Chad Joshnson

[jjakq27]

http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/art...70417/-1/back01

Friday, May 27, 2005

Bengals' Johnson is sports Prozac

Chatty WR can talk away blues for Cincinnati fans

By Paul Daugherty

Enquirer staff writer

The glow from the noonday sun bounces off his eight or 10 gold teeth and lands like a spotlight across his wide-open face. Didn't he stop wearing the gold caps after one of Marvin Lewis' fatherly lectures? Turns out, he didn't.

"I mean business" when the caps are on, Chad Johnson explained. "The gold only goes in on the field. It's like Superman. He doesn't walk around in the suit. When it's time for business, he's in the red and blue. The gold defines me. I'm always shining. I continue to keep this organization shining."

The Bengals are in a voluntary minicamp. Which is just a whole lot more promising than anything else going on around here, sports-wise. Compared to the last few weeks, throwing lawn darts in a minefield is a good time.

I've had enough of Danny Graves. Huggs and Zim have gone to neutral corners. Maybe they're sampling the massage recliners Dave Miley took out of the Reds' clubhouse.

I needed some soul food. I knew where to find it.

"Tell me something you've never told anyone outside this locker room," I said to Johnson. "I suck my finger," Johnson said.

What?

"I suck my finger."

Yeah, and I bend spoons with my mind. You? Grandmaster Quote? Smack-talking, tall-walking, Browns-inflaming, Chiefs- ashaming, all-world Bulletin Board Man? When brash sees you coming, it runs the other way.

"He sucks his thumb," Peter Warrick said.

"If nobody's talking to him, if he's just sitting around here chillin', it's going in his mouth."

"That's a guaranteed fact. All the time, since I've known him," said T.J. Houshmandzadeh, who has known the Master a long time.

Just when you thought you had Chad Johnson figured out. "It's when I need to focus," Johnson said. "Quiet time."

You want a break from the daily news blues about teams going nowhere (Reds), teams going away (Ducks) and teams going insane (Bearcats)? Look no further than Paul Brown Stadium. The erstwhile laughingstocks of Sports Nation are an island of professionalism. The football team, heaven help us, is the only club around here with a brain in its head.

Even Chad Johnson. Maybe especially Johnson. He's as loquacious as he is talented. It's not a pose or a marketing campaign. It's who he is. The only bad thing about that is, it can obscure Johnson's devotion to what he does. The man busts it.

"The details," he said. The question was, "Why will you be better this year than last?"

"The sm-a-a-ll details. Route depths. Getting off on the snap count. It's the little things that allow me to take the next step, not the big things. I got the big things." If you're Reds-weary, dream of Palmer-to-Johnson. Naturally, Johnson predicts big things for himself and Carson Palmer this fall.

"It's like getting married," the Master said. "You know your wife better, year after year."

"You married?" I asked.

"Yeah, to this game.

Johnson has decided he will not stop talking trash.

"I gotta continue to talk. In order to continue to talk, I gotta put the work in. I gotta challenge myself and those I play (against) every Sunday. I hope the person (defending) me is motivated to do his best. Because if you're playing your best and I beat you every Sunday like I've been doing, I know I'm doing something right," he explained.

There are jocks who don't talk and jocks who have nothing to say. There are those from whom you extract syllables like platinum from the earth. And there is Johnson. Open the notebook and give the man some room.

"I'm nowhere near my potential," he said. "And I'm very, very good right now. I always have something to prove. What I did last year is nothing. I erase my memory. I'm a rookie all over again.

"I'm a perfectionist. That's my goal. Once I get there, it's over. They think I talk now ..."

He rises to take a shower. Walks away, saying something I can't make out. It's all good, though. You can bet on that.

[jditty47]

i love that s**t about putting the bling bling in during gametimes only.

"I mean business" when the caps are on, Chad Johnson explained. "The gold only goes in on the field. It's like Superman. He doesn't walk around in the suit. When it's time for business, he's in the red and blue. The gold defines me. I'm always shining. I continue to keep this organization shining."

and wow, he sucks his thumb....haha

[Kazkal]

wow..... thats all Ihave to say