La Canfora: Patriots have expressed interest in LJ

[MoLewisrocks]

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:



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.

The sad thing is Johnson was apparently a misunderstood... wannabe gangsta. He grew up in a middle class 2 parent family with a strong father figure.

Johnson is the oldest of three children, born to Christine and Larry Johnson, Sr.. His father is a former high school vice-principal, a legendary high school football coach, and the current defensive line coach at Penn State University.

I think he and Vermiel butted heads initially over **** not wanting him in that draft and then not using him early in his career. He certainly made that look like a stupid decision once he did get in. Herm actually abused him and most of the hard feelings in KC were over his holding out for a deal I remember thinking he'd certainly earned but would probably never live up to going forward because of overuse in consecutive seasons.

He's obviously very immature and self absorbed since he couldn't even stay away from twitter after his last debaucle... Stupid and immature is usually the kiss of death with BB. He doesn't generally care if you made mistakes along the way as long as you learned from and regretted them and what you really care about now is just having a shot at winning. I'm not sure Larry is there yet, or has much tread left on his tires. Pioli would know and he just cut him...

 

[upstater1]

IF Johnson is concerned about playing for a white coach that has no appreciation for what it's like being black then maybe he'll appreciate BB's work with Jim Brown and the inner city black kids program that BB is/was involved with?

This is exactly the spirit in which he made those pronouncements.

 

[RobertWeathers]

veteran minimum it is ...

My opinion of all of this is that I think Belichick believes every human deserves a chance.

As far as what LJ has said ... well, that could have been to shoot his way out of town.

Assaulting women concerns me ... but ... everything goes back to everyone deserves a chance theory.

Yea I hear you...The football/Pats fan in me wants to give him a shot.

The humanitarian in me wants LJ to stay away.

 

[farn]

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.

Nope. Wouldn't. If he could get a TD or two per game, I'd sign him up. I don't think I'd want to hang with his crowd though.

 

[bostonia3333]

I'm just wondering if he has anything left in the tank. He was averaging 2.7 yds per carry on a college level offensive line this year. I just think Herman Edwards forgot you need a quarterback to win games in the NFL and gave LJ too many carries in 2006 thinking that was the recipe for winning a Super Bowl. LJ hasn't had more than a 30 yd run since the 2006 season. Yikes! He's listed at 230lb, he could fill a Heath Evans role maybe.

But the scary thing is he's had alot of fumbilitis in recent years. 2008, he had 5 fumbles, although only one of them was lost. We can't take this kind of risk.

 

[stcjones]

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.

Ouch.....tough when you back it up with facts like this....good post...I have a funny feeling guy is stuck in a dead end job.....new environment might be just what he needs......Has he ever sustained a serious injury?

 

[upstater1]

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:



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.

I'm having great difficulty figuring out what your opening sentence means. In the same quote you give, Johnson is saying that his upbringing is different than most young black athletes. He's not talking about himself. He's talking in general. That should be obvious from the quote itself.

And I can't understand how you assert the statement is racist. How is it racist? He never said every black athlete leads the gangster lifestyle. in fact, he said the exact opposite. He said that young black athletes become targets when they go out, targets of thugs and gangsters and targets of hustlers including their so-called friends. How is that racist? He's talking about the realities.

 

[upstater1]

The sad thing is Johnson was apparently a misunderstood... wannabe gangsta. He grew up in a middle class 2 parent family with a strong father figure.




I think he and Vermiel butted heads initially over **** not wanting him in that draft and then not using him early in his career. He certainly made that look like a stupid decision once he did get in. Herm actually abused him and most of the hard feelings in KC were over his holding out for a deal I remember thinking he'd certainly earned but would probably never live up to going forward because of overuse in consecutive seasons.

He's obviously very immature and self absorbed since he couldn't even stay away from twitter after his last debaucle... Stupid and immature is usually the kiss of death with BB. He doesn't generally care if you made mistakes along the way as long as you learned from and regretted them and what you really care about now is just having a shot at winning. I'm not sure Larry is there yet, or has much tread left on his tires. Pioli would know and he just cut him...

Mo, the very quote you're citing has Johnson saying that, luckily, he didn't have to put up with what most young black athletes did, because he was raised in a different type of household. In other words, he exempted himself from the experiences of most young black athletes. Why are people misreading the quote?

 

[goldspeed101]

Fred Taylor would have been ir'd by now if he wasnt coming back

 

[stcjones]

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.

good post...if he can come in here and produce and/or provide some insurance for the running game and help this team get back to the SB....then bring him in here....IF he starts acting out or causing trouble.....can him.....I think he is just burned out in KC....can you blame him? What he does off the field doesn't matter in regards to winning games....let him work out the rest with god when it is his turn.....

