Sports Frog

By popular demand.

So, I've been begging the Bengals to trade this tool for awhile now, as it became painfully apparent about a year or so ago that his shtik, so very funny and amusing for national talking heads, was masking his being a complete dick in the locker-room and a guy who most assuredly looks out for himself ahead of his team at all times. And, in doing so, I was late arriving at the idea that he is as destructive as it now appears he is. I know I argued long and hard that there was no way that he had hit a coach as was reported two years ago about an alleged halftime altercation involving Johnson.

Well, I guess it is a lot less alleged this morning. And I was wrong to think that there was no way Johnson would have done something so stupid. As is now evident, he trades in stupid.

And, as much as it pains me to admit it, it appears Pro Football Talk was right back in the day when it had the story that no one else did that Johnson had blown up at halftime of the ill-fated and doomed Bengals playoff loss to the Steelers and punched a coach. Despite consistent denials from pretty much everyone in the locker-room that day, Shaun Smith (now with the Browns) has apparently confirmed that Johnson punched Marvin Lewis and took a swing at then-receivers coach Hue Jackson. And, really, with the team reeling from the loss of Carson Palmer on the first offensive snap from scrimmage but still in a game that could have been won, I am certain that there was nothing better for them than watching Chad Johnson have an all-time tantrum causing the coaches to deal with him rather than get the team ready for the second half.

All class, that Chad Johnson. And just the kind of calming influence that helps football teams win. Seriously, why can't they get rid of this tool? Oh, wait, because Mike Brown is a tool as well and apparently won't allow it. It amazes me that Marvin Lewis would consent to coach the guy after that. Hell, this explains the persistent bitching about double standards from Bengals players with regard to the rules and Chad Johnson. You want a first class exhibit, post-Terrell Owens, about how to meltdown a team with selfish behavior? It's Chad Johnson. By the way, Cincy's continually coming up small in big situations mirrors that of Johnson, who absolutely disappears when it counts. You build your team around talented but extremely flawed individuals like Johnson, and the circus of the last few seasons in Cincinnati is one of the very possible results.

Awesome. And when he is on the team come August, and daily stories about his mood are all that is being reported from training camp, well, that's gonna be just swell. For everyone else. For Bengals fans? Not so much.