Jun 18, 2013
Few things could have better exemplified the personality of former and hopeful NFL wide receiver Chad Johnson than the past week. There was a dash of stupidity, a dash of misfortune and a huge amount of media attention.
The decision to slap his attorney’s behind in the courtroom at his plea bargaining hearing last week was an ill-fated and foolish move that clearly should not have been made. However, most unbiased observers would suggest that a 30-day jail sentence was a harsh overreaction from the judge and a piece of misfortune experienced by Johnson. The one guarantee is that the news has been all over the headlines.
Johnson is so often in the news for the wrong reasons. It might be legal, dressing room, off-field or even changing his name to ‘Ochocinco’.
That’s the case once again as the 2013-14 NFL season nears. The problem is that the wide receiver – who is inarguably among the most talented of his era – isn’t guaranteed an NFL job this season. In fact, he didn’t have a job in 2012 and many expect that to remain the case this year.
The question is, can Johnson still seriously help an NFL team? He has experience, still appears to be in decent shape and clearly has bags of natural talent as a wide receiver. The problem is incidents like the headlines that have dominated the past week. The reality is that teams were willing to trust his talent to make up with it at one point, but a 35-year old is harder to trust.
There aren’t a lot of teams calling for Johnson’s services right now and there will be particular concerned after he completely misfired in his most recent stint with the New England Patriots and Tom Brady. Despite playing with easily one of the best quarterbacks ever to play the game, Johnson posted the worst numbers of his career statistically gaining just 276 yards and catching just one touchdown.
It’s also clearly worth noting that while Johnson has collected over 10,000 career passing yards and 66 career touchdowns in the regular season. He hasn’t necessarily been known for prolific postseason success. He has only appeared in one Super Bowl, and that was with New England where he caught just one pass for 21 yards.
Johnson doesn’t have the postseason x-factor and there are concerns about the potential negative impacts he can cause for a franchise. Is it any surprise that NFL teams are not clamouring to add him to their roster? I guess not. Still, if one team does take a gamble, then this is a player with the ability to make a serious impact at a relatively cheap price. Hopefully the interest surrounding Johnson during the rest of this offseason will be around which team he ends up playing for as opposed to his off-field activities.
