Nick Piccone
Lane Johnson is such a chump. First, he threw Eagles fans under the bus last month. Then, he defended Chip Kelly the same night he was fired by the Eagles on WIP. Less than 24 hours later, Johnson completely changed his tune and had commandeered that big yellow bus that has driven over, backed up, and driven over again Chip Kelly, figuratively speaking.
Johnson is failing to pull any punches right now at his former coach, saying he’s “not being human” and calling him a dictator. I’ll let his quotes do the talking.
Maybe the ego got in the way,” Johnson said. “Too much power. Control. Not being human about things; not working together, with the team, instead of being a dictator.”
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“Just a lot of tension up there that didn’t need to happen,” Johnson said, “because when you throw it up there, it does trickle down to the team, and the team knows what’s going on . . . We always knew there was a little bit of tension – knew it wasn’t just sunshine and rainbows.”
I mean, as a player, why would you pay that much attention to what’s going on in the front office? I’m sure they’re nosy and want to know what’s going on, but do they really have to? And is it conducive to winning to know what is going on in the team’s front office? No. And the players should’ve kept their nose down and worked hard on the field rather than worry what was going on with things that are clearly beyond their control. But, for Johnson, that’s apparently asking too much.
Johnson was asked if Kelly created a culture of fear.
To be honest, yeah,” Johnson said. “We’d tell our position coaches, but I don’t know if it ever leaves that room . . . Maybe there was an intimidation factor . . . After Shady and all those guys were (subtracted), it opened up some eyes.”
He then complained that Chip’s up-tempo offense was, for all intents and purposes, too hard to maintain. Let’s forget that almost every offense in the NFL runs an up-tempo offense for most of the game now, but let’s let Lane continue driving and reversing this bus. He’s tired.
Get back to a more traditional style of offense,” Johnson said. “I’ve been running this tempo (bleep) since college. I’m pretty damned tired. It takes a toll on you. You do it over a period of time, a lot of guys in this league aren’t going to last . . . Bigger guys, it’s harder on your joints. A lot of pounding. Your hips. Your back. All you’re doing is torquing all day.”
“Practice here is pretty much the same, from (voluntary springtime) OTAs through training camp to the end of the season,” Johnson said. “No other guys in the league go from April through the end of the season. It takes a toll on you. At the end of the year, I feel like I’m going to fall apart.”
Lane just summed up why he wasn’t a Chip Kelly culture guy – because he’s completely a me guy. “I’m pretty damn tired.” Well, so are we, Lane. We’re pretty damn tired, too.