Breaking Down Keyshawn Johnson's Dancing with the Stars Week 1 Performance

Just give me the damn cha cha.

Keyshawn Johnson helped ABC's Dancing with the Stars kick off its 17th season on Monday, and you guessed it, the former NFL wide receiver was asked to do a little cha cha cha. 

Johnson is the only athlete on this year's addition, and athletes have almost always fared very well in this competition. 

However, if the first show is any indication, there won't be an ex-athlete dancing champ this year. 

C'mon man! You call that a dance? 

Sorry, I couldn't resist dropping Johnson's ESPN line on him. 

In reality, Johnson wasn't terrible, but let's just say he left some room for improvement. 

The current ESPN commentator is paired with professional dancer Sharna Burgess, and the two got off to a less than stellar start. 

They wound up carding 17-out-of-30 for their routine.

Johnson moves very well. He is fluid and light on his feet. However, he and his partner looked out of sync at times as Johnson struggled with his timing. 

Not that that is overly surprising. Johnson is 6'4". That height is far more ideal for playing receiver than it is dancing. This is something Bruno Tonioli alluded to while handing out his score. With the quote provided by Celeb Dirty Laundry, Tonioli: “The bigger you are the harder it is.  You really lost timing, but you have the moves.”

This is certainly something Johnson can improve upon. However, he is going to have to make big strides in a short time. 

Meanwhile, all the contestants and fans have to get used to a new format for the show. It will now be shown just once a week instead of twice, but every episode will be two hours.

This measures up to a lot of lost football viewing and talking time for Johnson, but the way things looked the first week, he won't be making a deep run in this competition.