Hat tip to this diary, specifically reader dr WNC who pointed out that today Marvin Lewis has effectively shut down the possibility that Chad Johnson is going anywhere. This is big news for both Ben who, like me, thought this might be a bad idea and my blogging colleague Kirkendall at Cincy Jungle. The official quote from Marvin Lewis is floating out there in the internet somewheres, among other places, The Sporting News:
"No. 1, the guy has a contract through 2001, OK. No one within the Bengals organization has ever spoken of or ever uttered anything about trading Chad Johnson, nor will he be traded. ... So I think that's pretty clear. Things can move on," Lewis said, according to the newspaper and the team website...
Lewis said he has not talked with Johnson since the regular season ended, but added, "We've had a great relationship. All I want to see is Chad continue to be a very, very productive NFL player and help us win a lot of football games. And that's not going to change."