Flanagan: LJ rips Vermeil in HBO interview
 

http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansas...s/16118327.htm

JEFFREY FLANAGAN TOP OF THE MORNIN’
Kansas City Star

Johnson tuned out when Vermeil talked

Larry Johnson, appearing in a feature with Cris Carter on HBO’s “Inside the NFL” this week, makes it clear again that he really wasn’t all that interested in playing for Dick Vermeil.

“I wouldn’t pay attention,” Johnson said of playing under Vermeil. “My eyes, I would be up in the sky. You know, I would be sleeping in my locker. I wouldn’t carry my playbook because I was just trying to get away from this building, you know, when Dick was here.”

(It should be interesting when Vermeil calls the Chiefs-Oakland game for NFL Network Dec. 23.)

Carter’s interview with Johnson, which appears at 9 tonight, also focuses on LJ’s relationship with Herm Edwards.

Carter asked LJ, “Do you think Herm Edwards, being an African-American and you being raised, of course, by an African-American, that you see a lot of similarities in Herm that you saw in your dad that made you open up to him?”

LJ’s response: “I think so. I could relate to Herman. I couldn’t do that with the other coaches I had because they had not done it. You know, they haven’t put those pads or they haven’t been in the situation as a young black athlete and know what we had to go through.

“You know, when we go out, you know, we like to go out. You know, we like to hang out. We like to have fun. But then you got to worry about the guy around the corner with the gun. You got to worry about this girl on the block. You got to worry about, you know, your parents. You got to worry about your homeboys taking advantage of you.

“There’s so much things you got to worry about being a young black athlete. And to be able to have a father like mine and have a coach like Herm, I was able to escape a lot of those realities and find myself in a new ray of light.”

Edwards also contributes to the show.

“First time I saw (Johnson), I said: ‘Are you ready? Are you ready to touch the ball 30 times a game?’ ” Edwards said. “And he kind of looked up at me, and he probably thought, ‘I haven’t even met coach yet, and he’s — what, is he messin’ with me?’ ”

Hoooooooo boy.

Yeah, they are going to have a field day with this.

Idk why this is a surprise... i mean Vermiel told him to take off the diapers... etc.. didnt want to draft him.. etc..

so why is this really news?

It isn't. But the media will think so. This will get a lot of airplay.

I think if Dick Vermiel spoke to any player as he did Larry Johnson almost all of them would have the same reaction.

Had to edit that I was half asleep and it made no sense when I just reread it a few hours later.

I had no problem with the article or LJ's opinion of Vermeil until it suddenly turned into a racial thing.

LJ and Michael Richards should hook up as roommates...

Agreed he was starting to sound like T.O

It sounds like LJ says it was easier for him to open up to Herm because Herm is black and he can relate to him better. But that doesn't mean he's saying he didn't like Vermeil because he was white. If Denny Green or Lovie Smith had pulled the same kind of stuff that DV did with LJ, I doubt LJ would like them much either.

Yup

But the fact that DV is white and that LJ is calling him out on National TV the media is going to make LJ look like Rodney King.

:shake:

I don't agree with it .... but it will happen nonetheless.


.

Thank you for being the only one that sees this, so far. But of course, the TV guys have to pander to the black community, "wow you have had quite a rough life haven't you, growing up black and all..."

I mean, shouldn't these athletes be pissed at the patronizing? Making whatever real struggles they went through a sob story, for ratings?
Please

I'd be surprised if anyone in the media cared. It's not the first time LJ has said he wasn't wild about playing for Vermeil.

And look at the question Cris Carter asked, comparing Herm to LJ's dad. That's where the racial part came up, not in anything about DV.

Good point, I laughed - "...raised of course, by an African-American..."

I haven't watched any of those HBO sports shows in a long time, guess it's not so different as the rest?

I couldn't agree more.

This is just LJ being LJ. Nothing that he says here is anything new.

Isn't Herm only half black ?