With the Colts saying only that defensive tackle Ed Johnson was cut Tuesday for performance reasons only, some folks are wondering whether there’s more going on than merely perceived poor performance.
One of those folks is Johnson.
Per a league source, the team only told Johnson that he weighed in at 320 pounds, three more than his target, and that the team was letting him go.
And so there’s a belief that Johnson was dumped because of the grievance that he filed after being cut by the team in 2008 following an arrest for marijuana possession. The grievance contends that the teams have no authority to discipline players for violations of the substance-abuse policy.
Per the source, the Colts asked Johnson to drop the grievance when he was re-signed in May. He refused, and we’re told that the team wasn’t happy about it.
So there could now be another grievance -- and that’s why the Colts are pointing only to Johnson’s performance as the reason for the decision.
Regardless of whether it really was.