Career Tanked?

I was actually relatively surprised to see the Bears cut Tank Johnson. That’s not to say it upset me… quite the reverse actually – a pro-sports team taking a player’s actions and holding him accountable is a well-overdue. If only the players at the Tennessee Titans & Cincinatti Bengals were held to the same level of accountability…

So Tank Johnson was out at after 3:30 am, and was arrested for being “DUI Impaired to the Slightest Degree”. 3 days later, the Chicago Bears waived Johnson, cutting ties with the the trouble-ridden inside linebacker.

Seriously ridiculous stuff. Especially after the speech he made…

“… One day I wanna be the face of the league for guys who… come through adversity… and ultimately became, you know, the man of the year in the NFL, you know? That would be a tremendous ending to the story. That’s something that I’m… striving for, I’d love to do that…”

Riiiiight. Excuse me if I don’t hold my breath.

Talk about stupidity. Guy is under the microscope due to his own actions, and he does this? Ok, no-one’s saying that you cannot go out late at night, but to do so when the whole NFL world (and that’s a pretty big place) is watching, waiting for you to slip up… well… it beggars belief that Johnson did so, so willingly, so readily, so quickly.

The big question for me is why the Titans haven’t broken ties with Pacman Jones. Or the Falcons with Michael Vick. Well… I know the answer I guess – guys are both good players, and it’s hard to weigh up the fear of them going to another team (and playing with a MASSIVE chip on their shoulder) against that of a franchise’s social responsibility. Even so, both the Falcons & Titans should be hanging their collective heads in shame over the lack of accountability that they’ve placed on Vick & Jones.

And now, the Bears cutting Johnson leaves him with no team, and the 8 game suspension still hanging over him. Now, that’s not to preclude him being taken by another team… but if they did, he serves the suspension (which is highly likely to be extended given this latest foolishness), and STILL has to apply to be reinstated by the Commissioner. And that is anything but automatic. Additionally, Com. Roger Goodell has also stated that any team taking him on will face ‘repercussions’ should he stray from the straight & narrow (although those ‘repercussions’ are as yet unclear).

Still, I guess he’s a pretty good player – someone’s likely to take a chance. Bet it’s not the Bengals.