Bears cornerback Jaylon Johnson was surprised his fine for being late to work mushroomed into a big story, but it’s likely no one outside Halas Hall would’ve known about it if he hadn’t posted it on Instagram.
Johnson said Friday he meant to send the “innocent” post — a photo of the notice signed by coach Matt Nagy — to only his friends, but tapped the “wrong button” and inadvertently vented his frustration to the world. Nagy learned of that during a press conference Wednesday and said it was time for them to have a chat.
“I messed up; I posted it when I didn’t need to,” Johnson said. “I’ve gotta own up to it. If I didn’t want that to happen in the first place, I shouldn’t have been late.
“I wasn’t worried about the discipline. It was more so a joke to my friends saying how much I got fined for being late. But that’s it.”
Johnson wrote in his post that he was one minute late Tuesday and called it “crazy” that the Bears docked him $2,745. Johnson is in the second season of his four-year, $6.5 million rookie contract.
When pressed about whether he was angry, Johnson said, “Nah. [Expletive], at the end of the day, I was late. I can’t be mad, because I was late.”
The kerfuffle came at an inconvenient time for Nagy and the Bears while they’re trying to keep their season afloat at 3-3 coming off a loss to the Packers. A post like Johnson’s could lead to perception of discord within the team.
“That’s kind of the social media world that we live in right now — everything gets blown out of proportion,” Nagy said. “So you’ve got to accept that... I know where we’re at right now with this team and where I’m at with Jaylon, and I think it’s a good, valuable lesson for everybody.”
