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ITL reacts to the latest headlines from around the league, including C.J. Gardner-Johnson's comments
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00:00The Houston Texans have been mentioned in a piece for The Athletic
00:04that has to focus John Lopez with C.J. Gardner-Johnson.
00:09Oh, this will be fun.
00:10Chauncey Gardner-Johnson, once a Texan for a few short weeks in 2025.
00:17Obviously, an acquisition that the Texans made
00:19that we thought was going to hold down that safety spot,
00:22bring a level of veteran experience, Super Bowl experience to the defense,
00:25and it just kind of didn't work out.
00:28And, you know, we heard all the noise of people saying,
00:31hey, man, this dude is something or the other or whatever,
00:34and we were like, nah, man, I think he's grown up.
00:36Come to find out, it was not the case.
00:39And so Tim Graham of The Athletic wrote a very intriguing piece.
00:44It's now Chauncey Gardner-Johnson, who last year found a home eventually
00:48with the Chicago Bears.
00:51He will now be applying his trade at Orchard Park in New York
00:53with the Buffalo Bills.
00:55And he, you know, kind of just, it was a little feature piece
00:58just to get, you know, inside of what C.J. Gardner-Johnson keeps doing
01:05with changing teams and apparently what the NFL gets wrong about him.
01:09And I'm going to be honest, before just reading this, John,
01:11I feel like you also dug into this.
01:15Because I know this guy that is C.J. Gardner-Johnson,
01:18the guy who everything that happens, it wasn't his fault.
01:21It was just some other circumstance that happened.
01:24And everything is an exception to the rule.
01:27Nothing falls in line with a trend.
01:29It's all just, no, but that was something different.
01:30And this was something different.
01:32And no, I am not the common denominator that's the issue here.
01:35When is it, like second, third grade, when it's never the kid's fault
01:38that somebody else did it to him?
01:39I believe so.
01:39He's a second grader.
01:41It's all a teacher's fault.
01:42The teacher hates me.
01:44That kid did it, not me.
01:46You don't understand, you know, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
01:49I remember them days.
01:51Bootman, why you got all Fs?
01:52All the teachers don't like you.
01:54Teachers hate me, man.
01:54Teachers hate me, man.
01:55Yeah.
01:56That's the vibe that I'm getting on this.
01:58Now, I don't know, is there any shred of truth to, like, this?
02:04With the Texans in particular?
02:05Because he was talking about just himself in general.
02:07That's what I was mostly mentioning.
02:09Although it came down.
02:10Like, he has been named the NFL's most annoying player
02:12in various different, like, anonymous player polls that the Athletic has done.
02:17He's had almost $200,000 worth of fines in his career at this point.
02:21But for him, you know, like, obviously it all points somewhere else and whatever.
02:24But the big thing that I got attention here was that he talked about his time in Houston.
02:28And there was a couple of notable things that come up.
02:30So, one was the reporting that had come out that he had, at some point, like, talked about somebody's deal.
02:39Mm-hmm.
02:40Right?
02:40That I think it was Aaron Wilson who had made the point that, reporting that he had exhausted the team
02:47by complaining about his role,
02:48requesting a trade, and criticizing teammates, notably the size of one player's contract,
02:52that I think us locally seem to believe might be Jalen Petrie.
02:55This is his retort.
02:57Quote, that's a lie.
02:58I never said bleep about nobody's contract.
03:00I'm on a $33 million deal.
03:02Why to bleep what I talk about somebody's contract?
03:05Mm-hmm.
03:06I just, you said we all know this guy.
03:08We also know this guy that you don't know when he's lying, but he definitely lies a lot.
03:15It's like, I could see this being true, but also you tend to lie.
03:19Yes.
03:21We all know that.
03:22Like, you're like, well, last time, you know, he said this, and it was completely false,
03:26although he's also said some things that, you know, kind of have some shred of truth to it.
03:30That's the worst part about those type of people.
03:32Yeah.
03:32Because once in a while, they be telling the truth, and they come out, you're like, damn, he was right
03:36on that one.
03:37Yeah.
03:37And then all of a sudden, you're like, well, there's no way that's true.
03:39Followed by four more lies.
03:41Exactly.
