No one takes something more personally than C.J. Gardner-Johnson; itās awesome. He hated the Saints for trading him to the Philadelphia Eagles in 2022, then he hated the Eagles for not re-signing him in 2023 (his car was also stolen in Philadelphia); and then he felt slighted by the Lions for not re-signing him in 2024.
After the Eagles traded him to the Texans this offseason, he said he understood the move and that there were no hard feelingsā¦ but you knew it was only a matter of time until the Super Bowl-winning safety was going to pop off on how he actually felt. That happened after Vic Fangio had his first press conference of the offseason.
We all pretty much knew that Milton Williams, Josh Sweat, and Darius Slay were all going to leave in free agency, but it was pretty blindsiding when the Eagles sent C.J.G.J. to Houston. It made sense when you thought about it: it saved the Eagles money, which will eventually go to Jalen Carter and Nolan Smith. In order to afford a Lamborghini, youāre going to have to sell your Bentley (I assume. I drive a 2016 Malibu). Planning for the future is responsible and a good idea, but itās not fun.
Initially, everyone seemed like they were on the same page. On a livestream, C.J.G.J. explained, āThe situation is: them young guys got to get paid in Philly. Jalen Carter, Reed [Blankenship], Zack [Baun]. All them guys got to get their money, they deserve it. With me getting older, so I've got to understand, there was no bad blood. There was nothingā¦ā
A clean break with the dude who hates every one of his exes? No way. That seemed too good to be true. Was winning a Super Bowl akin to the Grinch hearing the Whos down in Whoville? Did it make his heart grow? Did it dull his edge?Ā
No. Of course, it didnāt, and thatās a good thing. It just took him a second to get his head out of the post-Super Bowl euphoria. Youāre not allowed to both celebrate the Eagles winning the Super Bowl and be mad that C.J.G.J. takes everything as a personal affront; thatās what makes him awesome.
CJGJ took offense to Vic Fangio's latest comments
On Tuesday, Vic Fangio spoke to the media for the first time this offseason, and he was asked about his thoughts on trading C.J.G.J. Fangio said, āThat was a salary cap type thing. Howie made that decision, I was fine with it.āĀ
Thatās just about as Fangio of an answer as youāll get. Two sentences, straight and to the point. Unfortunately, because Fangio is so straightforward, that means he didnāt say anything about how much Gardner-Johnson meant to the team and the defense.Ā
It turns out, C.J.G.J. heard that and didnāt like it. He shared his thoughts on his Instagram story.Ā
Thatās a lot to take in and make sense of, so Iām going to do my best to translate and break it all down. On his first slide, he said, āJust donāt do them young guys like yall did me šÆšŖšæā
This could go a couple of ways: The most positive (and admittedly the most wishful) way, he couldāve meant that he knows how much the young guys like being on the team, and he doesnāt want the Eagles to trade them away just to save money. He also couldāve meant that he doesnāt want the young guys to have to test the open market like he did after 2022. Or, Ā he couldāve meant that he felt like he was just thrown away after a good season. Whatever it meant, it was pretty sentimental.
On the second slide, he said, āI was a test dummy for them, so now they can be like my āschemeā work, or did my skill set make it work šÆ. I had 0 issues, Ppl had issues with me, So Yeah let the salary cap be the āexcuseā
He deleted this slide, so itās probably not worth looking into a whole lot, but the glaring thing is the test dummy part. The question is what scheme he was talking about: Fangioās defensive scheme or Howie Rosemanās grand scheme of roster management?
If he was talking about being a test dummy for Fangioās defense, then itās a hell of a reach. Fangio has been doing this for a long time, and heās had some really good safeties who have played in his system. That being said, this was the first time Fangio had ever won a Super Bowl.Ā
His defense relies heavily on dynamic safeties, and C.J.G.J. was one of the two safeties who won Fangio his Super Bowlā¦ so maybe thatās what he was talking about. After all, the Eagles drafted Drew Mukuba, the safety from Texas, in the second round, and he gets compared to C.J.G.J. a lot. Maybe he has a point about Fangio using him as a test dummy so they could replace him with a younger player with the same play style.
If he was talking about Howie Rosemanās scheme of roster management, it could also hold some water. If thatās the case, then the skill set C.J.G.J. is talking about is his ability to change teams every season.Ā
The Texans will be his fifth team in five years. Itās got to be tough to trade a player who has a track record of not sticking around for more than one year. Luckily, heās been good in each of his last four stops, and that makes him very tradeable. If thatās what heās talking about, then again, he has a good point.
His last slide on his Instagram story was, āYou canāt program a dog šÆ,ā which is factually inaccurate. In the early 1900s, Ivan Pavlov famously programmed his dog to drool whenever he rang a bell. I have no idea what heās talking about here.Ā
All in all, this is just C.J.G.J. being C.J.G.J. and you canāt fault him for it. Stone Cold Steve Austin was going to smash beers together and pour them on his face, and Ceedy Duce is going to say things about the teams he used to play on. Thatās just how it is, and itās awesome.Ā