Keyshawn Johnson Claps Back At Warren Sapp
October 8th, 2023
Explosive allegations.
Bucs fans know former Pro Bowl receiver Keyshawn Johnson and Bucs icon and Hall of Famer Warren Sapp united in 2000 in an effort to get the Bucs over the hump and into the Super Bowl.
It didn’t happen right away. It wasn’t until Chucky came aboard two years later that the Bucs finally reached the pinnacle.
Past interviews reveal that Sapp and Johnson weren’t exactly best friends. This feud (?) reignited and escalated very publicly last week.
In a recent interview with Jason Whitlock of The Blaze, Sapp retold a story that he famously explained on the “America’s Game” Bucs’ episode that has since been blacklisted by the NFL Network because it features Chucky.
In that episode, Sapp recalled how Johnson begged Sapp at the 1999 Pro Bowl in Hawaii to talk to Father Dungy to get him out of New York and that he could take the Bucs to the Super Bowl.
Sapp went to bat for Johnson and a trade was consummated.
When it came time for offseason workouts for the Bucs that spring, Johnson did not show, Sapp said. Instead, Johnson stayed in California. At the time, Johnson said those workouts were voluntary and he didn’t see what the fuss was all about.
In Sapp’s interview with Whitlock, Sapp went into further details.
Sapp claimed when Johnson did show up, he didn’t know the Bucs playbook.
“When we break the huddle, he don’t know the play, he don’t know where to line up, he don’t know if he is on or off the ball,” Sapp said. “Aw, man.”
Also, per Sapp, Johnson quickly soured on then-Bucs quarterback Shaun King, one of only four quarterbacks to guide the Bucs to an NFC championship game.
“Then he didn’t like Shaun King,” Sapp began. “I’m like, ‘Keyshawn, you’re not getting another quarterback. This is what you signed up for. We have Shaun King, my man. You have to get along with Shaun King.’ Nah, nah. It was ugly.”
Sapp admitted there were good times.
“At times, we did some good things together,” Sapp said. “We won a championship, no doubt about it.”
The good times and bad times came to a head the year after the Super Bowl when the bad blood between Chucky and Johnson boiled to the surface leading the Bucs to wash their hands of Johnson. Sapp seemed to enjoy it.
“Gruden pushed every button on his body,” Sapp said. “Gruden was going to hold you responsible. It was beautiful.”
Whitlock added he remembered after a Bucs game, he heard Johnson “take a potshot” at Father Dungy, which elicited a response from Whitlock and a hassle between the two nearly erupted.
(Joe is confident this happened after the Bucs’ loss to the Eagles in the 2001 playoffs, which turned out to be Father Dungy’s last game coaching the Bucs. Whitlock briefly wrote about this years ago.)
Well, Johnson got wind of Sapp’s allegations and went off to refute them on Twitter, currently known as “X, saying, among other things, the only player on the Bucs he would follow would be “#55.”
Of course, that would be Derrick Brooks. Johnson also accused Sapp of lying.
You can read Johnson’s retort to Sapp and watch Sapp’s comments below.
Buried in the Johnson talk was Sapp claiming that when Father Dungy was ordered to fire then-offensive coordinator Mike Shula because he was unable to score a touchdown in the NFC Championship loss to the Rams, that Father Dungy initially told the Glazer family if they wanted Shula gone they had to can the entire coaching staff.
Obviously, Shula was fired and the rest of the staff was retained. So it seems based on Sapp’s recollection that it sure smells like to Joe the Glazer family called Father Dungy’s bluff.
“We almost lost our whole coaching staff,” Sapp said.
.@WarrenSapp please stop lying, I would never in a million yrs follow yo sorry ass ever. You are an embarrassment to society…sorry and I mean sorry… please keep my name out yo mouth fake ass MF..sad go get some help..tired of you using my name. Only dude I would follow is #55 https://t.co/algFz0PxvZ
— Keyshawn Johnson (@keyshawn) October 7, 2023
October 8th, 2023 at 3:18 pm
Oh, S(n)app!
October 8th, 2023 at 3:26 pm
Football has never changed. The Biggest, Fastest, Best coached, team,,,still wins.
October 8th, 2023 at 3:29 pm
Play nice you mean girls!
October 8th, 2023 at 3:32 pm
When a team pays u not to play and sit on the sidelines cause if ur diva-like attitude, says all u need to know about the person and player
October 8th, 2023 at 3:42 pm
Sapp is a meathead but there’s enough evidence there to see that Sapp is right.