03:42The most intriguing thing to me is, well, all of this, but especially the whole timeline and, I guess, you
03:50know, flashpoint of why he got cut.
03:53Yeah, this is C.J. Gardner-Johnson's side.
03:55I think for us, especially shout-out to the reporting that DJ Biennemi did after C.J. Gardner-Johnson was
04:01cut after week three,
04:02and then all of a sudden there was a couple of wins that came in.
04:05Not to say that those are directly tied, however.
04:07Not to say that they're not.
04:08Do with that what you will.
04:10Yeah.
04:10But I think DJ did a great job of clearly getting some insight from the locker room as to, hey,
04:16these are the responsibilities.
04:17Because, you know, this is the thing that's tough about analyzing football or any sport, really.
04:20You're not in the room.
04:21You don't know what the actual coaching points are, what the actual play call is, what the responsibilities are.
04:28DJ came out with, hey, you see this play where, you know, it looks like Kalen Bullock is out of
04:33place,
04:33but that's because he's having to pick up for something that clearly isn't happening.
04:36Right, like these things of going rogue and seemingly not playing nice, whether because he did not know the system
04:42or because he decided to go into business for himself, clearly factored into why he did not remain with the
04:47team
04:47on top of maybe grading on people and, you know, maybe not being.
04:50Not according to him.
04:51According to him, and I will read this verbatim in a segment that I like to call reading.
04:55Gardner Johnson said his experience with the Texans began to go south at training camp in West Virginia,
05:02earlier than I previously thought, but at training camp in West Virginia, where he said he got into a confrontation
05:06with, quote,
05:07the GM's friend, close quote.
05:10He went further to say, if y'all are going to cut me, cut me, but I'll give nobody reasons
05:15to cut me.
05:15I haven't.
05:16I don't.
05:17I'm not a cancer.
05:18Press pause.
05:18I'm still in the middle of a comment, but I have never given someone a reason to cut me.
05:23Buddy, how many teams is this?
05:25Yeah, it is.
05:25Everybody is just deciding to cut you out of nowhere or, like, move on from you?
05:29Anyways.
05:30When you hear someone say, I'm not a cancer, what do you think that person is?
05:33A cancer.
05:34I mean, you might not be a cancer, but, I mean, you're a disease.
05:38You sure you're not, like, a virus, maybe?
05:41Or, like, just a cough, at least?
05:43Anyways.
05:43You're a polyp.
05:44Okay.
05:45I feel like that's because of something that happened recently.
05:48You're not a cancer.
05:49You're a polyp.
05:50Anyways, I continue, right?
05:51He says, I give nobody reasons to cut me.
05:53I have and I don't.
05:53I'm not a cancer.
05:54There's nobody in this locker room that says Chauncey is a problem.
05:57The media loves me.
05:58The only thing that'll do it is something that triggers somebody that has a say in the building
06:03that can't alter somebody else's mind.
06:05That can alter somebody's mind.
06:06That happens every time.
06:07That's how I got cut in Houston.
06:09One person that's technically a part of the organization, technically not a part of the organization,
06:14let me get that correct, called me a B-word at Greenbrier.
06:16I get out of my body.
06:18He says something to the GM.
06:19Next thing, I'm cut.
06:21Close quote.
06:22All right.
06:22Well, it's funny you say that because I think it's...
06:25Was he a visitor or did you miss hit a button?
06:28I think I might have miss hit a button.
06:30Which one of them dudes is that?
06:31That's awesome.
06:32That's awesome.
06:34What are you trying to do right now?
06:35You got to at least hit the reckless speculation sound of the four.
06:38That's funny right there.
06:39I laugh at that all the time.
06:43I feel like we would have known if Easterby was at the Greenbrier.
06:46Somebody would have said something.
06:47Unless it was on the DL.
06:48No, I'm just saying.
06:49You think they're still tight?
06:51Yes.
06:51Nick Casario?
06:52Yes.
06:52I'm talking about tight.
06:53Casario said so after he was fired.
06:55Remember that?
06:58We digress.
06:59Because I don't want to make any false accusations here.
07:02My bad, Nick.
07:04Still ain't played that reckless speculation sound of it.
07:06The question is, who's the friend?
