Ochocinco’s past would haunt Lions
Risk not worth the reward
It really shouldn’t be cause for a pat on the back when a Canadian Football League club says thanks but no thanks to a guy like Chad Johnson. Maybe Johnson, formerly Chad Ochocinco, could still get open and catch the football, despite being 36 years old and two seasons out of the game, despite being one of those Terrell Owens/ Randy Moss- type lightning rods who can’t seem to survive outside his own self- made womb of ego gratification.
He definitely excited the Twitterverse with the mere possibility on Thursday, repeatedly tweeting on his @ ochocinco account that he intended to sign for the 2014 season with the B. C. Lions.
Perhaps he’d be an upgrade on the import receivers the B. C. Lions have: Emmanuel Arceneaux and Courtney Taylor and Ernest Jackson and whoever is moving up the depth chart at wide receiver.
Maybe, with a decade of National Football League stardom on his resumé — though stale- dated by several years — the longtime Cincinnati Bengal could still be a difference maker, even at his age.
But then football operations chief Wally Buono and head coach Mike Benevides would have to go home at night and look in the mirror. And so would Travis Lulay, the quarterback.
At what price, they would have to ask, is worth those receptions?
“This is an initiative from an individual player, probably in discussion with some of our other players,” Buono said Friday. “Will I have a discussion with my boss? Yes. Do I have a strong inclination to move forward with it? No.”
There are certain things a professional sports organization stands for, and certain things it learns the hard way.
And Chad Johnson represented a challenge to both. A test, if you will, of what the Lions have learned from previous experience with me- first players ( read: Casey Printers) and players at the sunset of their athletic careers ( Geroy Simon) ... but most importantly, a test of their honesty.
The Lions — in one of the bolder and in some ways more dangerous initiatives to be undertaken by a team in a professional sport that gets a lot of headlines for the wrong reasons — have, for a couple of seasons now, thrown their weight behind a program called “Be More Than A Bystander, Break The Silence On Violence Against Women.”
Through a series of powerful public service announcements and videos, players like Lulay and slotback Shawn Gore, safety J. R LaRose and recently retired centre Angus Reid have urged the public to speak up and speak out — and now, their conviction as a football club has been put to the test.
On Aug. 11, 2012, a little over a month after marrying Evelyn Lozada, Chad Johnson was arrested on a charge of domestic battery. According to the police report, he allegedly head- butted his wife following an argument.
The next day, he was released by the Miami Dolphins. That’s right. Even the Miami Dolphins, home to Richie Incognito and an apparent lockerroom culture of brutality and harassment and abuse, cut ties with him. Two days later, his wife filed for divorce. He entered a no- contest plea of misdemeanour domestic battery, and avoided jail time but eventually was incarcerated anyway, for repeated violations of his probation, which ended only four months ago.
But there he was Thursday on Twitter, exchanging messages with Arceneaux and cornerback Dante Marsh, talking up his intent to come north.
“I think it all started last year when we wore our gunmetal grey jersey and he tweeted — or twittered, or however the hell you say it — that he liked it. And because he is such a high- profile NFL guy, it made for a lot of pizzazz,” Buono said. “And one thing leads to another.”
Ordinarily, an approach from a receiver with Johnson’s playing record would be, to say the least, intriguing. But nothing about the timing, or the circumstances, is ordinary.
“You have to be very, very — very — cautious because of all the things it implies,” Buono said. “He got charged with, what domestic battery, right? And convicted. And you look at some of the programs that we support.
“Do we have to comment on it? I think we have to at least acknowledge it, but I think you also have to acknowledge what your organization stands for and how you want to be perceived going forward.”
Even if all that weren’t true, the Lions just went through the painful process of trading away their all- time great receiver, Simon, because he was 37 years old and his skills were diminishing. Simon then won the Grey Cup with the Saskatchewan Roughriders.
For all his God- fearing, highly principled beliefs, the GM has never shied away from cutting players once they reached the point of no return, but signing a 36- year- old with nothing like Simon’s character at this point ... .
“It’s not only a tough sale, it’s just, we want to be sensitive to whether going down this path is the right path,” Buono said.
“It’s not like a guy who as an 18- year- old got into a fight with another 18- year- old, or a guy who made a bad decision because he got in his car and drove home ( after drinking). That’s tough stuff, but you look at the circumstances of what happened in his case, the fact that he was probably in the twilight of his career, his personality ... is it worth going down that road? Once you associate, then all the good things that you’ve done seem to take a back seat.
“It’s a very slippery slope. I don’t think you sacrifice the values of your organization, the programs that you’ve invested in and support, for any one player because I don’t think the risk is worth the reward.”
The happy fallout from the Lions’ stand? Their own Ochocinco, No. 85, won’t be pressured to give it up.
Shawn Gore, more than a bystander, might have refused anyway, on principle.