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KJ: 'I knew they would trade me'
Just before leaving on the final leg of an improbable journey from New York to Tampa this morning, a thrilled but tired Keyshawn Johnson said he's known for a month he'd be traded by the Jets, and he said he was neither bitter nor angry at the Jets for dealing him from a team and a city he loved. "I've known for a while,'' Johnson told CNNSI.com as he prepared to drive from Orlando to Tampa just after 10 this morning. "You sort of get a feeling. I never met the new owner [Woody Johnson]. And I haven't talked to [coach] Al Groh in almost a month--after he said he wanted to leave the lines of communication open and he wanted to talk every day.'' In a sometimes emotional interview, Johnson said he would miss the energy and excitement of New York but looked forward to bringing his family to the quieter pace of Tampa. "Hey,'' he said, "no one died here. I'm sure the Jets' flag isn't at half-mast. I understand the passion and love for the game Jets' fans have. I have it too. I have 1,700 members of a fan club there I have to thank, plus all the fans. I feel bad for the people that appreciated me there. It was a great fit for me there. A great fit. A really, really great fit. But this is going to be a great fit too. Me and Warren Sapp will turn this thing around. I really like Tampa. It's slower. There's beaches. There's grass. There's land.'' It was clear Johnson left the Jets with respect for his coach of three years, Bill Parcells, who now is the club's de facto general manager but deferring final personnel decisions to Groh. "I know Bill didn't want to do this,'' Johnson said. "He told me that. If coach Parcells was still the coach, who knows if this would have happened?'' Tampa officially dealt its two first-round picks--13th and 27th in the first round of Saturday's draft--to the Jets Wednesday morning for the rights to Johnson. This leaves the Jets with four picks between 13 and 27 in the first round. And it leaves Tampa with the big-play receiver they've lacked for so long in an offense that has brought new meaning to the word boring. The Bucs early Wednesday morning finalized the contract with Johnson's agent, Jerome Stanley. The deal that had been in the works since Buc GM Rich McKay flew to Los Angeles last Friday and opened talks with Stanley. Tampa will make Johnson the highest-paid receiver in football, but aside from the $13-million bonus that was confirmed with two sources Wednesday, the rest of the deal--a six-year pact--could not be exactly determined. One source said in real dollars the Bucs will pay Johnson an average of $5.3 million a year; the contract contains deferred payments, which will inflate the numbers of the deal to around $6 million a year. "It's a good deal for everyone,'' Johnson said. "It's good for the Bucs because they get the receiver I guess they felt they needed. It's good for me, obviously. And I think it's good for the Jets.'' Good for the Jets? Perhaps in the long run, because Johnson likely would have been a training-camp holdout that could have lasted into the season; he was, unhappily, due to make $2.44 million this year. That forced this trade. Certainly the Jets' players aren't happy with the deal. They have a team built to win now, and the dealing of Johnson, the biggest offensive weapon, certainly will make them a lesser team. "I've got my golf tournament in Los Angeles this weekend,'' Johnson said. "I've got half the team coming out for it. You think they'll be in mourning?'' Count on it. Sports Illustrated senior writer Peter King covers the NFL and appears regularly on CNN/Sports Illustrated and CNN's NFL Preview.
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