C.J. Gardner-Johnson retracts his anti-Eagles comment, discusses being traded, and explains ‘that’ Taylor Swift shirt
“My son said, ‘So we can’t wear green anymore?’” the former Eagles safety said on “The Pivot” podcast. “And that killed me.”
Former Eagles safety C.J. Gardner-Johnson has a reputation for being a bit of a wild card.
After he was traded to Houston, quotes surfaced from Gardner-Johnson that the Eagles “won’t see a ring” without him. But with time to reflect, he said on The Pivot podcast Tuesday that he “retracts” those comments.
“It’s a disrespect to Jalen Carter, A.J. Brown — I can name all those guys on that team — Lane Johnson,” Gardner-Johnson said. “Because Lane is my big vet and Lane would tell me, ‘Hey, [C.J.], I got your back, but when you do too much, I don’t got your back. And that’s one of those moments that’s too much,’ because it’s taken away from his career. He done it. He done it before me. Apologizing to the guys in Philly, I got nothing against them. And if they win six more rings without me, they deserve it, because that’s the type of players they are.”
Despite speculation, Gardner-Johnson said he wasn’t traded because of animosity or problems with his Eagles teammates or coaches. He said he has attended or plans to attend several Eagles offseason weddings, including for his fellow safety Reed Blankenship and safeties coach Joe Kasper.
During a call with Howie Roseman, the Eagles general manager told Gardner-Johnson he was going to be either cut or traded for contract reasons.
“I built my home now in Philly,” Gardner-Johnson said. “If I knew the contract was going to be a one-year, I would have signed a one-year deal, not a three-year, $33 million deal.”
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Gardner-Johnson said the team treated him well during the trade process, but it was still an emotional time for him and his family.
“I was really trying to not get traded again or moved again to change the narrative [around me],” Gardner-Johnson said. “The conversations we were having, that’s why I was hurt.”
It was especially hard explaining the trade to his son.
“My son said, ‘So we can’t wear green anymore?’” Gardner-Johnson said. “And that killed me.”
But he still said he’ll look back well on his time with the team.
“I can’t never hate these people,” Gardner-Johnson said. “You paid me. I got my name in the history books.”
Gardner-Johnson’s shot at Swifties
The former Eagles safety also shared more on his infamous feud with Swifties, born from his online comments about Travis Kelce’s ex-girlfriend, Kayla Nicole, after Super Bowl LIX that led to Gardner-Johnson’s family’s former business getting review-bombed on social media. A few days later, at the parade, Gardner-Johnson donned a shirt featuring a not-safe-for-work message to Swifties that including a LIX pun.
On The Pivot, Gardner-Johnson revealed that he didn’t buy the shirt or commission the design. Instead, he said it was dropped off in the locker room by a friend of Big Dom’s.
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“In the Eagles’ building, if you been in there, there’s no disrespect, but people come in and out. It’s a celebrity-filled building,” he said, later referencing the time he randomly met Pete Davidson after a practice. “You meet the rappers, the athletes, and I think one of Dom [DiSandro’s] guys came in and — ‘I’ve got something for you in your locker, because we know nobody else is going to do it.’ … Equipment people are joking with me. I look at it, I’m like, ‘All right.’
“But people don’t understand. Before all of that, [Travis Kelce’s] ex-girlfriend was at the game courtesy of one of the members of — that had nothing to do with me. So I’m just, ‘All right, y’all want me to do it? Cool. Y’all cool with it?’ Everybody’s joking and laughing, I’m like, all right, whatever, cool. But at the end of the day, I made the decision to put it on, but it was nothing toward nobody. We just won a Super Bowl, like, riding off a Super Bowl high, still probably [got] Champagne, cigars, whatever.”
While tensions were high between Gardner-Johnson and Swifties in the immediate aftermath, it seems that time has healed some of those wounds — at least that’s the case when he’s out shopping at Target.
“A couple of her fans said they’ve been following since I was at Florida,” he said. “So it was like, ‘We don’t like what you did, but I’m a fan of you.’ And we take a picture and go about our day. Nothing malicious. Like I ran into a lot of [Swifties] in Target [laughs], just going to get some toiletries and stuff, I run into them.”