07:08And was it someone outside of the organization?
07:10It could have been, and the guys this morning and us were talking about this.
07:14It could have been somebody he just didn't even know.
07:16Keep in mind, this is West Virginia.
07:18This is training camp.
07:18You're like maybe two months or a month.
07:21No, because he came in late, right?
07:23No, he came in before camp.
07:25But either way, it's still early in the process.
07:27Yeah, you don't know that many people.
07:28You don't know the security staff.
07:30You don't know some of the, I don't know.
07:33Wait, didn't he get hurt a little early on?
07:35Was that him?
07:36That happened in West Virginia, remember?
07:38It was scary.
07:39Yeah, it was scary.
07:39That happened in West Virginia.
07:40Yeah, and it could be someone who actually was part of the organization, but he just didn't
07:45know him.
07:46Or it could have been Nick Casario's friends.
07:48What are the chances this is Lipford or Blanco?
07:50Not zero.
07:51Yeah, I mean, what are the chances that this is just an AGM?
07:54I think Matt Burke is on the table.
07:58And his ball had to do keep yelling at me.
08:00What's happening?
08:01Who do you believe is this guy?
08:02Why does he keep talking to me?
08:03That's the defensive coordinator.
08:04Oh, oh, okay.
08:07Regardless, how much of this do you think there is?
08:10No, there's no way this is the reason.
08:11Hold on, hold on.
08:12I don't think any of us believe this is true and one led to the other because it was six,
08:16seven weeks later.
08:16Yes, he gets cut after week three.
08:18You still had the rest of training camp and the preseason.
08:22No, no, no.
08:22I totally agree with you.
08:23So he's trying to purport this as somebody called me a B.
08:27I acted out, which by the way, this is the epitome of something that happens on social
08:31media a lot that I hate, which is a fight video or something crazy happening starting in the
08:36middle where I go, I need to know how this started because that dictates a lot of what
08:39happened here.
08:39He's just dropping us up in the middle.
08:41Somebody allegedly called him a B.
08:42He acted out his mind.
08:43And then seven weeks later, somebody was moving and shaking to ultimately get him fired two
08:48months later or a month and a half later.
08:50I don't think anybody in this room and really anybody who's reading this story or hearing
08:53about this story will say this happened and then he got cut because it's just silly because
09:00it was six, seven weeks, as I said, timeline.
09:02But what I was going to say is how much of what he said about that confrontation is true.
09:08Oh.
09:09Because there are things that people kind of file away.
09:12You know, remember that time he went off on the GM's friend?
09:15We don't know who it is.
09:17And, you know, all of a sudden, you know, that got back.
09:19Let's just say Sean P.
09:21Let's just say Sean P.
09:22Yeah.
09:22You know, for the sake of our...
09:23Or you know what?
09:24Maybe that's...
09:25Sorry.
09:25S. Pendergast.
09:26Maybe that's the way we should go about it.
09:28Oh!
09:29Probably.
09:30That was, interestingly enough, that's his reaction.
09:35That was his reaction.
09:36But I think there probably is something to that.
09:40Yeah, because I don't think...
09:41Chauncey does not seem like...
09:42And again, I don't know this dude well enough at all to say definitively.
09:45But again, he gives me feelings of people that I've known that do similar things, right?
09:50And so, in that feeling, as I try and flesh out who he feels like in this, as we've heard
09:56more,
09:56he seems like the dude that does not make things up out of whole cloth.
10:00But he does seem like...
10:01Like, who told me is not the fullness of the circumstance.
10:04I could easily see there being, like, a back and forth with somebody.
10:07Sure, that's what I'm saying.
10:08I could even see somebody actually calling him a B-word, right?
10:10Like, I could absolutely see that have been the case.
10:12Because I highly doubt that, one, he didn't do anything to instigate that, right?
10:16There's a possibility that there was some level of instigation.
10:18Because I have a hard time also thinking, knowing how, in the space of a training camp,
10:24the players are highly respected in those cases, right?
10:27I think.
10:28I mean, correct me if I'm wrong, if you've seen instances in your time covering the NFL
10:32where dudes just talking crazy to the players in those circumstances.
10:35Usually, there's a lot of deference given there.
