There&rsquo;s no way I release Larry Johnson. No way.</p><p>He&rsquo;s Scott Pioli&rsquo;s and Todd Haley&rsquo;s most valuable player.</p><p>Within hours of the Chiefs turning in a Three Stoogeslike performance that called into question Haley&rsquo;s competency to lead an NFL team and Pioli&rsquo;s sanity as it relates to Matt Cassel, Larry Johnson created a distraction that took the spotlight off KC&rsquo;s rookie coach and GM.</p><p>Hell, I&rsquo;d give Johnson a bonus, a laptop to carry to practice and the green light to tweet 24/7.</p><p>Short of Michael Jackson returning from the grave and announcing he&rsquo;d sing the national anthem at the Chiefs&rsquo; next home game, LJ&rsquo;s tweet smack talk and locker-room F-bomb are the best thing that could happen to Pioli and Haley this week.</p><p>Look, I&rsquo;m not condoning LJ&rsquo;s actions. But a football player mumbling the F-word inside a locker room is about as surprising as a Klansman shouting the N-word at a cross burning, me passing gas at fat camp or an ESPN personality sexting with an intern.</p><p>Would the world be a better place if none of these things occurred? Absolutely. But there is little reason to act as if LJ didn&rsquo;t learn to be homophobic and insensitive the old-fashioned way. Football, like most male sports, is homophobic and insensitive. Coaches &mdash; not all, but enough &mdash; use the F-word. Four or five years ago Matt Millen, when he was the general manager of the Detroit Lions, used the F-word to describe a Chiefs receiver.</p><p>As for Johnson&rsquo;s tweets about Haley&rsquo;s credentials to be an NFL coach, the complaints that Haley never played the game?</p><p>I hope Haley and Pioli are not that insecure, because the truth is, there was no one inside Arrowhead Stadium on Sunday who didn&rsquo;t wonder about Haley&rsquo;s qualifications. He coached like an amateur golfer.</p><p>Now is not the time to cut Larry Johnson. Pioli could&rsquo;ve and should&rsquo;ve done that in February. LJ, pardon the cliche, is what he is. He&rsquo;s a moody, immature weirdo who pouts when things go poorly and broods when things are going well.</p><p>The Chiefs could be 7-0, and there&rsquo;s still a damn good chance LJ would&rsquo;ve done something stupid this week to disrupt the team.</p><p>I say hold on to Johnson until the end of the season, use him for what he has left to offer. He&rsquo;s an excuse, a major distraction and a glaring example of Carl Peterson&rsquo;s ineptitude.</p><p>I&rsquo;m not joking. I&rsquo;m not being sarcastic.</p><p>I wrote at the beginning of the season that Haley made an error releasing Chan Gailey before the start of the season. Kansas City did not have the necessary personnel to field a legitimate offense. It was foolish for Haley to tie his reputation and any of his locker-room credibility to the 2009 offense. I was right.</p><p>Now that we&rsquo;re seven games into this season, Haley and Pioli both need Larry hanging around as a reminder to fans and Clark Hunt that Peterson created this 2009 mess. Larry is a massive billboard who screams: &ldquo;King Carl Did This.&rdquo;</p><p>I&rsquo;d keep Larry at starting tailback and make him run the ball 20 times a game. Can you think of a worse punishment? You can&rsquo;t trade him. You might as well let opposing linebackers light him up 20 times a week.</p><p>For the remaining home games, I&rsquo;d run Jared Allen&rsquo;s Minnesota Vikings highlights on the Jumbotron, too.</p><p>Carl Peterson had a choice between Larry Johnson and Jared Allen. Peterson decided Allen&rsquo;s drinking was a bigger risk than Johnson&rsquo;s mood swings.</p><p>If the Chiefs release LJ, the media are going to go back to focusing on Haley and Pioli. We&rsquo;re going to go back to the 22-guys-off-the-street countdown. Will Haley make it to three victories? Did Pioli&rsquo;s media tactics and insider trading with his New England homeboys and father-in-law contribute to a winning environment?</p><p>Without LJ, the story in Kansas City is the incredible arrogance Haley and Egoli displayed upon arriving here. They landed here convinced winning was their birthright, believing fear and intimidation fueled winning.</p><p>Without LJ, Haley and Pioli look like a couple of spoiled kids who don&rsquo;t even know when to punt, how to manage the clock or evaluate a quarterback.</p><p><hr class="infobox-hr-separator" /> <div class="infobox"> <strong><span class="infobox-head">MORE TROUBLE </span></strong><br /> Chiefs investigate Larry Johnson&rsquo;s inflammatory comments. <strong>Story | A1</strong></p><p></div>