Chris Johnson passes along petition to get paid

Posted by NBC Sports on May 18, 2010, 3:17 PM EDT

cj2k-twitter.jpgChris Johnson isn’t just getting support from NFL Network personalities.

A fan of the Titans running back started an online petition on Tuesday to help “PayCJ2k.”  Johnson didn’t start the petition, but he did pass along the link to it on Twitter.  (As of 5PM, the petition has all of 45 “signatures.”)

The theme of getting paid is repeated often on Johnson’s Twitter page.  One fan came up with the graphic that we copied above.  (It’s not Johnson’s actual background.)

Another comment that Johnson “retweeted” on Tuesday went as follows: “Who wants to start a boycott until @chrisjohnson28 gets his money?”

We know it’s ultimately harmless, but that’s probably not a message the Titans appreciate sending out there.

Permalink 36 Comments Feed for comments Back to top

36 responses to “Chris Johnson passes along petition to get paid”

  2. this is getting ridiculous, whine and complaining about more money is only going to turn off his fans and make people less interested in anything he does

  4. I hope he cries himself to sleep every night knowing he will never get Manning money.

  7. why SHOULDN’T he get more money? he has waaaay outperformed his contract.
    teams can just cut players whenever they feel like it, and the shelf-life of a RB in the NFL is not too long, so i say get it while you can.
    pay the man!
    i’m not even a titans fan, but this man deserves a big-time deal.

  9. Didn’t the whole area just get hit with horrible flooding that resulted in billions of dollars of damage and numerous people hurt and killed? Might not be best time to complain about your contract, Chris. More than a few people wondering when they will have a home again. Sometimes, timing really is everything.

  10. As a Browns fan and someone who likes Josh Cribbs, Johnson should know that his goodwill will be burned up really quickly if he is constantly taking this public. STFU and have your agents do their work.

  11. I’m in full agreement BTD. At his current deal, the Titans are stealing. And I’m no Titans fan either.

  13. Johnson is the most underpaid player in the NFL at the position with the shortest NFL lifespan. He is the only reason people watch Titans games. He made hundreds of millions for the NFL and the Titans and he gets 500,000. He is the main reason anybody watched the pro bowl this year.
    Pay the Man

  14. I can work with a holdout … Hey Tenn. I’m sure Buffalo would love to chat about Marshawn Lynch

  15. You talk about DeSean Jackson being the next TO. Is that job reserved only for WRs?

  16. The whole core issue of a player’s value based on recent performance, his contract based on previous or perceived value, his ego, the team’s needs, these variables have all played out in a cesspool of crapola (as if there is any other kind of cesspool.) Contracts mean nothing any more, from the team’s view or the player’s view. Everything is fluid. Lawyer Florio should give us an overview of the new NFL, in which contracts mean increasingly less and less. How do interpersonal deals day-to-day relate to long-term planning? It seems that the “signing” is mainly geared around the ego fo the player, and that later deals, have little to do with contract and everything to do with what the team management wants.

  17. Remember…
    Hes the best RB in the NFL right now. There life expectancy is like 3 years.
    Pay him!! Pay him!! Or i hope he sits.
    Actually, i hope he sits, then my team wont have to deal with him..LOL!!

  18. I firmly believe Chris Johnson deserves a new contract, and the Titans are cheap assess if they don’t get him a new deal before this season starts….
    However, CJ needs to just shut the F*** UP! While he is grossly underpaid compared to other players in his profession, he still makes far more than the average football fan ever will. Taking his fight public is definitely not going to help his cause, and will just turn off the fans who ultimately pay his salary.

  19. He absolutely deserves to have his contract renegotiated. It’s not even close, and the Titans know it.
    2,000+ yards… best RB in the NFL. He’s smart to hold out for the big bucks. A player of his stature deserves to be paid the big bucks.

