 receptions for another 278 yards.

It was in the 2005 and 2006 seasons when the irascible Johnson actually came in to his own. Selected to the Pro Bowl both years, Johnson ran for more than 1,750 yards in both seasons, including 20 and 17 rushing touchdowns, respectively. In 2006, Johnson had 416 carries, which set a new single-season record for the number of rushing attempts in a season. That was the peak of Johnson’s success with the Chiefs. The Chiefs made the playoffs in 2006, but lost in the first round that year to the Indianapolis Colts, who went on to win their first Super Bowl.

Throughout his time with Kansas City, Johnson has not been particularly discreet about how he expressed his feelings, especially his displeasure at not getting more playing time in his first couple of seasons with the team. He has always been viewed as a whiner and someone who was fast to complain when things weren’t going his way.

The last several years, Johnson’s troubles on the field and in the locker room extended to his activities off the field. In March of this year, Johnson pleaded guilty to two separate counts of disturbing the peace stemming from two separate incidents last October involving women at local nightclubs. The team benched LJ for consecutive weeks after the first incident. He was later suspended by the NFL and deactivated by the Chiefs after word of the second incident surfaced.

Back in 2003, Johnson’s rookie NFL season, he was accused of aggravated assault and misdemeanor domestic battery for waving a gun at his girl friend. The charges were dropped, however, when Johnson agreed to enter a domestic violence program. And in 2005, Johnson was accused of pushing a woman to the ground at a Kansas City night spot, but that charge also was later vacated.

Johnson eventually fell out of favor with former Chiefs head coach Herm Edwards, especially during the final two years of Edwards’ coaching reign in KC, which came to an end after the 2008 season with the hiring of Todd Haley. In fact, were it not for the advocacy and support of Carl Peterson, Johnson may have been gone much sooner than now.

At his weekly press briefing today, Haley said that the decision to release Johnson at this time was not the result of any one thing, but rather the totality of his attitude, personal actions and questionable behavior, which had been escalating recently, during his time with the Chiefs.

Make no mistake, Johnson did this to himself. For practically the entire seven years No. 27 (He actually wore No. 34 his rookie season in 2003) has been a member of the Chiefs, Johnson has been tagged as a whiner and complainer and a dissenting force on a team that has desperately been trying to find its identity, feel better about itself and improve its level of play.

And this is not just a chemistry disconnect between LJ and Haley. The same problems have been perpetuated through three Kansas City coaching changes (Dick Vermeil, Edwards and now Haley). The only thing that has remained constant throughout is Johnson’s consistent misbehavior and bad judgment.

It’s time to turn the page. Larry Johnson did not want to be here, and his words and misdeeds while he was here made that clearly apparent. Now he gets his wish. He’s gone, relegated to the bargain bin and available for some other team to assume all of his baggage. The value for the $4.5 million running back have been written off and diminished to virtually zero, which is what the Chiefs receive in return for his release.

ESPN reported that an arbitrator ruled today that the Chiefs do not have to pay Johnson his $3.6 million salary next season because Johnson breached his contract after his suspension last season.

The Chiefs have cut their losses and their ties with Larry Johnson, and all of us who are fans of the Chiefs need to do the same. Kansas City – both the team and the community – are better off without No. 27.
 

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