 

[Rob0729]

If that's racist, then all posters on this board are hyenas.

He wasn't talking about the football field. He was talking about their personal lives. You're taking this quote completely out of context. It was clear what he was talking about: "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."

He's not saying he won't listen to ****'s orders on the football field. He's saying that as a black guy, Herm had knowledge and experience about what his black athletes were going through when they are out in public or in their lives, he was more in tune with that aspect than an old white guy like **** could be. That's racism? Please. If this were about **** giving orders on the football field, I'd agree with you, but it's not. Saying a black coach holds more weight when it comes to guiding a black player in his personal life should not be so shocking to you. In fact, compare Pete Carroll to Joe Paterno. Carroll hangs out in the hood and knows well his players' situations. I'm sure Joe knows too, but he's not hanging out in the inner-city like Carroll is. I guarantee you that a black athlete would feel more comfortable getting non-football advice from Carroll than he would from Paterno. That's not a diss on Paterno at all. He has treated some of his black athletes with incredible compassion that a guy like Carroll probably would never show them (I'm referring to Rashard Casey), but it still doesn't mean Paterno can empathize with them and give great non-football advice. The difference between the two men is that Carroll is much closer to the life experiences of his black players, just like ANY black coach would be in comparison to a white coach.

Again, see if people think it is racist if a white player says the same thing. Yes, it is racist comments. When you say a person of another race cannot understand your background, it is a racist comment. No matter what context it is in.

I am white and if I said a black man couldn't advise me on how to live my life because he didn't know my background, I would be labeled a racist in a second.

Again, Herm Edwards grew up an army brat on military bases his entire life before going to college. How could he understand what is like to live as a black child in the inner city where people walk around with guns any more than **** Vermeil? Unless science proves that black people have a gene that shows they understand all other black people's backgrounds more than white people even if they grew up with a totally different background, then it is racist to assume every black coach understands where a black player is coming from more than a white coach.

And thank you for proving my point. Yes, Pete Carroll probably does know where many black athletes are coming from more than a lot of black coaches.

I am putting the quote in context. Who cares if it is on or off the field. If you say that one coach is more suited to tell you how to live your life off the field more than another based solely on their race, you are being a racist. I knew exactly what the comment was about. What part of the athlete's lives he was talking about is irrelevant for the discussion. He is saying that based on race one coach is superior than the other in dealing with certain race of players' relationships. That is racist in my book.

And it would have been racist in a lot of people's book like Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson if a white player said it.

 

[jays52]

I think I need to make a point people my age don't make enough. I feel it rings true for most people in my generation. I am a pretty young guy, and grew up not knowing racism until school taught me what it was. It was so hammered into my brain developmentally that it became the only reason I noticed a difference in races. As I grew up, realized how full of crap academia was, started playing some varsity sports, I realigned with how I felt when I was five: that race meant nothing. What mattered is if you had morals, ethics, cared for others, had integrity, took responsibility for your actions, worked to maximize your personal skill set, and had respect for those who deserve it.

Just like anything else, people have crutches to validate their inadequacies. Some are racist, others use racism as an excuse. The truth is that there are only fundamentally good people and fundamentally bad people. There are people who will be passionate about their life, maximize their potential, and be confident yet humble. Conversely, there are people who are dispassionate, are complacent, and create validations for their changeable flaws. This isn't a conversation about who understands eachother, who is homophobic, or who is a racist. This is a conversation about if someone has character. Johnson clearly does not.

Off the soap box.

 

[Rob0729]

I'm having great difficulty figuring out what your opening sentence means. In the same quote you give, Johnson is saying that his upbringing is different than most young black athletes. He's not talking about himself. He's talking in general. That should be obvious from the quote itself.

And I can't understand how you assert the statement is racist. How is it racist? He never said every black athlete leads the gangster lifestyle. in fact, he said the exact opposite. He said that young black athletes become targets when they go out, targets of thugs and gangsters and targets of hustlers including their so-called friends. How is that racist? He's talking about the realities.

How is it difficult? Herm Edwards grew up on a military base. His background is as different from most of the black athletes in the NFL as **** Vermeil's is. Many athletes grow up in poor urban or rural communities where there is a lot of violence and crime. It is racist to believe that all black people even a small group as all NFL players and coaches live the same kind of lives based on the color of their skin.

I have a friend who is African American and grew up in Weston and went to Harvard. Do you really think he has the same background and mindset as an African American who grew up in the projects in Roxbury? Or even another African American who grew up in a wealthy environment in another part of the country.

