Barry Sanders. He's probably one of the top five professional football players to ever live, and easily the best ever at his position. Berry was a beast & the ultimate player. But he had his limits. After ten years of legendary play, ten years of carrying the load for an entire roster, Barry walked away because he was tired of losing.
A more recent & perhaps better example would be Lebron James. After years & years of almost getting to the top, Lebron decided that he preferred a situation where he didn't feel limited by the organization & bolted Cleveland for Miami. Then he did it again & bolted Miami for Cleveland.
These two situations aren't a 100% match for the situation that Andre Johnson finds himself in today. Barry Sanders simply retired; no holdouts, no griping about losing a bonus, nothing. Just took his ball & went home. Lebron James was a free agent & was free to go anywhere he chose to go (twice). I felt it fair to mention these facts before I decided to defend Andre Johnson.
As I said, to start, everyone has their limits. Andre Johnson was in Houston for the David Carr years. He endured Schaub meltdown after Schaub meltdown, the ill-timed injuries, TJ Yates, Case Keenum, the draft where Houston took Mario Williams, etc. There's a lot of suck & failure in the Houston Texans' history, but Andre Johnson stayed because he wanted to help make it all right. Barry Sanders did that. So did Lebron James. Team players to the core, all three of them.
But everyone has their limits.
I understand that Johnson is under contract to the Texans, & that he made the choice to sign it when it was presented. Right. Gotcha. Question is, why are players the only ones expected to honor these contracts? A contract is a written agreement between two parties, therefore, it has two signatures on it. Owners get to change the terms of the contracts at their leisure, & when the players don't like, the contract is terminated. Ben Roethlisberger is one or two contract restructurings from making minimum wage. It seems his deal gets re-done every year. I'm not a Texans fan, but I know enough about the NFL as a whole to say that Andre Johnson has endured the most bullshit of anyone on his talent level since (surprise!) Barry Sanders. A guy of that caliber is entitled to call his own shots. He's earned it. He shouldn't be subjected to another rebuild if he doesn't want to start all over again for the bajillionth time.
And the Texans should understand the risks of continuing to employ someone who isn't happy. Juan said that athletes play for money above all else, and there's really no arguing that. But the great ones, the truly elite, want to win. Maybe Andre isn't an all-time great, or even the best receiver of his era (Calvin Johnson & Larry Fitzgerald may have something to say about that), but there were at least two years of the last ten when the guy WAS the best in the league. And he's still in the top five. Maybe he's not giving Bill O'Brien & Ryan Fitzpatrick the benefit of a doubt, but he's 33 years old & he knows his window won't be open much longer. Should he be forced to deal with even the possibility of another 2-14 season? Hasn't he seen enough of those?
I deliberately did not mention the workout bonus dispute because it's asinine, & the Texans are absolutely right to deny him a chance to recoup. The less said about that, the better. And I do understand how Texans fans could be frustrated with what he's doing right now, but they're not him. Nobody would stay at a job where the working conditions are not tolerable. Nor should they. Is Andre Johnson really that different just because he gets paid a lot more? I don't think so.
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