Chad’s Jersey Will Say “Ochocinco”

Sometimes, there’s an echo in here. Usually, it’s only a matter of hours or days between the posting of one of our stories and the publication of the same thing elsewhere, without reference to the fact that we already posted it. This time around, the echo had a lag of nearly two months. On March 23, 2009, we reported that Chad Johnson had gotten permission to place his new legal name on the back of his jersey. But since his legal name technically is “Ochocinco” with no space between the “Ocho” and the “Cinco,” that’s how it will appear on his jersey. Our theory is/was/will be that Ochocinco mashed the two words into one in order to minimize the possibility that the judge who approved the name change would realize it was all a publicity stunt. Today, the Associated Press has finally caught up, “reporting” that Johnson’s jersey will display the name “Ochocinco” on the back of it this year.