One night on South Beach cost ex-Titan Chris Johnson and teammates a combined $140,000
A crazy night at LIV can really hurt your pockets. But a night worth $140,000 might be one for the books .
Former NFL running back Chris Johnson recently stopped by Bleacher Report’s “Untold Stories” to detail how an extra night on South Beach cost he and his Tennessee Titans teammates more than $100,000.
The year was 2010. After a 29-19 loss to the Miami Dolphins, Titans coach Jeff Fisher allowed Johnson and some of his teammates to spend the night in Magic City. There was just one condition: They had to make it to Monday meetings.
Ecstatic, the group agreed and booked rooms at the Fountainbleau where they relaxed before ending the night at LIV.
“We all planned to get back to Nashville by 11 o’clock, get off the plane, drive straight to work, be there by 12,” Johnson told B/R’s Master Tesfatsion.
What they never accounted for is that the morning after a night on South Beach never goes as planned.
Johnson woke up Monday morning to numerous missed calls from teammates. He wasn’t the only one — cornerback Ryan Mouton also was missing in action. As Johnson rushed to the airport, he repeatedly called Mouton, who was still asleep.
Mouton didn’t pick up the phone until 10 minutes before Johnson got to the airport.
“He’s like, ‘Bro! Please don’t let em leave me,’ ” Johnson continued. “I say, ‘Bro, I got you. I’mma try.’ ”
Stopping a private jet, however, is much more difficult than you think. The jet was already on the runway by the time Johnson arrived. In a mad dash reminiscent of O.J. Simpson’s Hertz commercial, the three-time Pro Bowler sprinted to the jet.
He made it. Unfortunately, Mouton wasn’t so lucky.
“By the time he pulled up, we’d taken off,” Johnson said.
Mouton’s day only got worse. Johnson said his teammate missed the entire day because of canceled flights.
Two days later, Johnson and his teammates had a special surprise waiting in their lockers. Each of the four teammates who made it back for Monday meetings were fined $20,000. Mouton, conversely, was slapped with a $60,000 fine.
“’Y’all all got fined cuz one of y’all teammates ain’t even make it back at all,’” Johnson recalled Fisher saying.
While a $20,000 fine wouldn’t hurt Johnson, Mouton might’ve missed a few meals.
The second-year player made approximately $560,937 that season, according to sportrac.com. After taxes, that number will shrink to about $365,000. That means his game checks, which are a player’s salary divied up over the 17-week regular season and where fines are siphoned from, is barely over $21,000.
Now think about how many checks Moutin had to forfeit to cover this fine.
“We had a good time but it wasn’t worth all that money,” Johnson concluded.
