Johnson, 30, was supposed to work with children at the Kansas City Police Athletic League for his 40 hours of court-ordered service. But Johnson refused to play sports with the children and instead told police officials he wanted to start an art program. The program didn’t draw enough students and quickly fizzled out. He got credit for nine hours of service.

Judge Joseph Locascio said the intention of the community service was for children to get a chance to play with a pro athlete. “Children who go to PAL don’t go there for art class,” Locascio said. “The idea that you would draw pictures with kids who want to participate in athletics is absurd.”

The judge said he puts people in jail regularly for violating the terms of their parole, but let Johnson off the hook by allowing him to finish his service in Washington, D.C. (where Johnson plays for the Redskins). Despite the tongue-lashing from the judge, Johnson seemed to not care.

During the upbraiding by Locascio, Johnson didn’t make eye contact with the judge. At one point, Johnson looked at his watch.  After the 20-minute hearing, Johnson walked out of the courtroom smiling, followed by his mother and brother.

Johnson has proven himself to be a Class A Dickhead and the judge let him off too easily. In addition to not fulfilling the terms of his probation at the PAL, Johnson also failed to regularly file his monthly probation forms and neglected to inform his parole officer when he was pulled over in Virginia for not having a driving license. A month in jail might have washed the smirk off his face.

Share on Facebook

On the face of the deal, it’s a smart move. Johnson still has juice and could fill in nicely if he needs to. Getting him in now, when you don’t need him and he can learn the offense, is a great idea. But I just have this nagging feeling that prognosticators could look back at this six weeks from now and say this was somehow what sent the Bengals on a downward spiral.

The Bengals certainly have a favorable schedule to make the playoffs. Four of their final seven games come against teams with 2 or fewer wins. If they just win those, they will have a home playoff game. And don’t think part of this isn’t Larry Johnson eying the Bengals’ Dec. 27 game: at home against Kansas City.

Share on Facebook

Larry Johnson

The Washington Post’s NFL blog, The League, has a panel discussion up as to whether ex-Kansas City Chiefs running back Larry Johnson (he of the “faggot” slurs) can hook up with another team. I was invited to share my views and we all pretty much agree on this: If teams think LJ can still play, they will sign him, regardless of his past. An excerpt from what I wrote:

While I would like to think that Johnson’s use of three homophobic terms did him in, the real numbers that got him cut were 29 and 2.7; as in his age and his yards per carry this season. Johnson turns 30 on Nov. 19 and there are very few NFL running backs who thrive when they hit that age.

Johnson has yet to sign, though his agent says there are teams interested. We’ll see.

Share on Facebook

Chances are slim you’ll see Johnson play another game this season. Looking at the worst rushing teams in the league this season, the only team I could see taking a shot on him is the Oakland Raiders, and that’s just because their personnel decision-makers are incompetent.

Share on Facebook

The running back used numerous homophobic slurs online in a Twitter page battle with fans, and then made another blatant homophobic reference to the media the following day. Johnson did craft a carefully worded apology afterward, which probably paved the way to the suspension settlement.

In Kansas City, sickened fans have had enough of LJ and his mouth, his temper and his attitude. Johnson, who has previously faced accusations of assaulting women in nightclubs and has undergone court-ordered domestic violence counseling for a 2003 battery complaint by an ex-girlfriend, may have twice rushed for over 1,700 yards in a single season, but he has shamed that community enough.

Johnson used “fag,”  “faggot” and “Christopher Street boy” after he was called out for using Twitter to insult the abilities of head coach Todd Haley. Amazingly, Johnson’s agent tried to claim that he had no idea “faggot” offended some people.

Gay writes that the NFL was basing its suggestion to the Chiefs on the $10,000 fine issued to then Steelers linebacker Joey Porter in 2006 for calling Cleveland’s Kellen WInslow Jr. a “fag.”  Gay swatted down that rationale pretty well:

But Porter’s $10,000 fine came before the NFL officially issued its now famous get-tough Personal Conduct Policy in 2008, a set of guidelines so strict and so broad in interpretation that it has given commissioner Roger Goodell great latitude to throw the book at numerous high-profile players. …

The NFL Personal Conduct Policy is all of four pages long, and includes this very sweeping admonition to all NFL players, coaches and employees of what it considers a violation: “Conduct that undermines or puts at risk the integrity and reputation of the NFL, NFL clubs, or NFL players.”

Goodell and the NFL have been silent on what Johnson did, which is disturbing. Goodell is a guy who fines and suspends players for just about any infraction, but what when it comes to a player using an anti-gay slur not once, but three times, he suddenly clams up.

We still don’t know whether the Chiefs punished Johnson more for publicly criticizing the coach than for his homophobic comments, but it really doesn’t matter since the slurs are what everyone wound up talking about. The Chiefs handled this appropriately, while the commissioner did not.

Hat tip to Pro Football Talk.

Share on Facebook

Johnson apparently reached an agreement with the Chiefs that essentially cuts his suspension in half, meaning he gets back almost $300,000. All in a day’s work.

The Kansas City Star wrote a good overview of some of the issues surrounding gays in the NFL and the repercussions of Johnson’s comment. USA Today said it perfectly: It reflects how gays are treated in the NFL.

Share on Facebook

We will be filing an appeal tomorrow. It is our belief that the action did not warrant the discipline unilaterally imposed by the Chiefs. We’ll be asking for an expeditied hearing, and hopefully we can work out a positive, mutual resolution with the Chiefs. If not, we’ll defer to the arbitrator’s decision. Larry’s desire is to get back to his teammates as soon as he can.