10:37Yes, there is.
10:37I feel like somebody got into it, he went wild, and maybe there's a possibility that
10:43somewhere in your mind you go, oh, yeah.
10:45Remember that time.
10:47It kind of stays with you.
10:48Those are the things that we had heard in the past that had been a problem with C.J.
10:52Gardner-Johnson that we were hoping that, with a fresh start here, we would move away from.
10:56No, I think there's definitely something to it.
10:59But I think, largely, there's a lot of lies involved.
11:02There's a lot of weird, I guess, leaps of whatever faith, or whatever you want to call
11:08it, you know, that he's talking about.
11:11I think it may well be not even a friend of the GMs.
11:15It may well have not even been a factor.
11:17And so, it's hard to take seriously.
11:19Yeah, no, the big thing for me is that this is in his mind where he goes, this was the
11:23issue.
11:23Only God knows the other things that he is just completely wiping from his memory that matters
11:27in this.
11:27And ultimately, the thing that is very disappointing to me, and I'm glad, like, you're in a place
11:32where you've found another safety in Reed Blankenship, who you know can hold down this
11:36job in a similar way as what you were hoping for C.J.
11:38Gardner-Johnson.
11:39I really, and this is self-centered.
11:41I recognize.
11:42I really did buy the, I bought the hype.
11:45Like, I bought the belief that, hey, this is a dude who has gone through some things and
11:48has matured for those experiences.
11:51And hearing, seeing it laid out this clearly, right?
11:54This is, I know we're almost a year away from having this all play out.
11:57Where we were like, damn, you were wrong.
11:58But seeing the way that, like, in his words he's talked about all this, it's clear that
12:03he ain't learned a lesson number one in none of this.
12:05He showed you who he was and hasn't changed.
12:09Yeah, that's, like, very, very disappointing that that's the case.
12:12For a dude like him, because, honestly, if he was not a bad MF-er as a football player,
12:18he wouldn't be in the league.
12:19He would not.
12:20He absolutely would not.
12:21And it kind of explained why, I know at the time we was kind of like, man, he got a
12:25steal
12:25off of him.
12:27A king and green and what, a fifth round swap or something like that?
12:30For C.J. Garner-Johnson.
12:31Yeah, so now it kind of explains.
12:33I know it's hindsight, but now it's kind of like, damn.
12:35And we knew that, right?
12:36I kind of see, yeah.
12:37We knew, like, hey, you're taking a little bit of a risk with the history, but he, there
12:40was, I mean, was it him on the Pivot podcast that we, you know, we played some of the
12:44audio of him there where it felt like, okay, there's a maturity here that seems like there's
12:48a corner turn.
12:49No, man, like, it's not, right?
12:52There's, it's a continual thing that happens.
12:55For his sake, I do hope that, like, he could find some level of awareness, but the scary
13:01thing is, like, I was hoping that that was the case where once he landed in Chicago, he
13:04found a way to level out and that that would be an opportunity for him to continue to succeed.
13:09He's already gone to Buffalo, and this is the way that he's thinking right now before
13:12they go into the season.
13:13Like, I just, I am deathly afraid for his sake that this is going to go, you know, go
13:18by the wayside again.
13:20Yeah.
13:20Because, again, you're going to make, you're just, I mean, in this article, he's talking
13:25about his different personalities and how the one that he calls CD Deuce is one where,
13:30you know, you know, he's liable to just wild out.
13:32It's the one he brings out on game days because, you know, people don't want to see him.
13:35And I'm like, I understand the idea of having kind of these multiple personalities, maybe
13:39not even a clinical sense, but just in a way that you separate these things out.
13:43I can get that to some, some extent.
13:45The idea that you kind of give yourself a pass for behaving badly in some of those instances.
13:50That's what it comes down to.
13:51It's, it's, it's.
13:52Wasn't my fault.
13:53Yeah.
13:53There's a lot of, it's a lot of that in there.
13:55And I hate that for him because he should be, he should be a dude that is much more highly
14:00regarded for the capabilities.
14:01That's the thing I can agree with him on.
14:02He is not widely regarded highly enough because of his capabilities, but it's also his doing.
14:07Yes, absolutely.
14:08Absolutely.
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