  20. Considering he is the backbone of my fantasy team, I was more than happy to sign the petition.

  21. BTD5504 says:
    May 18, 2010 6:14 PM
    why SHOULDN’T he get more money? he has waaaay outperformed his contract.
    teams can just cut players whenever they feel like it, and the shelf-life of a RB in the NFL is not too long, so i say get it while you can.
    pay the man!
    ==========================
    He is getting paid – as far as we know his team issued all his paychecks last year.
    He is gettin paid exactly what he contracted for…

  22. Here’s an idea… Maybe Warren Sapp can get on board and say “Pay The Man”, every time you turn on the NFL-N. Whaddya think?

  23. Anyone else laugh at the posters who seem to be personally offended that Chris Johnson wants more money?

  25. To all those that are telling him to shut up think about it. Hes beyond outperformed his contract thus far. Just look at Jamarcus Buttmuscle. Way overpaid. Got his $ when he didnt deserve it. This guy at least backs it up. PAY THE MAN!
    However theres no way you make him the highest paid offensive player. Peyton Manning is worth that CJ is not. Main reason is Manning isnt some dickmouth with a ghetto attitude. Call me a racist i dont care. Theres only a handful of Michael Jordans/Donavann Mcnabbs/Marvin Harrisons out there with good attitudes. Rest are all about themselves.

  26. As creator of the petition, i really honestly believe its basically slave labor (by nfl standards, of course) to have him go out there and play for his current contract. As a Tennessee Titan fan i see this, he is our offence. Please support him
    —Angel Vallejo

  27. I understand he is underpaid at this point in his career but 2 things, 1 look at the whole contract and not just this years base salary… number 2
    WHY DID HE SIGN THE CONTRACT?
    his agent should’ve put escalators in that would of kicked in if he got 2k yds or 100 catches or 30 tds or probowl or what ever
    people just don’t want to do their job anymore….
    hopefully Shanny does…
    HAIL SKINS!

  28. I think he should go ahead and start a fund raising drive. He could simply have all the people who want him to get paid more text to a # and 10 dollars will be taken off their bill and given directly to him. It’s sort of like Haiti relieve but far far far more important. I mean really, what would it say about our country, our world, nay OUR UNIVERSE if he had to actually follow his contract and be a millionaire not a gajillionaire!
    It’s time to take a stand for gajillionaire rights and end the owners ability to force poor players to follow contracts and make do with only being sort of rich.

  29. Angel, you’re right he shouldn’t have to play under the terms of his contract. If he doesn’t want to follow his contract he should be ruled ineligible to play and he can look to another profession more to his liking. Otherwise perhaps the league should just do away with contracts completely. They could just have an auction every year and the teams can bid on who they want to pay.
    Seriously tho, I think the league needs to adopt a policy where both sides of a contract are binding. There can be terms to allow penalty to cancel for either side. That way if a team wants to cancel a contract they can but have to pay a penalty. The player can live by the same arrangement. Beyond that I also think the league should mandate certain levels of escalators into all rookie contracts to help allow for breakout performances. At the same time they need to also put the same in to protect teams then. Something that helps them recover from high dollar busts. They can call that the Jamarcus Russel rule.

  31. “We know it’s ultimately harmless, but that’s probably not a message the Titans appreciate sending out there.”
    _________________________
    I really don’t think he cares. He wants a new deal with more money. In this case, he’s right to push the issue. Bud Adams is notoriously cheap. He’ll get whatever he can out of a player at a discount, but when it comes time to give them that big contract, he’d rather let them go than pay them. Just off the top of my head: Kearse, McNair, Rolle, and Haynesworth (granted Redskins offered way too much, but Titans could have kept him for less with an extension before he became UFA. That’s not a complete list to be sure, but that’s four very recognizable names just off the top of my head, and I’m not even a Titans fan. If you want money from Bud Adams you have to find a way to force his hand. This is one of the extremely rare cases where a sitting out a season would be justified. While it seems strange even to me to say only $550k, his contract pays him a heck of a lot less than what his value would be on the open market. Why play for such a discounted salary when you could get injured and destroy your future value? It simply makes no sense. He should have enough money that he can afford to take a year off in need be. For those who say that’s a year he could never get back, it’s also a year’s worth of punishment his body wouldn’t be taking. If you want to see what that can do to your longevity as a RB, just ask 32 year old Ricky Williams. I’m not saying that I hope it comes to this, I’m saying in this case I hope the player stands his ground. I wouldn’t normally say this about a player asking for more money. In fact, the only other case I can think of is this year’s RFAs who would have been UFAs had the owners not opted out of the cba.

