Chad Johnson
For the American football cornerback, see Chad Johnson (cornerback). For other persons named Chad Johnson, see Chad Johnson (disambiguation).
![]() Chad Johnson prior to the 2007 Monday Night opener. | |
Cincinnati Bengals | |
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Career information | |
College: | Oregon State |
NFL draft: | 2001 / Round: 2 / Pick: 36 |
Career history | |
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Career highlights and awards | |
Bengals franchise records
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Chad Johnson (born January 9, 1978 in Los Angeles, California), is an American football wide receiver for the Cincinnati Bengals of the National Football League. He was originally drafted by the Bengals in the second round of the 2001 NFL Draft. He played college football at Oregon State.
College career
After graduating from Miami Beach Senior High School, Johnson attended Santa Monica Junior College, where he was a teammate of future Carolina Panthers star wide receiver Steve Smith. In 2000, Johnson transferred to Oregon State University after being aggressively recruited by coach Dennis Erickson. Alongside future Bengals teammate and fellow wideout T.J. Houshmandzadeh, Johnson led his team to an 11-1 season and a victory over Notre Dame in the Fiesta Bowl that year. He also broke a school-book record for the longest touchdown reception by any player in their school's history with a 97 yard reception in a game against Stanford University.
Johnson finished his sole season at Oregon State with 37 receptions for 806 yards and 8 touchdowns.
NFL career
2001 NFL Draft
The Cincinnati Bengals chose Johnson in the second round (36th Overall) during the 2001 NFL Draft.
Cincinnati Bengals
2001-2005
Johnson saw moderate playing time as a rookie, catching 28 passes for 329 yards and one touchdown. In 2003, Johnson set a Bengals franchise record by recording 1,355 receiving yards. In 2004, Johnson caught 95 receptions for 1,274 yards and 9 touchdowns. In one of the most impressive games, the 58-48 win against the Cleveland Browns, Johnson had 117 receiving yards. He later surpassed the record in 2005, recording 1,432 yards. Johnson has led the AFC in receiving yards for four consecutive seasons. [1]
2006
On April 20, 2006, Johnson signed a contract extension. The deal, which pays Johnson an additional $35.5 million, will last up to 2011.[2]
During the first half of 2006 Cincinnati Bengals season, Johnson saw little activity. After being bogged down by an early injury, Johnson's productivity endured a sharp decline. During the first eight weeks of the 2006 season, Johnson only caught two touchdown passes, while only amassing 483 yards. However, after shaving his Mohawk and changing his mentality, Johnson had a breakout game in a losing effort against the San Diego Chargers. Johnson accumulated 260 receiving yards and scored two touchdowns, which broke the previous Bengals record for most receiving yards in a game.[3]. He went on to amass 190 receiving yards and 3 touchdowns in a 31-16 win over the New Orleans Saints in the following week. This gave him an NFL record 450 receiving yards in back-to-back games, breaking the previous record of 448 set by San Francisco 49ers receiver John Taylor in 1989. In the following week, Chad gained 129 yards receiving breaking the three game receiving record since the NFL-AFL merger in 1970 and coming within 40 yards of the all-time record.
Johnson finished the 2006 season with 87 receptions for a league leading 1,369 yards and 7 touchdowns. He was the first Bengal ever to lead the NFL in receiving yards. He and Houshmandzadeh also became the first Bengals teammates to each amass over 1,000 receiving yards in the same season.
In addition to being one of the most productive receivers in the NFL, Johnson is also one of the most popular ones. In the fan voting for the 2006 Pro Bowl, Johnson finished first in votes for wide receivers, and fourth overall with 987,650 total votes.[4] He has earned nationwide attention for his flamboyant attitude, which is often seen during his infamous end zone celebrations after catching touchdown passes. In a list released in August 2006 by Fox Sports listing the top 10 showboats in professional sports, Chad topped the list.[5] Furthermore, Johnson has drawn even more attention to himself with his gilded grills, earrings, and as of 2006, his bleach blond mohawk, which he eventually shaved off after subsequent losses.
Before teammate Chris Henry was suspended for eight games of the upcoming 2007 season due to off-field issues, Johnson spoke of Henry in an interview with ESPN which was featured on NFL Live. He said in the interview of how Chris tried to act like a "hardball" and went a little too far, and that "everyone gets it".
2007
In the first game of the season, on Monday Night Football against the Baltimore Ravens, Chad Johnson scored the game's first score on a 39-yard touchdown pass from Carson Palmer. Following the touchdown, Johnson grabbed a jacket that resembles the Pro Football Hall of Fame inductees' jacket that said, "Future H.O.F. 20??". Johnson finished the game with 5 receptions for 95 yards and a touchdown. In the next game against the Cleveland Browns, Johnson racked up 209 yards on 11 catches for 2 touchdowns in the 51-45 loss. This gave him a career total of 7,229 receiving yards, breaking the Bengals franchise record previously held by Isaac Curtis. The very next game against the Seattle Seahawks, Johnson totaled nine receptions for 138 yards as the Bengals lost again. Against the New York Jets, in which the Bengals won 38-31, Johnson had 3 receptions for 102 yards and a rush for 15 yards.
