As NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell planned to meet with Tennessee’s Adam “Pacman” Jones and Cincinnati’s Chris Henry in anticipation of instituting a new personal-conduct policy, Bears coach Lovie Smith gave an impassioned defense of defensive tackle Tank Johnson.
Smith said he had visited Johnson in Cook County Jail shortly after the beginning of Johnson’s 120-day sentence for violating probation on a weapons charge. Smith said he doesn’t know Jones, who with Henry has been involved in multiple run-ins with the law, but he believes Johnson is an example of “what can happen to a good guy.”
“The reason we’re all stepping up for Tank is because we know him,” Smith said. “Tank is not a violent guy. He made a few bad decisions, which he’s paying for. Sometimes perception is not what he is. I know his heart. He’s in jail, but I’ve been around bad guys before. He’s not one.
“I went down to see him, and I told Tank, `You’re not a victim. Whether you should have gotten a lighter sentence or whatever, you put yourself in a position where this could happen to you. We have to turn this into a positive. Everything negative that happens in your life you have to turn into a positive.’
“I wish the judge would have known about the Tank I know. Tank has moved on. He has grown so much. Little things. Guys with braids. You just don’t say, `Hey, Tank, a visual sign of you changing would be to cut your braids.’ How many guys would do that? Tank did. I asked Tank to do it. He did. `Tank, the dogs. Get rid of the dogs.’ He did.”
Asked about Johnson’s mind-set, Smith said: “As good as it could be. It’s jail. There are bars.”
Smith testified that jail would “devastate” Johnson.
“It’s devastating for any young man to get locked up,” Smith said. “Of course, you can come back from it. What Tank did, it’s not like he pulled a gun on somebody. You haven’t heard about him beating up people. You talk to the women he has been around. My wife, I didn’t ask her to go down [to court]. She wanted to. She has been up a few nights like a concerned mom with Tank because of what type of guy he is.
“We all make mistakes. Murder and things like that, that’s different.”
Measures fail
Owners tabled a recommendation to move overtime kickoffs from the 30-yard line to the 35 to limit the lopsided effect of the coin toss on the outcome of games. Last season 64 percent of overtime games were won by the team that won the toss–mainly because of field position. When all kickoffs were from the 35, overtime outcomes were more even.
Owners also voted down a proposal by the Bears to allow 47 players to dress for games rather than 45. Resisters feared the makeup of rosters would change too much because the extra active players usually would be special-teams players, such as kickoff specialists. There is also the fear that situational substitution would become even more specialized than it already is.