Looks like Bill Belichik might be willing to take over the diaper-changing duties for embittered and waived former Kansas City Chiefs running back, Larry Johnson.  Forced upon Dick Vermeil as the 27th pick in the 2003 draft, the former Penn State star got figured out immediately by the seasoned Vermeil who suggested that it was time for Johnson to "take the diapers off."

LJ is just one of those players who seems to prevent his teammates from rising higher.  Despite Johnson's big numbers in 2005 and 2006, his team never made it past the first round of the playoffs.  He lugged the oblate spheroid 426 times in 2006, an NFL record, rolling up 1789 yards.  When faced with the undersized Indianapolis Colts in the first round of the 2006 playoffs, LJ was clearly run-down and mustered a meager 30 yards on 13 carries.  Johnson was single-handledly responsible for restoring the confidence of that Colts defense, which had been regularly maligned for being among the worst teams against the run in the 2006 regular season.   The Colts went on to win the Super Bowl.

Except for a few games in 2007, Johnson has never been an effective rushing threat again.  In one of the worst re-signings in recent memory, Kansas City management chose to make LJ the highest paid running back in the NFL.  What they have gotten in return is an easily injured player with a proclivity for off-the -field stupidity combined with that brooding, me-first attitude Dick Vermeil got to know and failed to love.  LJ was arrested four times since 2003.

His gay-bashing tweets to fans responding to his own tweeted criticism of the Chief's coaching staff finally got him suspended, fined and finally put on waivers.   The tweets were more remarkable for their ignorance and inability to construct a simple sentence than they were for their criticism.  After all, Johnson actually graduated with a degree in Interactive Arts from Penn State.  I was unable to find the curiculum for this obviously less-than-intensive course of study, but you can bet that there weren't any English courses required.  Here's a sample of LJ's tweeted brainstorms:

"My father got more creditentials (sic) than most of these pro coaches."

"My father played for the coach from rememeber the titans...My father played for the redskins briefley (sic).  Our coach Nuthn."

Punctuating this erudtion with name-calling directed at the sexual orientation of fans finally forced the Chiefs to bite the bullet and waive the troublemaking malingerer.  Johnson will leave the team just 75 yards short of the Chiefs all-time rushing record held by Priest Holmes.  Fans were said to be the driving force behind brooming Johnson before he could break the record.

While its not surprising that an overpaid, thuggish athlete with too much self-love would incinerate his career, what is truly startling is the suggestion that the Patriots are interested in giving Johnson a work-out and interview.  If the rumors regarding Belichik's interest are true, it speaks volumes about the coach's lack of faith in his less-than effective rushing corps.

While the Patriots seem to have successfully resurrected the mind-set of former trouble-magnet, Randy Moss, adding another head case is asking for cacaphony.  Guys like T.O. and Pacman Jones are bad enough on their own, but team them up with additional malcontents and the cancer develops within team chemistry in Malthusean proportions.