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Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Kansas City Chiefs fans fight for Priest Holmes’ record
The Kansas City Chiefs have a great history in the National Football League, and one that dates back to the old American Football League.
But currently they are a bad team. A very, very bad team.
I guess that is why their fans are more concerned about history than the current season. To wit, a group of Chiefs fans have started a petition asking Chiefs management to deactivate running back Larry Johnson before he breaks former Longhorn Priest Holmes’ all-time rushing record of 6,070 yards. Johnson currently has 5,996 yards.
“We are asking you, as fans of this team, this organization, and of the pride that this city has in the Chiefs, please deactivate Larry Johnson. Please do not let his name sit atop the all-time rushing leaders in Kansas City Chiefs history,” the petition says, according to ESPN.com. “He has never represented anything close to the values that we have for our Chiefs and it would be another dagger to the fans that continue to support this proud franchise.
Of course, as fans of the NFL probably realize, the concern of history is not necessarily trivial here.
Johnson has come under increased scrutiny of late, after he used his Twitter account to criticize his head coach and then followed that by using the social media device to deride a fan with a bigoted homosexual slur.
The petition continues, “We are asking you, as fans of this team, this organization, and of the pride that this city has in the Chiefs, please deactivate Larry Johnson. Please do not let his name sit atop the all-time rushing leaders in Kansas City Chiefs history. He has never represented anything close to the values that we have for our Chiefs and it would be another dagger to the fans that continue to support this proud franchise.”
The team suspended Johnson without pay through November 8, but according to ESPN.com, “On Monday, the team reached a settlement with Johnson, reducing the amount of pay he would lose in half, to $315,000.”
Whether the Chiefs bend to the pressure is yet to be seen, but I would imagine if we scrubbed the record books of all players who have acted ignorantly or disrespectfully (which Johnson most definitely did in this case), there would be a few less pages in those proverbial books.
While Johnson stews and the fans grumble, it looks like the person who may benefit the most from this unsettling situation is former NFL Offensive Player of the Year Holmes.
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