[bigboydan]

Larry Johnson is still unhappy. this guy never seems to be happy though.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) -Larry Johnson wants everybody to know he is still not happy.


Not after going to the Pro Bowl. Not after rushing for a Kansas City Chiefs record 1,750 yards. Not after having fans approach him on the streets of New York and Las Vegas and tell him how great he is. Not even after hobnobbing with celebrities as a newly minted celebrity himself.

``No, I'm never happy,'' the running back said Thursday.

``When I feel like I'm successful in my own right, I will never be happy with anything, period. I haven't started one full season yet. I haven't gotten this team to a Super Bowl. As far as my career, it's still starting off late, I feel. So I can't overall be happy about where I'm at right now, 'cause like I said, I feel like I'm still playing catch-up.''

One thing the fourth-year Penn State product has caught up with is a job as a starter. When three-time Pro Bowler Priest Holmes went out last season with neck trauma, the sullen backup finally got the chance he always said he deserved.

He started nine games and went over 100 yards each time, topping 200 twice. His 1,627 yards from scrimmage in games played on or after Nov. 1 were the most in NFL history.

Even if Holmes decides to come back and resume his career, new head coach Herman Edwards has assured Johnson that he, not Holmes, will go into camp as the starter.

That much does make him happy. So does having Edwards as his head coach instead of the retired Dick Vermeil. He and Vermeil clashed repeatedly during his first three stormy years after being taken in the first round in 2003. But now, he says, he has a head coach who's in his corner for the first time since he was a high school senior.

``For (Edwards) to come out and say that, and make it be known to everybody when we really haven't had our first minicamp yet - it's new to me. Usually, I would have to wait and wait and wait and try to figure out myself if I was going to start or not,'' he said. ``But he stepped up and told me I was going to be a starter.

``I'm not really surprised. But at the same time, I am. I haven't had a coach like that.''

Holmes, as mysterious as always, has sent word he will not participate in the Chiefs' mandatory minicamp May 19-21 because he still does not have medical clearance. Team president Carl Peterson has said that he still expects Holmes to return.

Holmes was one of the NFL's top running backs when Johnson was drafted. Nevertheless, Johnson insists he still is bitter that he did not step right in as the starter.

``I'm still two and maybe three years behind,'' he said. ``This will be my first time starting a regular season. All I have to prove is if I can carry the load for 16 games.''

Now that he's finally won the job, does he think those struggles the first two years helped make him a better player?

``Not really,'' he said. ``It just made me a little bit more frustrated, made me a little bit more (angry) that I had to go up to the season, that I had to make up for a lot of ground, that I missed my first two seasons here. I feel like I'm still playing behind the eight-ball.

``I still feel like I have a lot to prove.''

[5teamparlay]

Not happy now:

http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports...vegas/1616291/

Ex-NFL player Larry Johnson arrested in Las Vegas


An ex-girlfriend says Johnson choked her into unconsciousness and left her in her underwear.
Johnson was arrested about 4:30 a.m. at the Bellagio resort, according to a police report.
It wasn't clear from the police report if the woman was hospitalized or received medical treatment.
8:08PM EST October 5. 2012 -


LAS VEGAS (AP) — Former NFL running back Larry Johnson was arrested early Friday at a Las Vegas Strip resort after an ex-girlfriend told police he choked her into unconsciousness and left her in her underwear in a hotel hallway.


Larry Alphonso Johnson Jr., 32, was being held on $15,000 bail at the Clark County jail pending an initial court appearance on a domestic violence-strangulation charge that could get him a minimum of two years in state prison if he is convicted.


Johnson was arrested about 4:30 a.m. at the Bellagio resort, according to a police report that said Johnson and the woman had been drinking alcohol before the altercation, and that the woman had marks on her face and bruises on her neck.


Johnson, who lives in North Bay Village, Fla., had marks on his face that police attributed to the woman fighting him as he choked her.


The woman, 32, from Maryland, told police that she told Johnson that he would have to squeeze harder and get it over with if he was going to kill her, the report states.


She said she awoke in the 10th floor hallway and knocked on doors until someone called hotel security.


It wasn't clear from the police report if the woman was hospitalized or received medical treatment. Officer Marcus Martin, a Las Vegas police spokesman, said he had no information about her condition.


The arresting officer said Johnson and the woman each told him about previous physical altercations, including one at another Las Vegas Strip hotel. Johnson at one point pretended to run from hotel security officers and told one security officer he would rip his vocal chords out, the police report said.


Yvette Monet, a spokeswoman for Bellagio resort owner MGM Resorts International, cited guest privacy policies and declined comment.


It wasn't immediately clear if Johnson had a lawyer.


Johnson starred for the Kansas City Chiefs after being drafted from Penn State in the first round of the 2003 NFL draft.


He was chosen All-Pro and Chiefs MVP in 2005 and 2006, and signed a contract in 2007 that guaranteed a team-record $19 million. But he was plagued by injuries and inconsistency in the years that followed.


Johnson played for the Cincinnati Bengals in 2009 and the Washington Redskins in 2010 before playing briefly for the Miami Dolphins in 2011.


Johnson served what amounted to a one-game suspension in 2009 for using an anti-gay slur, and had several scrapes with the law over the years.


He was sentenced in March 2009 to two years of probation with a chance to have his record cleared for good behavior after pleading guilty to reduced disturbing the peace charges in separate incidents involving two women at two Kansas City nightclubs.


One case involved a 26-year-old woman who accused Johnson of pushing her head at a nightspot in February 2008.


The other involved allegations by a 24-year-old woman that Johnson spat a drink at her and threatened to kill her boyfriend in October 2008.


In 2003, Johnson was charged with aggravated assault and misdemeanor battery after being accused of brandishing a gun during an argument with a former girlfriend. The charges were dropped after he completed a domestic violence diversion program.


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