‘I messed up’: Chicago Bears cornerback Jaylon Johnson addresses the kerfuffle he caused with an Instagram post complaining about a fine from Matt Nagy

Dan Wiederer, Chicago Tribune
·2 min read
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Chicago Bears cornerback Jaylon Johnson said he was intending to share his Instagram story only with close friends, hoping to give them a chuckle with an image of the fine notice he received from coach Matt Nagy earlier this week. After Johnson showed up one minute late to Halas Hall on Tuesday, Nagy hit Johnson with a $2,745 punishment, prompting the second-year cornerback to take a snapshot of the discipline notice with a displeased caption added.

“This shii crazy bruh,” Johnson wrote, “walked in as it turned 8:16 and they tax me like this.”

Then he hit send, unknowingly delivering the message to a much larger audience than the group of his close friends he intended.

Learning lesson?

“A hundred percent,” Johnson said Friday afternoon. “Don’t press the wrong button.”

Little did Johnson know the post would quickly mushroom into a significant story, sparking widespread outside discussion and prompting a later one-on-one meeting with Nagy. Johnson, who removed his post once he realized his mistake, said he was “very surprised” that the social media episode grew legs the way it did.

“It went from, to me, an innocent post just talking to people (I know) and then all of a sudden my name is a headline. Over an Instagram post. It is what it is.”

Johnson made it clear he took responsibility for the error and quickly put the whole thing behind him.

“I messed up,” he said. “I posted it when I didn’t need to. ... I’ve got to own up to it. I was late. If I didn’t want that to happen in the first place, I shouldn’t have been late. I understand that.”

Nagy promised on Wednesday that he would address the matter with Johnson and reported back Friday that the two had a productive conversation about the Instagram post as well as other team-related topics.

“He is a great leader for his defense,” Nagy said. “He’s playing his butt off right now. I love him. He’s a guy who stays after practice every single day and gets extra work. And without getting into a lot of details, honestly it was an awesome conversation. It was really good. And I appreciated that from him.”