La Canfora: Patriots have expressed interest in LJ

[BennyBledsoe]

Yeah, if he's brought in....and I stress IF, I doubt he'd be happy here. If he thought Vermeil was intolerant of his antics, he's not met Bill yet.

 

[upstater1]

EDIT: With Houston out of the mix, it is a 3 team race.

Bears, Patriots and Redskins

It is either Patriots or bust I'd say for LJ. He's dumb going to the Redskins because they are horrible, and the Bears playoff chances are fading. He would see the most playing time in NE also.

He grew up outside Washington, DC, so that might be a draw.

 

[convertedpatsfan]

Please pass on this headcase.

 

[upstater1]

Based on LJ's racist comments in the past, the Bears have the best shot. He couldn't stand a guy like Vermeil telling him how to conduct himself off the field because he is white, how is he going to deal with a white Belichick who will put more limitations on him on how he can conduct himself?

OK, he has beaten women, and he used the word ***, but where the hell are you getting this idea about hating **** because he was white?

Are you serious? Do you not know Johnson's background?

Does it occur to you that he hated playing for **** because **** did not want him as a draft choice, that **** made him ride pine, that **** denigrated him in the press before his first training camp, that **** set his career back and created the poison between him and the Chiefs that exists to this day? That had nothing to do with his dislike of ****? It was because **** was white, is that what you're saying?

Because Johnson's coaches before **** were white guys, Paterno and Tom Bradley, and he got along really well with them.

 

[nantucketguy]

Why can't he deny it? Johnson is averaging 2.7 ypc this season, and he can't block worth a damn. You can argue that this year is an aberration, but to flat out say that someone can't deny that he's a good running back given that average and his inability/refusal to block is a bit much, IMO.

What's a bit much?? I actually can't believe I have to defend that fact that in the last 4 years, he has been considered a superstar. Yes he has been on the decline. But in the right system, we are a system team, he could shine again. Noone is saying sign him to a huge multiyear contract....he is still owed 2+ mil from the chiefs. We could get him cheap...just to get us through til Taylor. Why is everyone fighting this? Look at Wes. He was almost cut by the Dolphins, who sucked as bad as the Chiefs. Look at what BB made of him. If you don't think he can do that same kind of thing with LJ who is a power back like Morris and Taylor.... I think you're wrong. Sorry

 

[Rob0729]

LOL. You can't deny he's a good RB. Come on. and what you said about his character is very media based driven. Do you remember that Moss hit a cop with his car in Min? Should we throw him off the team now that you do?

Is it 2006 again? Johnson hasn't been good since then.

What Moss did is nothing compared to what Larry Johnson did.

 

[Rob0729]

OK, he has beaten women, and he used the word ***, but where the hell are you getting this idea about hating **** because he was white?

Are you serious? Do you not know Johnson's background?

Does it occur to you that he hated playing for **** because **** did not want him as a draft choice, that **** made him ride pine, that **** denigrated him in the press before his first training camp, that **** set his career back and created the poison between him and the Chiefs that exists to this day? That had nothing to do with his dislike of ****? It was because **** was white, is that what you're saying?

Because Johnson's coaches before **** were white guys, Paterno and Tom Bradley, and he got along really well with them.

Apparently, you missed his interview with Cris Carter on Inside the NFL a few years back where he said white caoches can't tell black players how to lives because they hate it since they don't know what they are about and their background. He hated Vermeil because he was a white coach telling him how to live his life at least that is what he basically said in his interview. It could be that he just didn't like Vermeil, but in 2006 he said the reason why he liked to play for Herm and didn't like to play for Vermeil is because Herm is black and Vermeil is white.

All I know if Brady Quinn came out today and said he liked playing for Mangini more than Crennel because as a white man, he gets Quinn's background more than Crennel did like Johnson did in 2006; there would be about a thousand organizations who would be demanding the NFL suspend Quinn forever.

I mean Rush Limbaugh was blackballed from the NFL for less. And I am not trying to turn this political.

 

[HarkDawg]

what kind of runner is he?

 

[upstater1]

Apparently, you missed his interview with Cris Carter on Inside the NFL a few years back where he said white caoches can't tell black players how to lives because they hate it since they don't know what they are about. He hated Vermeil because he was a white coach telling him how to live his life.

