Former teammate T.J. Houshmandzadeh is defending Chad Johnson as a good person who found himself in a bad position when he was arrested on domestic violence charges and released by the Dolphins.
Houshmandzadeh made clear in an interview on Dave Dameshek’s podcast that he doesn’t condone domestic violence and doesn’t know the facts of Johnson’s case. But Houshmandzadeh said he knows Johnson very well from playing together for one year at Oregon State and eight years with the Bengals, and he knows that Johnson is a good person, despite what people say.
“Outside of his grandmother and his brother Chauncey I don’t know if there’s anybody that knows Chad as well as I do,” Houshmandzadeh said. “He’s just a genuinely, genuinely nice dude. You know, he does a lot of things that are over the top, but that’s just for fun and to put himself out there. But man, Chad is too nice.”
Houshmandzadeh’s comments point to what a contradictory figure Johnson is. Some people who know him well insist that he’s a great guy who likes to joke around. And yet there’s clearly a darker side to this man who has already been convicted of domestic violence once and is now facing charges from his wife again. He may be genuinely nice in Houshmandzadeh’s presence, and a different person in different situations.
