Bengals Can't Count On Ocho

Ochocinco is a joke. I don't understand why the Bengals didn't trade him to the Redskins last year when they had the chance (didn't the Skins offer two #1 picks for him?) I know Mike Brown didn't want to set a precedent by caving in to Ocho's trade demands, but the guy is such a cancer that the team is better off without him. I wouldn't want him on my team if they could get him for free. He's not worth the headache.

Guy is a clown.. enough said.

In his defense, he has admitted he was absent from this years OTAs due to physical training to ensure that his 2008 fiasco does not occur again, so you can't dis him too much for missing the OTAs (at least Carson Palmer retracted his previous negative statements).

Nice to see the recognition of Laveranues Coles toughness. As a Patriots fan, he was the player I dreaded to see when playing the Jets. He seemed to always make the tough catch when needed. Wish he was on the Patriots.

It is about time to tellthe truth. You people might no like ocho, but dont be stupid, he is one the the best recievers in the league. Carlson Parlmer has not done anything and peple like you want to take up for his lack of production every time. He is a reciever killer, both ocho and Huz, got killed in the last two years tring to catch the BS the he is throwing.

I am quite sure it was obvious to his teammates all last year that he had mailed it in. Ocho's public announcement on NFL Network was just confirmation to the media and fans of what everyone in teh organization already knew. Love him or hate him, Ocho is going to be the #1 WR in Cincy this year, not Coles, and that is a good thing if you are a Bengals fan (which I am not).

This man has unusual talent and an unusual way of wasting that talent. This to me is a tragedy- a guy who is given the chance to rewrite the record books of his team, if not the league, and get into the Hall of Fame. Instead, he decides to be a self-absorbed jerk. Why?
I get the feeling from your writing, Mr. Bowen, that you would give up a lot to be in his place. Yet, he decides to just throw it away with theatrics and nonsense.

I can't believe that someone would even stick up for this guy... what a joke.

who cares if her is in shape, he isn't in football shape because he is not with the team.

All about him.

Perhaps this is just Ochocinco's excuse for sucking last season and the real issue is that he's on the decline of his career. Kind of like the player who has a crappy year and then in then right before he new season begins, he tells everyone that he was hurt much worse than he let on the previous season as a way to deflect criticism.

How many times have we seen that tired old story play out?

Thank you, Matt, for being the one writer who's not treating Ochocinco's awe-inspiring "Hey, I'm trying now!" BS as some kind of heroic statement.

It was almost as funny as the story I read a few months ago about how Carson Palmer is now ready to take a leadership role. The fact Ochocinco has gone undisciplined, Palmer's a No. 1 overall draft pick who can't lead and the Bengals insistance upon drafting the dregs of the morally straight are all pretty clear reason why this team drafts in the bottom five six times a decade.

well, this article is a little bit late and almost irrelevant. on the bengals website there is an article about chad talking to the team saying basically the opposite of this. i'm sure there will be a few hundred articles about it in the next week or so.

Matt,

Did you actually watch the interview where he made those comments (on the NFL Network)? He was explaining that he refused to workout prior to last season as an attempt to force Cincinnati to trade him. It was a stupid negotiating tactic, but nevertheless, it was an attempt to negotiate from a position of contractual weakness. By admitting this publicly, Ochocinco was both taking responsibility for his poor performance (something one RARELY sees players do in public) and trying to contrast that with his current training regimen.

Whether one likes his on-field antics or not -- and I happen to find them annoying but ultimately harmless (unless they draw a penalty) -- he should be commended for his honesty in a profession where so few admit to their own misjudgments. Have we heard Brett Favre speak as honestly about his reasons for retiring and returning so often, for example?

Without putting his admission in context, you're doing the same thing that athletes always accuse the media of doing: taking a quote out of context in order to hype a story. I'd never suggest that was your intention, but that seems to be the result.