One day after his release from custody -- after serving seven days of a 30-day jail sentence -- Chad Johnson joined ABC's "Good Morning America" on Tuesday to reiterate his apology for his actions.
Johnson said he hoped he would get another chance to make an NFL team so the abuse of his ex-wife and subsequent jail time aren't the last things fans remember about the wide receiver's career.
"I think everyone deserves a second chance," Johnson said. "Many would say I might not deserve it. I would like to finish my career the right way. I don't want the last thing to be remembered, 'Well, Chad was cut from the Dolphins for an incident he had with his wife.' I would love to grace the football field one more time and to help some team. I'm not injured; there is nothing wrong with me. I've learned my lesson, especially after those past seven days."
An apologetic Johnson said Broward County Circuit judge Kathleen McHugh's sentence after Johnson's infamous butt slap of his attorney will help him in the long run because it finally taught him he needs to "slow down and think about what you are going to do."
Johnson said he believes his well-known comedic personality could have led to McHugh interpreting the slap as him joking around.
"Situations like this usually break people," he said. "I wouldn't allow anything to break me, so I try to continue to be my same positive self. And I think with me being Chad, it kind of made the judge feel I wasn't being serious about the situation. But trust me, I understood exactly what I did and lost two of the things I loved the most at that time (football and his ex-wife)."
Follow Kevin Patra on Twitter @kpatra.