October 8th, 2023 at 4:11 pm
The 2002 bucs ‘Americas Game’ has been so successfully blacklisted that I just checked on Gamepass and it’s right there for viewing.
October 8th, 2023 at 4:12 pm
In the Twitter comments,
JP Peterson says, “I covered the team as a beat reporter. I’m no fan of Sapp but he is spot on here. Keyshawn is a fraud”
How can you not be a fan of Sapp as a reporter? He’s literally a non-stop quote machine. I only wish the team as a whole had 1/1000th the personality of Sapp alone. I enjoy a winning team, but I much more enjoy a winning team that talks trash.
October 8th, 2023 at 4:17 pm
Sapp was an azz but backed it up on the field. Meshawn earned that name for a reason.
But thank you both for the Trophy!
October 8th, 2023 at 4:21 pm
What 74 Bucs Fan just said. Sapp is an arse but he was fun to watch on the field and then ignore off. Meshawn is just a typical WR diva.
And yes thanks to everybody on both SB teams.
October 8th, 2023 at 4:21 pm
Hey Joe, how come my comment was taken down? The 2002 bucs ‘America’s game’ is available for viewing on gamepass. That’s just a fact.
October 8th, 2023 at 4:22 pm
How boring of a person are you to not like Sapp. Wow, what a bunch of dullards. You all are probably the same people who have to tell everyone how much they like when a player scores a TD and doesn’t celebrate but instead just hands the ball to the ref.
October 8th, 2023 at 4:22 pm
Seems someone doesn’t get NFL Network.
Good luck ever seeing that broadcast on NFL Network again. So yeah, it’s been blacklisted.
October 8th, 2023 at 4:26 pm
It was never taken down!
And please feel free to document the last time that “America’s Game” episode has been broadcast on NFL Network. The past two years they’ve had marathons of each episode except the 2002 Bucs (and one with the Cowboys) because of Chucky. This has been well-documented.
Sh!t Joe can find it on YouTube. That’s not what Joe was referencing. The biggest vehicle the NFL has for fans, that episode is blacklisted.
Here is the paragraph in question. Notice Joe referenced the NFL Network. Period.
October 8th, 2023 at 4:36 pm
Joe – I’d rather stick a wet finger in a light socket compared to hearing, “we’re just taking it one game at a time” or “it was a team effort today,” for the 100,000,000,000,000 time.
October 8th, 2023 at 4:37 pm
Two moronic adult men b!tching at each other about something from 20 years ago. Good fun.
October 8th, 2023 at 4:40 pm
Sure, you might. You’re not the one getting your head bitten off.
October 8th, 2023 at 4:54 pm
Joe’s…
This ain’t The View. Please refrain from using the term “claps back!”
October 8th, 2023 at 4:56 pm
Why would he follow Brooks and not a guy like Rondé?! Double-nickel is the ONLY guy he’s follow from those teams, c’mon now….
October 8th, 2023 at 4:58 pm
Rod
“How boring of a person are you to not like Sapp. Wow, what a bunch of dullards.”
OUCH! Coming from YOU Rod that really wounds us. *snark font off*
October 8th, 2023 at 5:01 pm
@Joe
I think this automatically engages the censor and lets you read it in private.
I understand and sympathize that sometimes technical gremlins put us in moderation and those are out of your control.
But today every post of mine has gotten through except the last addressed to Rod. I remember a couple years ago we had a flamethrower here and you put all responses to him in moderation just to be safe.
If Rod has reached that level…I get it…if it’s the technical gremlins I apologize for this interruption. I’m curious if Rod is a red light to moderation so I’ll never do it again.
October 8th, 2023 at 5:13 pm
Johnson was always a selfish, blabber mouth baby!
October 8th, 2023 at 5:35 pm
So Keyshawn Johnson was just like Terrell Owens? Smh. Soft skills are underrated in the NFL.
October 8th, 2023 at 6:09 pm
Johnson was nothing but trouble. Sapp, at least, waited until retirement to get into trouble.
October 8th, 2023 at 6:12 pm
@Joe
I do believe that the game will be shown eventually. It was probably blacklisted because it was so close to the time Chucky got in trouble.
Do they blacklist OJ Simpson? (I seriously do not know). He did worse.
October 8th, 2023 at 6:30 pm
Not a game. Episode of “America’s Game.”
