Travis Johnson: Worst Person in the NFL?
Trent Green knocked out of game after throwing block
Trent Green’s Career Might Be Over
The National Football League is nothing if not high risk and high reward. Large, supremely athletic men play the game for glory and obscene amounts of money. The flip side is that bodies freqently get mangled and brains scrambled. These things will happen when 300-lb men run into one another at full speed. No one, least of all the players involved, want to see a serious injury- if for no other reason than they could be next, and seeing a fellow player prostrate and inert on the field will certainly give one pause and reinforce the risks inherent in their chosen vocation.
One generally accepted, if unspoken, rule is that one does not rejoice over and taunt the prostrate, motionless form of a vanquished opponent. Not only does this bespeak a pronounced lack of class, it also looks as if you were deliberately trying to cause injury. Unfortunately, the Houston Texans’ Travis Johnson apparently didn’t get the memo.
During Sunday’s game in Houston, Miami Dolphins QB Trent Green demonstrated why a QB, especially one with a history of concussions, she never try and throw a chop block. On what could only charitably be described as a broken play, Green attempted to chop Texans DT Travis Johnson. Unfortunately, Green missed by a fair margin, and ended up taking one of Johnson’s knees in his helmet as Johnson essentially ran right through him.
The collision in and of itself was a horrific, ugly thing in and of itself. Compounding matters was the sight of Johnson standing over Green’s motionless, clearly unconscious body, taunting him. It’s was real men do, I suppose- when a real 300+ lb. man takes out a 220 lb. QB. Johnson not only looked like the school bully who’d just taken Green’s lunch money and was coming back for more, he wanted everyone to know who was the cock of the walk. If it takes leaving a player unconscious and face-down on the field, so much the better for one’s street cred, eh? And what better way to demonstrate your DUMB@$$-worthiness?
Green’s helmet hit Johnson’s knee. Johnson did a somersault and came down on his head. Green didn’t get up. He had to be carted off and taken to a hospital because of a concussion. He missed much of last season with a concussion suffered in the first game while playing for Kansas City.
Johnson draw a taunting penalty for yelling at Green, who was prone on the ground.
Coach Gary Kubiak called Johnson’s taunting inexcusable and unacceptable.
Time for yet another visit from Captain Obvious, eh?? If Kubiak had any balls, he would have benched Johnson for being a classless maroon who apparently takes joy in potentially ending another player’s career. Though NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell will most likely do nothing substantial to Johnson, there really should be a suspension in the works. If Godell won’t do it, then Kubiak should. This is especially true when you consider that Johnson’s audition for his DUMB@$$ AWARD didn’t end with his taunting. No, after the game, he continued taunting and calling out Green, stating unequivocably that Green was trying to take him out instead of trying to block him mano a mano.
Um, hello?? Earth to DUMB@$$…you weigh in excess of 300 pounds…and you’re upset because a QB whom you outweigh by AT LEAST 100 pounds won’t put his helmet in your chest? How stupid do you have to be in order to believe that Trent Green’s “mistake” was in not acting like a lineman?
Travis Johnson’s immature taunting of a clearly prostrate and unconscious Green was easily the lowest, most classless thing I’ve seen in quite some time. To then compound his total lack of class and basic human decency by going off on Green after the game only confirms was a ignorant, no-account DUMB@$$ Johnson really is (and he also is Keith Olbermann’s “Worst Person in the NFL” for this week…and deservedly so).
If there was truly any justice in this world, Travis Johnson would be driving a beer truck as of tomorrow morning. There should be no room in the NFL for his sort of classless behavior. Then again, NFL headquarters understands that this sort of thing sells tickets. They may publicly abhor Johnson’s despicable, inexcusable behavior, but it seems unlikely that anyone’s going to want to bite the hand that feeds the bulldog. After all, these guys aren’t wearing pink tights and toe shoes, are they??
