The Larry Johnson era is over.
The Kansas City Chiefs have officially released embatted seven year veteran RB Larry Johnson. Per the Mothership:
The Kansas City Chiefs released RB Larry Johnson on Monday. In 75 games (55 starts) with Kansas City, Johnson rushed 1,375 times for 5,996 yards (4.4 avg.) with 55 touchdowns. He also registered 151 receptions for 1,369 yards (9.1 avg.) with six TDs. He concluded his Chiefs career with 30 100-yard rushing games and also added two 100-yard receiving games.
Johnson established an NFL single-season record with 416 rushing attempts in 2006 when he set a franchise single-season mark with 1,789 rushing yards. He originally entered the league as the Chiefs first-round selection (27th overall) in the 2003 NFL Draft out of Penn State.
A first round draft pick in 2003, LJ has certainly had his ups and downs with the organization, including run-ins with all three head coaches during his tenure.
Highlights of LJ's tenure with the Chiefs after the jump.
A few LJ highlights through his seven year career with the Chiefs:
1st round pick in the 2003 NFL draft. Many fans will remember this because we traded down with the Pittsburgh Steelers. The Steelers took Troy Polamalu.
LJ was told by Dick Vermeil early in his career that he needs to "take the diapers off", a statement that became very telling throughout his career with the Chiefs.
LJ sprang to life in the last nine games of the 2005 season. He put up arguably the best half of a season for a running back ever.
He did it again in 2006 with another 1,700+ yards rushing and a NFL record 416 carries. This would be the last time LJ was effective on a regular basis.
In 2007, he suffered an injury and missed the final nine games of the season - all Chiefs losses.
In 2008, he was deactivated by the Chiefs for several games, and officially suspended by the NFL one game, for another altercation with a woman at a nightclub.
In 2009, he became expendable with a 2.7 yards per carry average and the Twitter incident.