I predict this will be the Lance Briggs story of this year, the player acquisition rumor that never seems to go away and has enough bits of truth mixed in with the generic Redskins-love-to-spend storyline that it's too good not to be true. First:
An infuriated Chad Johnson has all but declared war on the team that holds his contract. He will not be reporting for any team functions, practices or games...
As for where Johnson is going, rumors and misinformation abound. The Washington Redskins are drooling over an opportunity to pick up Johnson, and conspiracy theorists believe there may be a secret deal in progress.
Johnson has lobbied off season for a possible trade to the Cowboys. The Cowboys have not made a public offer at this point, however.
As
Redskins Insider points out:
As I wrote about months ago, Dan Snyder and Vinny Cerrato have a thing for Chad Johnson. It was a staple of their interviews with head coaching candidates. He would fill what they believe to be the biggest void on the team, or at least so they told several of the men they considered to replace Joe Gibbs.
So now Chad is going postal again, ranting and raving that he won't report for any Bengals team activity and lashing out at QB Carson Palmer. This is Rosenhaus 101 people. And sometimes it actually does work and his client creates such a ridiculous stir that he gets traded.
I'll go even further; what could be better leverage for your player than playing two rival teams -- the Redskins and the Cowboys -- against each other in a bid for your services. Drew Rosenhaus is one part evil and one part genius in that he knows damn well that if he makes Chad Johnson lack value enough to the Bengals organization, they'll trade. The issue is whether and to what degree teams are willing to be bullied around by this tactic, and I'd stress this is a
league wide concern that happens to be uniquely important to the Redskins. While we may be on the receiving end of a Chad Johnson deal as a result of his tantrum in Cincy, it could just as easily be us having to deal with a very talented, but very disenchanted Drew Rosenhaus player, years from now, that wants to force our hand in a transaction. He has the following
clients on our team:
WASHINGTON REDSKINS
Rock Cartwright RB
Demetric Evans DL
London Fletcher LB
Santana Moss WR
Clinton Portis RB
And as Jason points at at RI, Chad Johnson's cap hit decreases substantially in June, which means you better get comfortable talking, thinking, and commenting about Chad Johnson from now until eternity. Because this story is not going anywhere.
More at Cincy Jungle, including this tidbit:
Even his boy, T.J. Houshmandzadeh agrees that the Bengals should trade the prima donna. Sure, he could be saying that simply to help out his friend. Though we wonder. Houshmandzadeh knows prima enough, probably has heard his rants during the off-season, generally thinking that prima will be a distraction. Which I think we all generally agree with. When Palmer said that Chad will be there, prima freaked. T.J. says "I think eventually he'll show up, but then you have to worry about how much of a distraction he'll be." We'll see if prima reacts the same way with T.J. And we'll see if Chad will put his mouth will his, well, we'll just see.
One danger of convincing your own team that you are cancerous and that they're better off without you is that you may end up proving too much. Go too far, and you risk convincing
the rest of the league that you aren't worth the trouble. Stay tuned (you have no choice).
