Why did he suddenly go quiet? He was out there every other day talking about how he wanted to be a phin, how he wanted to be released, how he was havin problems with the locker room and everyone in the organization...then suddenly he went silent. Something isnt right. Cincy has not restructured his deal like his agent was talking about...there has been absolutely no whispers ever since Cincy came out and said they were not trading him.
Something is up. I dont know what it is, but we cannot rule out that the dolphins are still a possibility after all that he said. You think Cincy finally honored his request and said "STFU and we'll get you to a new team, but you're being traded, not released" and they're keeping it under wraps till say...draft day? They would keep it hush for obvious reasons...
You would expect to hear SOMETHING at this point...that matters are being resolved, that hes still upset, that he still wants out...etc.
Lets take a look back at everything that happened...analyze cincys moves in FA thus far and ours...and determine if this is still possible. It used to be a very plausible idea until everyone bought into the cincy denial.
Well, first of all, Chad Johnson is a selfish player. People like to point to his dancing and silly on the field antics and say "He's just an entertainer", but they completely overlook some serious character flaws that the guy has.
1. He demanded that the Bengals renegotiate his contract after he received a large sum of money. He renegotiated his contract 2 years ago and signed one of the richest deals ever for a WR. His new contract called for almost half of that money to be payed out in the first 2 years of the deal (16 million in '06 & '07) and his base salaries for the remainder of the deal were very cap friendly. If you look solely at his base salaries for the next 4 years (3 mil, 4.5 mil, 5 mil, 5 mil) he is underpayed relative to his production. But you can't ignore the fact that he received and agreed to have his contract structured in such a way that a large chunk of his salary was payed out in the first two years, he still has a very generous contract.
So Ocho willingly took the big money upfront and now realizes that his base salary is looked upon as a bargain, which led to alot of speculation that he would be traded. He did what any selfish person would do, he demanded more money.
When a team signs a player, they try to structure the deal in a way to give them cap flexibility in the later years of the contract by putting alot of the money upfront in years 1 and 2 of the deal. They don't expect that player to then turn around 2 years later after he pockets the lump sum and demand a new contract.
2. Another example of him being a greedy selfish person is that he is being sued for fraud. The charges stem from a contest that Chad held at a nightclub where he gave away prizes that included tickets to games, tickets to Europe, tickets to the Probowl and a raffle to win a brand new car. Problem is, when it came time to give away the prizes, Johnson didn't deliver.
I posted a news clip that covered this story a month or two ago, in it Chad flat out lies about the reasons he didn't pay up. In regards to not taking the winners to the Probowl he said
"A family member died", even though he was filmed doing a hula dance in Hawaii instead of at a funeral. When it came to explaining why he didn't give the new car away to the winner of the raffle (which took in alot of money) and instead gave it to his girlfriend, he said
"I gave it to her cause she would appreciate it. Those people don't appreciate it, they just showed up to win a new car".
Well......yeah, that was the whole point of the raffle.
3. He is a distraction. For a while now there have been stories of him screaming at Carson Palmer, Chad was upset that he wasn't getting the ball enough. Then more info came out that he and TJ are always yelling and screaming and trying to run the team. Their teammates are reported to be sick and tired of their actions and who could blame them? Then it came out that Ocho punched one of his coaches, an unidentified player leaked the story and was eventually released because of it. All of the people here that wanted Johnson dismissed it as "rumors", "made up BS" and worse, and then a few days ago another former teammate came out and confirmed that it did indeed happen and that Ocho threw more than one punch at more than one coach.
Then because he wanted more money, he went on a month long circus campaign to get himself traded to a team that would renegotiate his contract. He whined, he threw his teammates and coaches under the bus and lied about them "mistreating" him. He never actually said how they did it, because there was nothing to tell. He could run his mouth nonstop to every media outlet that was willing to put a camera in his face and once he was asked how they mistreated him..........silence. Not a word, not a syllable, not a peep because it didn't happen.
The Bengals did all they could to keep him happy, they let him do his stupid dances, they let him run his mouth and draw attention to himself, they let him dye his hair blond and change his jersey number, they promoted him, they made him the focus of their offense and they payed him millions of dollars to do it. Hardly mistreatment.
Not exactly the type of player that you want on your team, especially a team filled with young players.
4. The Bengals are not going to trade him. They have said it repeatedly and they would take a big cap hit if they did. For all of his bellyaching, whining and throwing his teammates under the bus, he is going to be a Bengal next year.
So "no" to Ocho Stinko
