[CBFF] Bears waive Tank Johnson

[Tom Shannon]

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Bears waive Tank Johnson
By Brian Hamilton
Tribune staff reporter

June 25, 2007, 2:40 PM CDT

The Bears waived Tank Johnson on Monday, bringing a swift and sudden end to
the troubled defensive tackle's tenure with the team.

Already suspended by the NFL for the first eight games of the 2007 season
for violating the league's personal conduct policy, Johnson was pulled over
and arrested by police in Gilbert, Ariz., at 3:30 a.m. Friday and issued a
citation for "being impaired to the slightest degree."

That evidently thrust Johnson beyond the Bears' tolerance threshhold,
especially considering that his NFL suspension could have been reduced to
six games if he had "no further adverse involvement with law enforcement,"
according to league commissioner Roger Goodell.

"We are upset and embarrassed by Tank's actions last week," Bears general
manager Jerry Angelo said in a statement posted on the team's Web site. "He
compromised the credibility of our organization. We made it clear to him
that he had no room for error. Our goal was to help someone through a
difficult period in his life, but the effort needs to come from both sides.
It didn't, and we have decided to move on."

The decision completes a precipitous free-fall for Johnson, who played in 46
games over three seasons after the Bears drafted him out of Washington in
2004. While Johnson was already on probation for a 2005 weapons violation,
police raided his Gurnee home in December, 2006 and ultimately charged the
player with six gun misdemeanors.

Not 12 hours after receiving a warning from the team regarding his behavior,
Johnson and friend/bodyguard Willie B. Posey -- who was charged with
marijuana possession as a result of the Gurnee raid -- went to a River North
night club where Posey was shot and killed.

On May 13, Johnson was released after spending 60 days in Cook County Jail
following a guilty plea for violating his probation on the 2005 weapons
conviction. On June 4, Goodell issued the eight-game suspension to Johnson,
with the potential to recoup two games for, essentially, good behavior.

Then, last Friday, Johnson appeared to flout the various second chances
afforded to him by both the Bears and the league: According to Gilbert,
Ariz., police spokesman Sgt. Andrew Duncan, police stopped Johnson at 3:30
a.m. for going 40 m.p.h. in a 25-m.p.h. zone when the officer on the scene
"made observations that led him to believe Johnson was impaired."

A blood sample was taken from Johnson, and within the next two weeks,
authorities will determine whether he was driving while impaired. But the
statement issued by the Bears on Monday suggested that the episode violated
a zero-tolerance edict from the team -- a team that supported him even
during his incarceration, as Johnson's visitors at the Cook County Jail
included Angelo, Bears coach Lovie Smith, Bears chairman Michael McCaskey
and 15 teammates.

"A lot of people within our organization gave extra time and energy to
support Tank: players, coaches and our front office," Smith said in a
statement. "We did our best to establish an environment for him to move
forward. Ultimately, Tank needed to live up to his side of the deal."