Let’s see. Johnson calls people in the press “faggots.” He then lashes out using more anti-gay language on Twitter. What guys like Johnson and Schaffer fail to see is that gay people make up a significant portion of the Chiefs’ and the NFL’s fanbase…and the fool just pissed them all off. If the Chiefs feel a one-game suspension for alienating some of their fans is a legitimate response, how can Johnson and his agent possibly argue? Because they’re not at all sorry.

One person who is sorry is Johnson’s Dad. He likens his son’s language to the racism he has faced in his life. From the Kansas City Star:

His voice comes through soft but pointed. He remembers his childhood in the Jim Crow South and understands the daggers of inequality and the tarnish of discrimination.

“I went through that,” he said. “My generation.”

Larry Johnson Sr. said that he vowed so many years ago that he would teach his children to treat everyone with compassion. He said he raised them to consider everyone equal, regardless of race, gender, beliefs or sexual orientation. He said it hurts that his son, Chiefs running back Larry Johnson, used gay slurs in public two times in 24 hours.

“That’s just not who we are and not what we believe,” said the elder Johnson, 56. “It’s not how he was raised.

Share on Facebook

Larry Johnson

The Kansas City Chiefs suspended running back Larry Johnson until Nov. 9, which covers one game (the Chiefs are off this week) and two game checks after he made disparaging remarks about his coach and used three anti-gay slurs towards fans and reporters. (Background here and here).

A statement from the Chiefs via Pro Football Talk:

“The Kansas City Chiefs have suspended RB Larry Johnson for Conduct Detrimental to the Club effective immediately,” the team said in a statement. “Johnson will not be permitted to participate in any team activities or be on team premises until Monday, November 9th. The Chiefs will have no further comment on Johnson’s status at this time.”

Pro Football Talk says the suspensions will cost Johnson $568,650, which has to hurt someone who brags on Twitter about how much money he makes. It is not clear how much the suspension is tied to Johnson ripping Coach Todd Haley on Twitter and how much him using “fag,” “faggot” and “Christopher Street boy” in the aftermath. But, clearly, had Johnson not gone after his coach, no one would have called him to task after, so everything here is interwined.

Johnson, through his agent, says he will appeal the decision.

I applaud the Chiefs for their actions. What Johnson did was clearly detrimental to the organization. I now wonder whether the NFL will take further action.

Share on Facebook

First of all, I want to apologize to the fans of the Kansas City Chiefs and the rest of the NFL, Commissioner Goodell, the Chiefs organization, Coach Todd Haley, his staff, and my teammates for the words I used yesterday. I regret my actions. The words were used by me in frustration, and they were not appropriate. I did not intend to offend anyone, but that is no excuse for what I said.

I also want to apologize to all the kids who view athletes as role models. I was not a good role model yesterday and hopefully I can become a better role model. We all make mistakes, and the challenge is to learn from them. I will do my best to learn from this one as I move toward becoming a better person, teammate, and member of the Kansas City Chiefs team and community.

Note to Larry Johnson: You just made it worse. Your inclusion of the “Christopher Street” reference makes it clear your words were meant to demean gay people. You can’t hide behind some colloquial use of “faggot;” You went further than that. You apologized to the NFL fans. You apologized to Chiefs fans. You apologized to your teammates and staff. And you clearly made a conscious effort to NOT apologize to gay people. You made it clear you’re not really sorry for tossing around the word “faggot,” and you made it clear you couldn’t care less that you used an anti-gay epithet. I understand you’re upset because you’re not producing on the field the way you did a few years ago, but when you screw up you should man up. This apology that one of your handlers probably wrote doesn’t cut it.

The Chiefs didn’t think it was enough either, as he has been told to stay away from the team until further notice.

Update: The Chiefs suspended Johnson for two weeks.

Share on Facebook

Larry Johnson

Kansas City Chiefs running back Larry Johnson has used three anti-gay slurs in the past 24 hours after he was confronted about using his Twitter account to rip his head coach Todd Haley.

When reporters entered the Chiefs locker room on Monday, Johnson said he was not answering any questions until Thursday. He then uttered this under his breath, according to radio station KCSP and Kent Babb of the Kansas City Star:

“Get your faggot asses out of here.”

Last night, when Johnson got into a Twitter spat with a fan, he called the fan a “fag,” according to Yahoo Sports, which monitored the exchange:

“think bout a clever diss then that wit ur fag pic. Christopher street boy. Is what us east coast cats call u.”

“Christopher street boy” is an obvious reference to gays for the Christopher Street gay pride parade in New York. The fan made mention of Johnson pleading guilty after allegedly spitting in the face of a female bar patron.

Johnson went off on Twitter (his account, once public, is now private) after the Chiefs (1-6) lost to San Diego, 37-7. He wrote that his father had more experience than first-year Chiefs head coach Todd Haley:

“My father played for the coach from “rememeber the titans”. Our coach played golf. My father played for redskins briefley. Our coach. Nuthn”

Johnson has had numerous run-ins with the law:

Johnson has had four arrests for various degrees of battery since being drafted by the Chiefs in 2003. One charge was pled down, with Johnson serving time in a domestic violence diversion program. A second charge was dropped, while two other charges – including the aforementioned spitting incident – were reduced to disturbing the peace. Johnson received probation for a guilty plea in the latter two charges.

“Fag,” “Faggot” and “Christopher street boy.” The NFL (if not the Chiefs) must fine and suspend Larry Johnson or else it condones the use of such language by its players.

Update 2: The Chiefs suspended Johnson for two weeks.

Update 1: NFL spokesman Greg Aiello told Pro Football Talk that the league is investigating what Johnson said. “We are in the process of getting the facts,” he said.

Share on Facebook