According to Johnson, all African American athletes and coaches do. To think that all people from the same race have the same background, beliefs, and understandings just because of their race is racist.

 

[QB12]

Guys, can we give all the 'is he/isn't he a racist' comments a timeout and stick to whether or not this guy will be a Pat?

QB12

 

[upstater1]

Again, see if people think it is racist if a white player says the same thing. Yes, it is racist comments. When you say a person of another race cannot understand your background, it is a racist comment. No matter what context it is in.

I am white and if I said a black man couldn't advise me on how to live my life because he didn't know my background, I would be labeled a racist in a second.

Again, Herm Edwards grew up an army brat on military bases his entire life before going to college. How could he understand what is like to live as a black child in the inner city where people walk around with guns any more than **** Vermeil? Unless science proves that black people have a gene that shows they understand all other black people's backgrounds more than white people even if they grew up with a totally different background, then it is racist to assume every black coach understands where a black player is coming from more than a white coach.

And thank you for proving my point. Yes, Pete Carroll probably does know where many black athletes are coming from more than a lot of black coaches.

I am putting the quote in context. Who cares if it is on or off the field. If you say that one coach is more suited to tell you how to live your life off the field more than another based solely on their race, you are being a racist. I knew exactly what the comment was about. What part of the athlete's lives he was talking about is irrelevant for the discussion. He is saying that based on race one coach is superior than the other in dealing with certain race of players' relationships. That is racist in my book.

And it would have been racist in a lot of people's book like Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson if a white player said it.

"Yes, it is racist comments. When you say a person of another race cannot understand your background, it is a racist comment. No matter what context it is in."

No, it's not. You're the first person I have ever heard make this argument. Most people think this is just common sense, and this is the precise reason why phrases like, "Walk a mile in another man's shoes" are there in the first place, because it's damn hard to understand the life experience of a person of a totally different race and/or gender. There's nothing racist about it at all.

And a white man in this society would sound weird making that statement in reverse, because the experience of a white MAN especially is the dominant experience, the experience of the majority, the experience of a LACK of discrimination, a LACK of civil rights violations, etc. Why would a white guy say that at all?

Why would you say a black guy couldn't advise you? What would be your basis for making a comment like that? Johnson's comment was qualified by giving examples that make it tough on a black athlete in particular. he had a basis for his comment. What would be your basis for making that comment?

I never said this: "And thank you for proving my point. Yes, Pete Carroll probably does know where many black athletes are coming from more than a lot of black coaches."

It's a crazy bizarre comment. Carroll knows where black athletes are coming from compared to many black coaches? Just bizarre. Because he visited the ghetto? I was comparing Carroll to Paterno to show you that some people have more empathy than others. I wasn't saying Carroll had more empathy than black coaches.

 

[Kontradiction]

Guys, can we give all the 'is he/isn't he a racist' comments a timeout and stick to whether or not this guy will be a Pat?

QB12

Agreed. The last thing we need is for the idiots that frequent the Political forum to come in here like flies attracted to a turd. I stay out of that forum these days for a reason.

 

[QB12]

Give it a rest guys

QB12

 

[QB12]

Now that's one graphic analogy . . .

 

[upstater1]

I think I need to make a point people my age don't make enough. I feel it rings true for most people in my generation. I am a pretty young guy, and grew up not knowing racism until school taught me what it was. It was so hammered into my brain developmentally that it became the only reason I noticed a difference in races. As I grew up, realized how full of crap academia was, started playing some varsity sports, I realigned with how I felt when I was five: that race meant nothing. What mattered is if you had morals, ethics, cared for others, had integrity, took responsibility for your actions, worked to maximize your personal skill set, and had respect for those who deserve it.

Just like anything else, people have crutches to validate their inadequacies. Some are racist, others use racism as an excuse. The truth is that there are only fundamentally good people and fundamentally bad people. There are people who will be passionate about their life, maximize their potential, and be confident yet humble. Conversely, there are people who are dispassionate, are complacent, and create validations for their changeable flaws. This isn't a conversation about who understands eachother, who is homophobic, or who is a racist. This is a conversation about if someone has character. Johnson clearly does not.

Off the soap box.

So discrimination based on race doesn't exist?

Isn't that the major complaint of black people when it comes to these things?

If you think it exists, then it's something to complain about. If it doesn;t exist, then black people are crying wolf.

I'm around enough white people to know that it does exist, despite your experiences of a race-blind society.

 

[Kontradiction]

Now that's one graphic analogy . . .

That's the best analogy that I can think of. Those people who I am referring to know who they are (hint: they don't post in the actual football forums at all).