  32. Johnson needs to cut out any public discussion. The more he turns this into a confrontation, the more the Titans will have to resist paying him. It’s not a question of saving face, but ensuring that all their players will know that they will not be able to coerce the club into contract renegotiation.
    They should make Johnson the highest paid RB in the game, and they probably will, if he doesn’t turn it into battle.
    Then again, maybe Lendale White had a point. Johnson might be best used in partnership with a big back rather than getting all the carries.
    The problem for the Titans is that Johnson is perhaps a little too good. He makes drives shorter. When he was sharing carries, White’s lower average meant that defenses had to make more tackles, and would tend to get more tired towards the end of games.
    Johnson is an amazing runner, with surprising power, but he isn’t a punishing, up the gut, grinder. Defenses can get away with swapping out a linebacker for defensive back. Now that hasn’t helped them to stop Johnson, but the Titans passing game did suffer last year. White didn’t gain massive yardage. He isn’t a dangerous runner, but he does have enough power to keep him matched up against a linebacker, which might have opened things up for the passing game.
    So did the Titans climb up to 8-8 on the back of Johnson’s talent, or did making Johnson the featured runner force defenses into tactics that exposed other weaknesses in the Titans roster, dropping them to 8-8.

  33. @cleanface: As a Jaguars fan, I’m with you. At last, the Colts and Jaguars agree on something.
    That being said, I’m all for the guy trying to get paid. As others have mentioned, his position is one of short career duration and of long post-career chronic body damage.
    And dude is right about what he’s done for the team, on the field and financially.
    Problem is that he signed the deal, and until the Titans decide to discuss ripping it up and talking big payday, he needs to live up to it.
    I’m not in his shoes, but I’d begin the season, show that my skills and numbers aren’t a fluke, then quietly begin discussions about a long-term deal during the season. It’s been done for high-performance players in the past.
    But, whatever he does, he’s got to work the system behind the scenes and shut off the tweets and other public expressions of unhappiness. Fans are already beginning to see him as a whiner, and that doesn’t help your case.

  35. Why isn’t anybody mentioning the $7 million signing bonus the guy got less than 2 years ago?
    He was selected with the 24th selection in the draft…Shut up and put up another monster season CJ. Sure you’re underpaid….But you signed a contract.
    Nobody put a gun to your head and you won’t get much sympathy in Nashville these days. The people that buy the tickets are looking for a dry place to sleep….

  36. Titans are cheap, the flood victims are still titans fans, the titans are the spirit of the big city. Jeff fisher as a coach needs to be fired, he’s done, 11 years and one super bowl? Get the F out. Two, you want the man to work for 550,ooo in a year, that’s bench warmer pay, that’s like minimum wage in his world. That’s his issue, think of like, willie beamen, from any given Sunday, cj is an all star, but he’s about his $ and “sense”, look at his mouth. The boy has gold teeth, you can’t expect a balla to play for minimum pay. If he were on another team he would get paid, because its the shitty ass titans, they could care less cause they know they’re in for a losing season anyways. I think when titans have a meeting about pay issues jeff goes too, and says well I don’t want him to play then let’s just wait cause bud the owner is old and stupid and soft a pushover. The whole organization is a bunch of unproffessional bitchez.

Leave a Reply

You must be logged in to leave a comment. Not a member? Register now!

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.