This is what Ochocinco does
by garyclark on Saturday, December 19th, 2009 at 11:52am
I’m not sure there has ever been a pro athlete who has done what Chad Ochocinco is doing with his fans. And I don’t know why this doesn’t get more attention from the mainstream media. Here we have an elite athlete, a famous celebrity, a multi-millionaire who just wants to hang out with his fans.
Just random fans. Not groupies. Not at the club. But at bars and restaurants and … Starbucks. Cynics will say he’s overcompensating for something, or it’s another version of his egocentric self.
But can we please give the man some credit? Instead of charging fans for his autograph, he is buying them beer and lattes. With his touchdown celebrations and antics and changing his last name, I think most of us boxed him into the “typical selfish athlete” stereotype. The guy clearly has an ego, but I think he genuinely enjoys making others happy. This is not typical. And he doesn’t get nearly enough credit for it.
How does it work? Basically, if you follow him on Twitter, and he’s in your town, odds are you can hang out with him if you feel like it. Three hours ago, he posted this series on Twitter:
“If someone does come ask the front desk to call my room and ill be down, we going to eat!! I’m hungry”
“Cool folks are here, ill tweet where we are going to eat if you are an early bird like myseld come join us.”
“We are all going to Dennys down the street,its n Miramar Rd., the only place open to eat this early.”
Then about an hour ago:
“We all walked to StarBucks after breakfast-Slim in the picture too.”
Ochocinco has been doing these types of meet-ups for some time. But the strong theme in most of his recent posts is, unsurprisingly, Chris Henry. They were extremely close. And I find it fascinating that a pro athlete is dealing with the loss of a friend and a teammate largely through meeting up with strangers who also felt a connection to this person. It’s different. And I can’t put my finger on it exactly, but I think it’s important, and symbolic of a very new way we communicate and interact as humans in this country.