PFT has often written about the potential risks of Twitter for players. It’s inevitable that some players will forget it’s a public forum and write things that will get them in trouble.
Larry Johnson will now be the poster boy for such problems.
We told you about Johnson’s comments Sunday night, when he took shots at his coach Todd Haley. Johnson compared his father’s football career playing for a legendary youth coach and then briefly playing in the NFL to Haley, who played golf and then “nuthn.”
Not content to rest after that, Johnson then responded to a Twitter follower that reminded Johnson of the incident last year in which Johnson allegedly spit a drink into a woman’s face. L.J. used a three-letter homophobic epithet to get his point across in response.
According to Yahoo! (and some of our commenters), Johnson wrote, “think bout a clever diss then that wit ur [expletive] pic. Christopher street boy. Is what us east coast cats call u.”
Johnson ended his evening with a reminder that he makes more money than the people bugging him.
“Still richer than u,” Johnson wrote. “Keep goin. Come play our game oopps forgot you can’t . . . . Make me regret it. Lmao. U don’t stop my checks. Lmao. So ‘tweet’ away.”
The people around Johnson must have regretted his words immediately. His account, open to anyone late last night, is now private. You must send a request to view Johnson’s words.
Predictably, Johnson’s agent Peter Shaffer was in damage control mode regarding the posts referring to Haley.
“I talked to Larry about it and he was focusing more on pumping up his father than anything else,” Schaffer told ESPN. “He wasn’t trying to downgrade anyone . . . yes, everyone is frustrated after a loss like this but I wouldn’t put too much into it.”
Haley is going be even more frustrated that he has to deal with questions on the subject. He may view it as a test of his authority early in his head coaching career.
The front office will be frustrated that one of its highest paid players is antagonizing fans. And the Chiefs may wonder whether Johnson’s paltry production is worth the headache of keeping him around.