Free-agent receiver Chad Johnson is still looking for a job. And the man who is outside the NFL has gotten some air time on the next edition of CBS/Showtime’s Inside the NFL.
The folks at TMZ.com (who else?) have the video of the interview, during which Johnson insists that he was cut from the Dolphins only because of his arrest for domestic violence. “That was the reason, there’s no need to blow smoke up my ass,” Johnson said, sheepishly adding the words “up my ass.”
Johnson, whose voice at time seemed to crack while discussing his current circumstances, admits he had an altercation with his wife in late July. “I took full responsibility for it,” Johnson said. “I apologized for it. . . . I made a mistake.”
The interview debuts on the same day Johnson’s divorce from Evelyn Lozada reportedly became final.
Johnson also said he’s getting help for his temper. “I’m taking classes, anger management classes, and I’m trying to find out how can I channel my anger when I’m in situations to where I would pop off?” Johnson said. “How can I defuse those situations?”
Nothing Johnson said will make any team more likely to sign him. In fact, talking could hurt his chances of getting a new job.
The perception remains -- smoke or no smoke blown up his ass -- that Johnson no longer can play. And if anyone believed he could, he would have been among the 67 players who had tryouts on Tuesday of this week.
So between his performance last year with the Patriots, his performance in his short stint with the Dolphins, and the innocuous sideshow that turned sinister when he allegedly (or perhaps admittedly) head-butted his ex-wide, no one wants him. And we don’t expect an interview with Inside the NFL or any other media outlet to change that.