Bears waive Tank Johnson

Today, the Chicago Bears waived troubled defensive tackle Tank Johnson. The move was made not for performance issues, but because Johnson has gotten in trouble with the law multiple times. He is already suspended for the first 8 games this season because of a violation of a gun probation that he was under. That same violation was what got Johnson into a Cook County jail for 45 days. Then, after he had been suspended 8 games, Johnson got arrested for what Sgt. Andrew Duncan, a police spokesman for the suburb of Gilbert in Arizona, said to be a "DUI Impaired to the Slightest Degree". Johnson had blood drawn from him, but the results have yet to come back. He was also speeding when he was pulled over.

Last season, Johnson played in 14 games, not including the 3 in the playoffs, getting 26 tackles, 22 of which were solo and 4 assisted. He also got 3.5 sacks and a forced fumble.

Bears GM Jerry Angelo said,"We are upset and embarrassed by Tank's actions last week. 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."

Bears head coach Lovie Smith said,"A lot of people within our organization gave extra time and energy to support Tank; players, coaches and our front office. 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"

Reading those quotes, it is very obvious that the Bear's front office does not believe that Johnson can turn his life of bad ways around, which led to him being waived. This is a fairly big loss for the Bears, as he was probably going to be a starter at defensive tackle for the Bears. Now recently signed Anthony Adams from the San Francisco Forty-Niners will probably start at defensive tackle alongside Tommie Harris. The Bears loose a lot of depth with Johnson gone, even if he would only play in eight games.