The Baltimore Ravens traded for Diontae Johnson last year as an insurance policy to bolster their very thin wide receiving corps. However, when they needed him, Diontae Johnson refused to play.
Why? Because he was cold.
In a pivotal Week 13 matchup against the Eagles, Johnson refused to enter the game because he had “checked out mentally,” he explained on a recent episode of the Sports and Suits podcast.
“I wasn’t getting into like no run plays, no like passing plays,” Johnson said. “No, nothing. It was cold, I’m on the sideline just standing there like just going to the heater back and forth just waiting to hear my name called. End of the third, going into the fourth, they’re like ‘Tay, we need you.’ I’m like, ‘Nah, I don’t think it’s a good idea for me.’ Like I was already thinking about my legs, I don’t want to go out there and put bad stuff on film. It’s not like I didn’t want to go into the game, but leading up to this point, I’d already been through so much.”
The game time temperature in Baltimore that day was 41 degrees, not even freezing. Not only that, but Johnson spent five years playing in Pittsburgh before entering a 2024 season that saw him play for three different franchises. Temperatures in Pittsburgh late in the year frequently go well below 41 degrees. So, even though he hadn’t played in the game, he should not have been so impacted by the weather that he couldn’t perform.
The Ravens suspended Johnson for refusing to play, and he was subsequently cut. Meaning, he wasn’t available to play for Baltimore during the playoff run when they lost wide receiver Zay Flowers, the exact scenario that compelled the Ravens to trade for Johnson in the first place.
But it was really cold in Buffalo when the Ravens played the Bills in the Divisional Round, so Johnson probably wouldn’t have played anyway.
