http://msn.foxsports.com/nfl/story/10280538/Chiefs-RB-banned-
indefinitely-for-tweets,-gay-slurs
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) - Kansas City Chiefs running back Larry
Johnson issued his second apology in 12 months Tuesday and was
told to stay away from the team while the NFL and the Chiefs
complete their investigation into his use of a gay slur.
As Johnson was releasing his apology, a national gay rights
advocacy organization called on the league and the team to take
disciplinary action against the two-time Pro Bowler.
The latest chapter in Johnson's stormy career began Sunday night
when he questioned coach Todd Haley's football credentials on
his Twitter account.
He used the slur during an exchange with one of his Twitter
followers. A day later, he used it again as he brushed off
reporters and told them he would not comment, according to the
Kansas City Star, which recorded the comment.
Haley refused to address the matter Tuesday, saying it was still
being investigated.
"I'm just not going to comment any further because there is some
stuff going on," Haley said.
Johnson, who turns 30 next month, signed a five-year contract
extension in 2007 that included $19 million guaranteed and could
be worth up to $45 million. The team could be checking to see
whether Johnson violated contract provisions that would allow
the Chiefs to cut him with reduced financial obligation.
Last spring, an arbitrator ruled that the Chiefs could release
the running back and not owe him $3.5 million in guaranteed
money because he had violated contract conditions by pleading
guilty to disturbing the peace in another incident.
The issue became moot when the team elected not to cut him and
until he began tweeting on Sunday night, the often-volatile
Johnson had been on good behavior.
The Chiefs said they have told Johnson he would not be allowed
to practice with the team or participate in team activities
until the matter was resolved, though he has not been suspended.
NFL spokesman Greg Aiello said the league would have no comment
pending the investigation.
Johnson, who needs only 75 yards rushing to become the Chiefs'
all-time leader, apologized to Haley, the team, fans and the
league "for the words I used."
"I regret my actions. The words were used by me in frustration,
and they were not appropriate," he said through a spokesman. "I
did not intend to offend anyone, but that is no excuse for what
I said."
The apology sounded similar to one he made almost exactly a year
ago after one woman accused him of throwing a drink on her and
another said he had pushed her. The incidents happened
separately in Kansas City nightclubs and led to his being
sentenced to two years' probation after pleading guilty to two
counts of disturbing the peace.
"I'm going to work to that point to get my life back on track
and know that I and I alone put myself in these critical
situations and environments to where things don't come out
favorably to me," he said on Oct. 22, 2008.
At the time, Johnson was benched for three games by then-coach
Herm Edwards and suspended for a game by commissioner Roger
Goodell.
On Tuesday, Johnson apologized to "all the kids who view
athletes as role models. I was not a good role model yesterday
and hopefully I can become a better role model. We all make
mistakes, and the challenge is to learn from them.
"I will do my best to learn from this one as I move toward
becoming a better person, teammate, and member of the Kansas
City Chiefs team and community."
Johnson's agent said all his client could do now was wait.
"It's up to the NFL to investigate it and see what they want to
do, and we will respond accordingly," Peter Schaffer told The
Associated Press. "We've apologized. Larry's trying to move
forward. It is what it is right now."
Jarrett Barrios, president of the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against
Defamation, called on the NFL and the Chiefs to take
disciplinary action and seize a chance to educate "on the
dangers of homophobia in sports."
Such slurs are used to "ridicule and harass young gay and
transgender athletes on local sports fields across America,"
Barrios said.
Barrios said he welcomed the apology.
"Larry Johnson's apology sends an important message that there
is no excuse for using anti-gay epithets," Barrios said.
Drafted in the first round out of Penn State in 2003, Johnson
was one of the best running backs in the NFL in 2005 and '06,
rushing for more than 1,700 yards in each season. This year,
like the Chiefs, he has struggled, averaging only 2.7 yards per
carry.
Kansas City (1-6) has a bye week.
You have to love the idiots who cry "free speech" who have obviously
never read the 1st Amendment.
Quit cutting class. And if anyone is ever stupid enough to hire you,
call your boss an asshole, and after he fires you, see how far you get
with your "free speech" cries.
Yeah, asshole, free speech, even for pathetic dimbulbs like you who have no
idea what it means.
It's been conclusively proven that compulsive homophobes like yourself are
acting out in self loathing against what you hate inside yourself. That's
you, showing up out of nowhere because you feel an overwhelming need to slam
gays. That overwhelming feeling is caused by your internal torment in which
you struggle to reject your own gay sexual desires. I'd bet money on it.
It's called projection and you're a classic case. Go look it up. And when
you're done, maybe you'll do the world a favor and off yourself because you
are who you hate.
Now go back to those gay porn mags you've got hidden from your mommy in the
closet.
<plonk>
This post has been interrupted for a message from the USM*... You have been
scanned and identified as a bandwidth infection and scheduled for immediate
extermination.
<plonk>
=======================
*Usenet Stealth Moronatron
"To Protect And Serve"
=======================
Its like a 13 yr old kid calling a buddy a fag. it has nothing to do about
the deviate sexual practices of a cum swallowing, asshole eating, turd
burglarizing freak.
--
I'm Right, U R Wrong!
"Piss On Queers" <an...@anon.org> wrote in message
news:d916a25516c10f37...@msgid.frell.theremailer.net...
We really are not interested in how you spend your time in bed with 13
year old kids, you sick freak.
It's really a sad state in America that the use of the word faggot is
deemed inappropriate. Hell when I was a kid that's the word we always
used with each other. No one got hurt, none of us hate queers or ever
hurt one in the process. The only reason I dislike most queers isn't
because of what they do in the behind, it's because gay guys act so
sissified and effeminate. The way they flail their arms and use those
squeaky voices in ways of trying to act like a woman is what bothers
me. If gay men acted and spoke like real men no one would have
problems with them. But those effeminate voices are like running
finger nails across a blackboard. Man up already and drop the sissy
voices.
Snitch.
What right does the team or the NFL for that matter have to censor
his freedom of speech?. Do they think they will change his opinion
of turd burglars? He'll just be another in a LONG line of guys who
say whatever they want to hear and promptly collects his paycheck
while laughing at the butt monkeys and the butt monkey enablers.
Feel free to actually read the 1st Amendment, and you'll realize this
had absolutely zero to do with "freedom of speech."
Of better yet, call your boss a derogatory name, and after he fires you,
cry "freedom of speech" and see where it gets you. Perhaps you'll learn
something your school failed to teach you.
Another nitwit deleted.
<plonk>
Don't help him, Tark. Tell him he has every right to say anything he wants
to anyone, anywhere, anytime, and be totally free of consequences. I was
sort of hoping he'd go into his boss's office brimming with false confidence
and call him a turd burglar.
MBKC
You retarded fuckwit. "Congress shall make no law ... abridging the
freedom of speech..." A football team, in case you didn't know, is
not Congress.
The team and the NFL are not government agencies.
> Do they think they will change his opinion
> of turd burglars?
They want to distance themselves from the hatred and bigotry.
That was precisely my point, so I'm not sure why you chose to insult me.
Oh, sorry!! Had meant that for Tavek... relied to the wrong post...
Thanks - understood.
Tavek is your boss
Damn, and just when I went and got some popcorn and pulled up a chair....
Go Chiefs!
Wait a minute, YOU (Marty aka Nunya) are arguing free speech?
What a fucking joke. THIS folks, is a guy who narcs on people for the
TERRIBLE crime of nym-shifting.
Funny, but I don't remember the founders including a clause for nym-shifting
when they wrote the Second Amendment. I think they actually wrote the thing
with little fascists like Marty in mind.
dumbass narc.