Show me the article. Sounds like you're talking about vermeil preaching about his personal life. Johnson had a fantastic relationship with his white college coaches. vermeil was a bigtime **** to him.

 

[MassPats38]

LOL. You can't deny he's a good RB. Come on. and what you said about his character is very media based driven. Do you remember that Moss hit a cop with his car in Min? Should we throw him off the team now that you do?

LJ is not about one issue - he is an ongoing issue with multiple incidents. His issues are not about what the media says as the owner of the Chiefs stated on a Real Sports interview last summer that he had had multiple sit-downs with LJ and that one more incident would probably end his stay there. Hello, one more incident. This is a clown with second, third and fourth chances to toe the line and refuses to do so. I am not sure why anyone would think he would join the Patriots and suddenly become a model citizen as football and his work ethic on the field have never been issues with him.

And please. There is a marked difference between Moss failing to stop for a traffic officer, who climbs on the hood of his car and falls off when he stops and LJ arrested for assaults on 4 different occasions.

And I would say LJ "was" a good running back. He did run for 4.5 YPC last year, so he may have something left, but I would not expect the 1700 yard version of himself again. All the good history was pre-injury.

 

[farn]

Beliefs and positions in the past - irrelevant. IF he can help the team win, bring him in. If he can't, don't bother.

I don't want to be his BFF, or him to be my son-in-law, my godfather... I want him to run hard in a "prove it" type situation. Let's get over the "perfect person" crap and find football players. He doesn't need to come to my local school and be inspirational - just run the ball.

People get too worked up about personality. Truth ? Most people suck. Most people are bad people. So... don't befriend them. Find good people... who cares about the dude running on TV ? Not me.

 

[Deus Irae]

What's a bit much?? I actually can't believe I have to defend that fact that in the last 4 years, he has been considered a superstar.

... not by me, and not by anyone I know.

Yes he has been on the decline.

True. Statistically, that's not really debatable.

5.2
4.3
3.5
4.5
2.7

Other than last season, it's been a steady decline since he peaked in 2005. Probably not coincidently, 2005 and 2006 are the only seasons where he rushed over 200 times. Talk to most Chiefs fans and they'll tell you that Edwards ruined Johnson by running him into the ground with 336 and 416 carries in consecutive seasons. Also not coincidently, the decline of the Chiefs' offensive line has clearly had an impact. Johnson looked very good running behind one of the best O-lines ever assembled. Without that top level o-line, he's looked a lot less impressive.

But in the right system, we are a system team, he could shine again.

1. Your opinion about whether or not he could shine again is your own, rather than a universal truth. That's fine, but it's still over-the-top to claim that it can't be denied that he's a good running back. There are corpses that put more effort into blocking than Johnson does.

Noone is saying sign him to a huge multiyear contract....he is still owed 2+ mil from the chiefs. We could get him cheap...just to get us through til Taylor. Why is everyone fighting this?

Because he's a 30 year old running back in clear decline who's a piece of crap as a human being in many ways. But don't take my word for that. Do some research.

If BB wants to sign this clown, that's on him. I expect that he's an upgrade compared to BJGE, so I've got no beef with it from that point of view. And, since I don't expect choir boy material out of football players, I don't tend to get overly concerned about the 'off-the-field' stuff, either. Others don't take my approach, however. See Moss, Randy: Vick, Michael: Dillon, Corey: and others...

Look at Wes. He was almost cut by the Dolphins, who sucked as bad as the Chiefs. Look at what BB made of him. If you don't think he can do that same kind of thing with LJ who is a power back like Morris and Taylor.... I think you're wrong. Sorry

I think you need to go back and review your "Wes" history. In his first season as a receiver, he had 29 catches. In his second, he jumped up to 67 catches and was the leading receiver for the Dolphins. Belichick's coached him since then, and I'm sure having that sort of coaching has been great for Welker, but he was a self-made player before he ever got to New England.

 

[Marqui]

who cares about the dude running on TV ? Not me.

