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Tribal Warfare
11-10-2009, 02:23 AM
Johnson’s legacy with Chiefs not the one he wanted (http://www.kansascity.com/sports/chiefs/story/1559443.html)
By KENT BABB
The Kansas City Star

Dick Vermeil recalls a running back who ran with a vengeance. A young man who wanted his coaches and teammates to do more than just notice. Larry Johnson wanted them to remember.

Johnson would take the ball, run toward the opening at the line and target a defensive player. They wouldn’t forget this.

“He knocked the hell out of them,” Vermeil, a former Chiefs coach, said Monday.

But Vermeil also remembers a player who wasn’t always in control of his emotions, who occasionally practiced poor judgment, whose unfiltered words and deeds made those outstanding things he did on a football field seem secondary.

Johnson’s time in Kansas City came to an end Monday morning when the Chiefs released him after his latest brush with trouble. Johnson had been a distraction, and it wasn’t the first time.

Johnson was a man concerned with his legacy. He wanted to break records. He wanted to leave his mark. He studied the game and identified the great ones, hoping someday to do what they did and be as unforgettable as they were. Instead, he’ll be remembered not as a great running back, but rather as a troubled one whose terrific skills and immeasurable talent never caught up with his bad decisions and overflowing emotions.

“He is what he is,” Vermeil said. “A complex guy to work with.”

It started when the Chiefs drafted Johnson in 2003. Carl Peterson wanted Johnson. Vermeil wanted a defensive player. Peterson was the team president then, and his voice carried loudest on draft day. Kansas City and Johnson were tied together — an arranged marriage that never developed the love it takes to make such a union last.

“He wasn’t wanted in Kansas City,” said former Chiefs wide receiver Eddie Kennison, who played five seasons with Johnson. “He was wanted in Kansas City by one guy, and that was Carl Peterson. Ever since he has been here, he hasn’t been wanted.”

Vermeil tried to make it work with Johnson, and the old coach says now that he came to respect Johnson, his work ethic and the way he ran the football as if his next day depended on it. They grew to respect each other, and Vermeil said he saw Johnson a few weeks ago. Said he looked good. Said he sounded content in a way he rarely was in those early years.

“It took him a little while,” Vermeil said. “He was not real happy initially.”

Vermeil’s successor, Herm Edwards, was supposed to be a mentor. He was supposed to emphasize Johnson and help the running back feel needed as he apparently never did when he was Priest Holmes’ backup his first two seasons.

For a while, the marriage seemed to be thriving. Johnson rushed for more than 1,700 yards in consecutive seasons. Then he broke his foot, returned as a far less effective runner and was arrested twice in 2008. Edwards benched Johnson for three games, and the NFL suspended him for one more. The Chiefs phased Johnson out of their offense. He said he wanted out of Kansas City. It wasn’t working after all.

“Everything that happened in his life while he was here,” Kennison said, “people just kept getting those bad tastes in their mouths.”

Then Todd Haley succeeded Edwards this season. He agreed to mentally erase Johnson’s history of misbehavior and mood swings. Johnson smiled and talked about the future. He said during training camp that he was excited to break Holmes’ team rushing record. People would remember him then.

Instead, the Chiefs kept losing, and Johnson vented on his Twitter profile. He called out Haley, insulted a fan and used a gay slur — all in a 24-hour period that, along with his history of trouble, will come to define Johnson more than his two Pro Bowl seasons ever did.

“He won’t be remembered as the guy that had a couple of 1,700-yard seasons,” Kennison said.

Vermeil and Kennison agreed Monday afternoon that Johnson’s career probably wouldn’t end now that the Chiefs have released him. Some team will give him a chance. Washington might already be among the interested organizations.

They also agreed that there was a side of Johnson that few ever saw. It was the driven side, the personable side, the side that if a friend or teammate or coach ever looked at from just the right angle, they might see a running back who was, as Kennison put it, “a stand-up guy.”

Johnson’s agent, Peter Schaffer, said two weeks ago that it was a shame that Johnson didn’t let more people see that side of him. That might have helped shape a legacy that now will include little friendliness, overshadowed talent and a trend of recurring personal problems that Johnson never learned to control.

“I’m sorry it has worked out like this,” Vermeil said. “Maybe they gave him exactly what he wanted. Maybe they gave him exactly what he needed.”

What Johnson wanted was to never be forgotten. He’ll leave the Chiefs having accomplished that much.

“People will always remember Larry Johnson in Kansas City as the guy who was troubled,” Kennison said, “the guy who wasn’t a good guy. That’s the way fans will remember it, the way the media will remember it.

“I still say he’s a stand-up guy. He just had some issues while he was here.”

‘Take the diaper off’

With Priest Holmes injured, Chiefs coach Dick Vermeil says on Sept. 21, 2004, that it is time for Johnson “to take the diaper off and go play,” a remark Vermeil apologized for two days later.

Running wild

Johnson gains a career-best 211 yards and two touchdowns in 36 carries during a 45-17 win Nov. 20, 2005, at Houston.

In court

Johnson pleads guilty March 27, 2009, to two counts of disturbing the peace in connection with separate 2008 incidents involving women at nightclubs.

Twitter trouble

Johnson makes several controversial remarks on Twitter after an Oct. 25 loss to San Diego and makes inflammatory remarks about gays. Johnson is suspended by the Chiefs for two weeks, though he is paid for one. The suspension ends Monday, when he is released.