Chad Johnson, Ochocinco, whatever you want to call him, had an interview with NFL Network last week and revealed some pretty interesting information. He had a down year, catching only 53 balls for 540 yards and four touchdowns, which is about half his typical year across the board. Some of it is due to poor quarterback play by backup Ryan Fitzpatrick, some is due to Chad’s shoulder injury, and according to Chad, a large part of the failure is due to his lack of preparation:
“I’m not even going to lie to you, I’m going to say it. Last year, the offseason, I didn’t lift one weight, I didn’t run one route, I didn’t exercise. I didn’t do nothing because my focus was on getting out of a situation I didn’t want to be in. I’m not going to lie,” Ochocinco said.
“And the result of my season, whether we as a team did bad or not, that’s what I get. I get hurt in the preseason. I didn’t lift no weights. If I had been on my right regiment, I guarantee you my collarbone, my shoulder wouldn’t pop out of place. The ankle surgery, you know.”
Here’s where he totally loses me. I understand his desire to leave Cincinnati, but say he got moved to a different team, like the Redskins or something, wouldn’t he want to be in shape in case that happened? Why would he just totally doom himself for an upcoming season? And I don’t know if you can attribute the collarbone/shoulder injury to a lack of weight work and training — that seems more of like a fluke to me. Bottom line is no matter how unhappy with the team and his situation he was, he still owed it to himself to work hard, train, and be prepared. This is disappointing.
