In a time where money most often dictates the decisions of professional sports organizations, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers have made a stand in telling one of the NFL’s most recognizable names to sit down and shut up.

Tuesday afternoon, the Bucs “fired” wide receiver Keyshawn Johnson in an unprecedented move that has garnered that organization its first bit of respect since winning the 2003 Super Bowl. Off to a 4-6 start, the defending NFL champions deactivated the man they traded for to build their franchise around in a move that eliminated the team’s biggest distraction.

After the announcement, a shocked and discouraged Keyshawn Johnson talked with anybody that would listen to him in the ESPN studios.

“Honestly, I’m very disappointed, because I really wanted to win another championship with this team,” he said. “I was never Gruden’s guy. He never liked me. I told him I’d rather retire than play for him in 2004. But I also told him I wouldn’t be a distraction.”

Well Keyshawn, you have the next six weeks to ponder the word distraction. There will be no access to team facilities granted over the final six weeks of the season nor will Keyshawn be allowed to play for another team. Buccaneers general manager Rich McKay helps best explain the onset of this drastic move.

“His approach to us, to the organization and to the team, changed. A lot of mandatory workouts missed, a lot of team functions … were not attended and it became, in our mind, a problem.”

I don’t believe the first step to solving any problem is to throw the trouble spot away, but in this case the Buccaneers not only made the right move, but they will be financially burdened for having principles. The team will be paying for Johnson’s services for the remainder of this season even though he won’t be out on the field, and maybe the NFL should allow for demotions like most other jobs so we can watch Keyshawn directing traffic outside the stadium in all his flamboyance and flare.

Following this year’s Super Bowl, the Bucs are going to put up another million dollars to retain the rights to Johnson so that they can receive some form of compensation if he plays somewhere else. Likely this compensation won’t be much more than a gumball and a Tootsie Roll, but still the Bucs remain pleased in becoming the first people to send Johnson a statement even he can’t ignore.

Tampa Bay isn’t the first place Keyshawn has had a problem with his coaching staff, but it may have been the worst. Turmoil between the two-time Pro Bowl selection and head coach Jon Gruden had been evident from the onset of Gruden’s hiring, but over the course of this season, the lack of respect shown toward his superiors eventually ended Johnson’s playing days in Tampa.

There’s no excuse why a man getting paid $56 million over eight seasons shouldn’t be attending mandatory team functions or missing team planes. When Keyshawn arrived in the sunshine state, he appeared happy to put the “Just throw me the damn ball” days behind him, but surely we should have known.

Keyshawn will arrive at his next NFL location with about as much baggage as a 747. His relationship with the coaching staff in New York, where he spent the first four years of his career, was shaky and his relationship with Gruden may have been smoother if it was thrown in the ocean. As a member of a Super Bowl team, he remained bitter over the trade that landed him there, and at his next stop he will no doubt complain about how he had to stand in line for unemployment checks at the start of 2004. Maybe it’s time for Keyshawn to man up and admit that he’s not one of the best receivers in the league, or maybe his team just made that statement for him.

But what will Keyshawn do this year for Christmas now that he doesn’t have a job? The answer: Who cares? Johnson is still the same child that he has always been, whining about his role on the team and actively displaying his failure to understand what a team is.

Keyshawn began to prove that he wouldn’t graduate from the fifth grade this year either when after Tampa Bay’s 24-7 loss to San Francisco he adamantly proclaimed that he would not play under Jon Gruden next season. In the midst of a sub-par 45-catch, 600-yard year, Johnson may have wanted to attend a few of those team functions he missed.

Apparently he was too busy putting his house up for sale to care about his obligations.