Definitely not me either

 

[Rob0729]

Show me the article. Sounds like you're talking about vermeil preaching about his personal life. Johnson had a fantastic relationship with his white college coaches. vermeil was a bigtime **** to him.

"The one thing we hate is to have somebody who is not African-American come in and say, 'You've got to do this,'" Johnson said. "No matter how you put it, it looks like you're telling me what to do and you don't know where I'm from and what I've got to live through."

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=hill/061204

Imagine Peyton Manning saying this about Dungy or Jim Caldwell? BTW, he said other things, but that was the most racist thing I could find.

 

[denverpatsfan]

Sign him up! We need a RB. Our Red Zone offense is one of the worst in the league. If this guy has any gas in the tank it's worth it for this season. We are down to 2.5 running backs!

 

[Patspsycho]

Sign him up! We need a RB. Our Red Zone offense is one of the worst in the league. If this guy has any gas in the tank it's worth it for this season. We are down to 2.5 running backs!

who is the .5 RB?

 

[Rob0729]

Also, Herm Edwards was a military brat. Even as a black man, he most likely did not have the same experiences that Johnson had when he said he prefered African-American coachers because black athletes lifestyle as he described right here:

"They hadn't been in a situation as a young, black athlete and know what we had to go through when we go out," Johnson told interviewer Cris Carter about the previous coaching staff under **** Vermeil. "We like to go out. We like to have fun, but then you have to worry about the guy around the corner with the gun. You've got to worry about this girl on the block. You've got to worry about your parents, your homeboys taking advantage of you. So many things you have to worry about being a young, black athlete. And to be able to have a father like mine and a coach like Herm, I was able to escape a lot of those realities and find myself in a new ray of light."

This statement is racist in itself in that Johnson assumes that every black athlete lives the gansta lifestyle and a white athlete or coach could not have a similiar background. I am sure many black athletes in professional sports had middle class and upper middle class backgrounds and many white players and coaches came from poor backgrounds.

 

[Bobs My Uncle]

Neither my ethics nor my morals are influenced in any way shape or form by the athletes that I watch on TV so I could care less what any of them do outside of what they do out on the football field. That's their business.

As far as LJ and his ability goes ...... no one in here is more qualified to pass judgment on what he has left in the tank than the Pats pro player evaluators are. If they deem him worthwhile to sign then, sorry, they win on this one.

Frankly, I'm a tad worried that Taylor and Morris are at the age and time in their careers where they can't be relied on so, I'm all for adding someone like LJ. Provided, of course that the Pats have the ability to part company with him without much cap charge should things not work out.

 

[Rob0729]

Beliefs and positions in the past - irrelevant. IF he can help the team win, bring him in. If he can't, don't bother.

I don't want to be his BFF, or him to be my son-in-law, my godfather... I want him to run hard in a "prove it" type situation. Let's get over the "perfect person" crap and find football players. He doesn't need to come to my local school and be inspirational - just run the ball.

People get too worked up about personality. Truth ? Most people suck. Most people are bad people. So... don't befriend them. Find good people... who cares about the dude running on TV ? Not me.

If Osama Bin Laden was a great athlete, you wouldn't care that he played for the Pats as long as he helped them win. I look the other way about many indisgressions from athletes, but there is a breaking point. In my mind, Johnson passed that point.

I never liked Dillon or Moss for their pasts, but Johnson stepped over lines that they never came close to. At some point, you gotta take a moral stance on who you root for and Johnson has far too many strikes against him.

Besides, I think Herm Edwards broke the guy anyway. I doubt he has anything left or the Chiefs would have kept him.

 

[denverpatsfan]

Neither my ethics nor my morals are influenced in any way shape or form by the athletes that I watch on TV so I could care less what any of them do outside of what they do out on the football field. That's their business.

As far as LJ and his ability goes ...... no one in here is more qualified to pass judgment on what he has left in the tank than the Pats pro player evaluators are. If they deem him worthwhile to sign then, sorry, they win on this one.

Frankly, I'm a tad worried that Taylor and Morris are at the age and time in their careers where they can't be relied on so, I'm all for adding someone like LJ. Provided, of course that the Pats have the ability to part company with him without much cap charge should things not work out.

Well said. I agree!