OCHO STINKO SHOVES LEAGUE EMPLOYEE
Posted by Mike Florio on February 7, 2008, 11:37 p.m.
Try as agent Drew Rosenhaus might to keep the efforts of Bengals receiver Chad Johnson to finagle a trade out of town behind the scenes, the player known in this space as Ocho Stinko can’t avoid wearing his emotions on his sleeves.
And that puts his career on the same trajectory as T.O., circa 2005.
Owens wanted out of Philly, and Rosenhaus opted to go public with it. The campaign pushed the Eagles into a corner, and resulted in an ill-advised Plan B, which was premised on Owens being a complete pain in the butt until he got his way.
For Johnson, we’ve believed ever since his romp down radio row that, regardless of any efforts to the contrary, Johnson eventually is going to engage in behavior that results in fines and/or suspensions for conduct detrimental to the team.
And it might already be happening.
According to Alex Marvez of FOXSports.com, Johnson shoved NFL media relations employee Michael Lipman as Lipman was trying to make Johnson available to Marvez and another reporter. Johnson then “stared down” Lipman before leaving.
In addition to any discipline that the team might impose, the NFL could nail Johnson under the Personal Conduct Policy. Though the policy primarily applies to criminal activity, it also prohibits “[v]iolent or threatening behavior among employees, whether inside or outside the workplace.”
Regardless of whether it’s the league or the team, something needs to be done about this guy. Without discipline, Johnson’s behavior will only get worse.
[Editor’s note: In a prior version of this story, we described Lipman as a Bengals employee. We apologize for the error.]
T.J. KNOWS A STORM IS BREWING
Posted by Mike Florio on February 8, 2008, 7:53 a.m.
As Bengals receiver Chad Johnson continues to escalate his campaign to get out of Cincinnati without ever saying that he wants out, one of his teammates hints that things will get worse before they get better.
Said Bengals receiver T.J. Houshmandzadeh regarding the ongoing efforts by Johnson to land in a new team, “I’m not surprised by anything; perception is reality. I talk to Chad all the time, so I kind of know what’s coming so it doesn’t surprise me.”
We’ve got a feeling that we’ll see something controversial from Johnson during the Pro Bowl. Maybe, if he scores, he’ll take off his Bengals helmet and spit on it. Or maybe when he’ll troll the sidelines wearing the helmets of the different teams represented in Hawaii.
Hey, it might actually be enough to actually get us to watch the game. We might even do a Live Blog of it.
:
