Sports Radio Interviews

The Kansas City Chiefs Part Ways With Larry Johnson

In case you haven’t heard, the Kansas City Chiefs decided to release their two-time Pro Bowl running back, Larry Johnson. After various altercations with the law and his latest suspension for using gay slurs, using Twitter to belittle his head coach as well as the fans, this was something that the Chiefs front office had been mulling over for weeks and decided that this was the best thing for the organization. Johnson has been marred in controversy ever since being drafted by the Chiefs. Dick Vermeil, who was the coach at the time, wanted to draft a defensive player because Priest Holmes was playing great but he was overruled and the Chiefs selected Johnson with the 27th overall pick of the 2003 NFL Draft.

Johnson learned how to play the game from Holmes in his first two seasons and it wasn’t until the 2005 season that he burst onto the scene with back-to-back 1,750+ yards seasons. In ’05 and ’06, he rushed for a combined 3,539 yards (including a record 416 carries in 2006), but since then he has been a blip on the radar.  This same situation has happened to Randy Moss and Corey Dillon. Both were, as it seemed, always in trouble with the NFL or law enforcement for doing something stupid. Both went to the Patriots, a proven winner, and we never heard a bad thing about them since. I think Johnson was just acting up so that he can get out of Kansas City and go to a team that is a proven winner. It seems as though the Patriots would be the ideal situation for him and I wouldn’t be surprised if he is picked up before the week is up.

Todd Haley’s press conference was aired on WHB in Kansas City and he talked about what Larry Johnson did to put them over the edge, whether the decision would be different if Larry Johnson was averaging more than 2.7 yard per carry, and whether the decision was based on the way LJ was playing.

Opening statement of weekly press conference:

“As you all know right now we have made a decision to release Larry Johnson from his contract. Over the last couple of weeks Scott and I have expended a lot of time and energy along with Clark Hunt in talking about this and trying to figure out the direction that we are going to go and we decided that it was in the best interest of the Kansas City Chiefs organization to move forward at this time.”

On what Larry Johnson did to put them over the edge:

“I don’t think I could fairly answer that. I think that it wasn’t any one thing. It was the totality of the situation and even before I was around here. At this time we felt that it was best for the Kansas City Chiefs as we move forward and to turn this team and continue to turn this team in the direction that it needs to go.”

Whether the decision would be different if Larry Johnson was averaging more than 2.7 yard per carry:

“That’s hypothetical and I won’t answer hypothetical questions.”

If he worries about releasing Larry Johnson would set a bad precedent for other players that if they do something bad the Chiefs will release them:

“I won’t discuss with what I discussed with the team. Again I think that at this point in time, we got to handle every situation differently, this is what we felt was best for us right now and I don’t think any time you make a decision like this there is a lot of energy expended and a lot of thought put into it so I think everybody at least the people involved including myself, Scott and Clark were comfortable with where we were.”

Whether the team decided to release LJ on Monday morning so that they would be sure to get out of the last game healthy at running back:

“No, we again continued taking phone calls after we arrived back home last night. Clark actually flew home with us last night so we were on the plane together. This morning we had more conversation early around 6:00-6:15 somewhere like that. No again this was something just that we wanted to make sure we were right on and so we put a lot of time and energy into it.”

Whether the decision was based on the way LJ was playing:

“Again it wouldn’t be fair of me to be to try to make comment on that in any way other than to say that the totality of the situation was factored in. it was everything across the board and again at what we felt was best for the Kansas City Chiefs.”

Todd Haley’s Press Conference on WHB in Kansas City

Tags: AFC, altercations with police, Chiefs, Chiefs fans, Chiefs release Larry Johnson, gay slurs, Kansas City Chiefs, Larry Johnson out of Kansas City, NFL, Scott Pioli, Todd Haley, Twitter