Bengals receiver Chad Ochocinco appeared Tuesday on ESPN’s NFL Live to discuss the various recent developments involving himself, his team, his coach, and his quarterback.
The biggest surprise? Chad said he wants to stay in Cincinnati, a fact on which we’ve previously reported.
“I don’t want to go anywhere,” Ochocinco said. “I love Cincy. I love the fans. And Cincinnati is all I know. That’s all I know. And I just look forward to next year. But before the season starts, I do need to fight with my head coach.” (And, yes, he means to fight literally. After, off course, he whoops my ass. Twice.)
But even though Chad wants to keep his team, he intends to drop his alter ego. He said that he’s changing his name back to Johnson, a task that may be easier said than done -- unless he plans to pay Reebok for the unsold inventory of Ochocinco jerseys.
Of course, if he ends up with a new team, Chad will be able to change his name to anything that he wants, since there will be no unsold inventory of Ochocinco jerseys in, say, Raiders colors.
As to the man who’ll be his head coach in Cincinnati if Ochocinco remains in orange and black stripes, Chad made a great point in response to the comment from coach Marvin Lewis that, regarding the possibility of acquiring Ochocinco, Pats coach Bill Belichick is “smarter than that.”
“If Belichick is smarter than that,” Ochocinco said, “then why am I still there?”
The comment couldn’t be comprehended by host Trey Wingo, but we instantly knew what Chad meant. If Lewis feels that it would be dumb for Belichick to acquire Chad, then why haven’t the Bengals gotten rid of him?
We think they eventually will. After exploring whether or not anyone else would be willing to trade for him.