In the 4th quarter of the Bengals week 9 loss to the Buffalo Bills Chad was rolled off the field on a stretcher, with a reported head injury. Johnson had dove out for a pass, with under a minute left in the 33-21 loss, and then was sandwiched by Donte Whitner and Coy Wire. Johnson was reported to be moving at the hospital.[6] He finished the game with three catches for 48 yards. A CT scan performed to detect nerve damage came back negative.
Chad's list
During the 2005 NFL season, Johnson announced that he would keep a checklist, entitled Who Covered 85 in '05, that would evaluate the defensive backs that successfully managed to cover him. On November 2, 2005, Marvin Lewis, the Bengals head coach, replaced Johnson’s list with another one entitled, Did 85 do everything he could to lead his team to victory 11-6-05. The list, an obvious parody of the original, asked several questions regarding Johnson’s performance both on and off the field.[7] According to the Bengals' official website, the list was aimed to galvanize the Baltimore Ravens, whom the Bengals would play in four days.[7] Johnson was not pleased with the new list, as he had developed a superstitious faith in the older list. Johnson had a stellar performance during the game, prompting the return of the original list.[7]
In 2007, Degree and Yahoo! created an online version of his checklist at TrashTalk85.com.[8] The checklist allows fans to vote for which NFL quarterback Johnson would like to play catch with the most. Every vote helps him raise money for his charity project,"Feed the Children".[8]
Trivia
![]() | This article contains a list of miscellaneous information. (June 2007) |
- Chad Johnson appears on the cover of EA's NFL Street 3. He is the main adversary in the game, and narrates the tutorials with Clinton Portis and Byron Leftwich.[9]
- On October 25, 2006, in honor of Hispanic Heritage Month, Johnson announced he would prefer to be called, "Ocho-Cinco" ("8-5" in Spanish). During the October 29, 2006 game against the Atlanta Falcons, Johnson wore "Ocho Cinco" instead of "C. Johnson" on the back of his jersey during warm-ups. Quarterback Carson Palmer ripped the label off Johnson's jersey to reveal the usual "C. Johnson" .[10] According to ESPN, he was fined US$5,000 for the stunt (pending appeal).[11]
- His first love was soccer, but he chose football in high school because it gave him more opportunity. [12]
- On June 9, 2007, Johnson raced a thoroughbred racehorse over a furlong (220 yards) for charity. Chad, given a 110-yard head start, beat the horse by twelve lengths. He hopes to re-race the horse later on in the summer.[13]
- On May 5, 2007, Johnson was sued for allegedly not giving away a Lexus that was supposed to be raffled off. The suit added two plaintiffs that claimed that they have won trips from Johnson (one to Europe;one to Hawaii), that Johnson never awarded. [14]
See also
External links
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/fa/Wikiquote-logo.svg/34px-Wikiquote-logo.svg.png)
References
- ^ "Chad Johnson's numbers nothing to brag about". 2006-09-29. Retrieved 2006-10-08.
- ^ "Bengals sign Johnson to extension". Retrieved 2006-08-15.
- ^ "Old-fashioned shootout". Retrieved 2006-11-12.
- ^ "Record 70.5 million All-Star votes cast". Retrieved 2006-08-15.
- ^ Golokhov, Dave (2006-08-15). "Top 10 showboats in sports". Retrieved 2006-09-08.
- ^ http://www.wlwt.com/news/14508082/detail.html
- ^ a b c Hobson, Geoff (2005-11-02). "Notes: Ravens at top of Chad's list". Retrieved 2006-09-08.
- ^ a b McManamon, Patrick (2007-09-15). "Frye trade just doesn't up". Ohio.com. p. 3. Retrieved 2007-09-22.
{{cite news}}
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(help) - ^ Adams, David (2006-8-24). "Chad Johnson Covers NFL Street 3". Retrieved 2006-09-11.
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(help) - ^ HOBSON (2006-10-25). "Notes: Chad's Old English; Hall's New Deal". Retrieved 2006-10-26.
- ^ Pasquarelli (2006-11-02). "Chad Johnson to cough up $5K for 'Ocho Cinco' stunt". Retrieved 2006-11-02.
- ^ [1]
- ^ [2]
- ^ http://pacers.aolsportsblog.com/2007/05/05/chad-johnson-sued-for-bogus-raffle/