A Football Life: Chad Johnson

[*rfaulk34*]

(10-03-2016, 12:48 PM)Go Cards Wrote: Chad brought this on himself.

He was adored until fighting coach in locker room of playoff game Bengals were winning just because he was not getting the ball enough, demanding trade, and changing name and going overboard with "look at me" antics. 

Chad was a very good receiver, but not great in the grand scheme of things when history finally unfolded. 

(10-03-2016, 01:44 PM)Shake n Blake Wrote: Meh. Both the halftime incident (which none of us know what actually happened) and the trade demand can both be traced back to Chad's desire to win. All the best WRs want the ball in their hands. It wasn't like Chad wanted to selfishly pad his playoff stats or something ridiculous. Chad wanted the ball because it was obvious to anyone watching that our 17-14 lead was tedious at best. Chad was our star player and best chance. He wanted to carry the team in a down moment.

As far as the trade demand. I doubt I can still find the old article buried on bengals.com, but Chad was quoted saying he was upset that the FO wasn't pursuing FA help for the defense, which was pretty awful at the time. I can't say I blame him for being upset. The defense had been bad for around 15 years at that point, and it was holding back a good offense.

I can't really defend all the silly stuff he did at the end (gator wrestling, dancing with the stars, etc). Some of it was annoying. That said, almost all of it happened during the offseason. Nobody batted an eyelash when Hines danced with the stars. Chad's "reality show" was simply a half hour talk show that was no different than AJ Hawk's podcast. Was it really as toxic as people claimed? Doubtful.

To sum this up, I think people who still hate Chad, probably hate most of our former stars. Most of our big names wanted out at some point. Even Boomer and Munoz. The folks who hate Chad have minimized his accomplishments and exaggerated his negative impact on the team. Pretty much pinning all of the disappointment of the 2005-2010 teams on 1 player for convenience. Those teams had a plethora of reasons why they never completely broke through. Namely a poor defense and weak run game. Chad was just a convenient fall-guy.

Chad and Hue both confirmed there was no fight during the AFL show. Chad was getting an IV, went off verbally in general and tore his IV out in the process causing it to bleed.

Reporters outside the locker room heard the ruckus, saw the blood and assumed there was a fight.

Marv, Chad and Hue all laughed at the idea of Chad fighting anyone.