October 8th, 2023 at 6:36 pm
You are comparing apples and oranges. There is no Buffalo Bills “America’s Game” from the 1970s because the Bills when OJ played (or the 49ers when OJ played) never won the Super Bowl. So you are asking if something that never existed is blacklisted. LOL
October 8th, 2023 at 6:47 pm
StPete … Snark font off? Heck I thought you were really taking it very easy on Rod. Snarky would’ve been saying … ‘Hey Rod, “we’re just taking it one game at a time”; OK, here’s the light socket, bring your wet finger over here, I wanna see you light up our lives a little’.
October 8th, 2023 at 7:13 pm
Have to say that if I was Johnson, I’d stay a long way away from Warren. I’ve seen Warren up close, admittedly some years ago. But if I had to bet, I’m put it all on Warren in a tussle.
October 8th, 2023 at 7:15 pm
Hey joes: you guys get tech gremlins on here. Just warning you cos if Tampa wins next Sunday, this site better be ready.
October 8th, 2023 at 8:47 pm
Bucs didnt need keyshawn they couldve got any decent wr and had success
October 8th, 2023 at 8:51 pm
According to the Joe’s they don’t have any control over the software that tries to moderate us here. I’ve been dealing with it forever.
October 8th, 2023 at 8:52 pm
It’s doing it again
October 8th, 2023 at 9:03 pm
Rod Munch Says:
October 8th, 2023 at 4:12 pm
In the Twitter comments,
JP Peterson says, “I covered the team as a beat reporter. I’m no fan of Sapp but he is spot on here. Keyshawn is a fraud”
How can you not be a fan of Sapp as a reporter? He’s literally a non-stop quote machine. I only wish the team as a whole had 1/1000th the personality of Sapp alone. I enjoy a winning team, but I much more enjoy a winning team that talks trash
***
It’s been pretty well documented that Sapp was awful to journalists. He’d be polite if he was being interviewed by Howie Long and Terry Bradshaw on FOX, but a local beat writer would be abused.
I thoroughly enjoyed rooting for Sapp as a player, but there’s enough evidence out there that he was a crappy human.
October 8th, 2023 at 9:31 pm
Joseph C Simmons Says:
It’s been pretty well documented that Sapp was awful to journalists.
————-
Yeah, that’s part of the reason I like him.
October 8th, 2023 at 9:32 pm
Defense Rules Says:
Snarky would’ve been saying … ‘Hey Rod, “we’re just taking it one game at a time”; OK, here’s the light socket, bring your wet finger over here, I wanna see you light up our lives a little’.
—————-
OK, now do that 99,999,999,999,999 more times.
October 9th, 2023 at 12:01 am
J Ghotier Says:
October 8th, 2023 at 4:56 pm
Why would he follow Brooks and not a guy like Rondé?! Double-nickel is the ONLY guy he’s follow from those teams, c’mon now….
I’m pretty sure meshawn didn’t like Ronde Barber either, If I recall correctly meshawn called Ronde an Uncle Tom publicly. Joe please correct me if that is not true.
October 9th, 2023 at 6:41 am
There is my side your side and what actually happened. Meshaun is lucky to have gotten a shot with the Bucs. You know this if you followed the Bucs in those days. He had all but run himself out of New York. Chucky did not take crap from anyone…including Sapp. Brooks and Sapp were the enforcers on the team per Tom McEwen. It is a given that Meshaun was not a happy camper long before Chucky had had enough.
He was AB before AB.
I would lean toward more truth from Sapp than Meshaun. How anyone takes anything from Johnson seriously is beyond me anyway. Many of the NFL “broadcast” community are guys who have very little character. Makes it hard for me to even watch anymore.
Go Bucs!
October 9th, 2023 at 7:33 am
ME-shawn is a quitter and loser.
October 9th, 2023 at 12:11 pm
Love Sapp…forever.
October 9th, 2023 at 12:49 pm
It always bothered me not one single Buc other than Keyshaun had something negative to say about Gruden except Keyshawn. Not one from all of those yrs except throw me the ball, Johnson. Meaning despite all those accusations by the commish, Players loved Gruden. Never like Sapp off the field. But between them goal post. He is one of the best ever done it..bar none.
October 10th, 2023 at 2:27 am
I honestly can’t stand either one of those guys when they speak.
I may be wrong, but I don’t think anyone has ever accused either one of being smart.
October 10th, 2023 at 2:32 am
As entertaining as this is, Sapp should stop diggin old graves. His momma already told him once. We all know Key was a diva and was deactivated. Some things don’t need to leave the locker room, especially from 20+ years ago.