It showed up in my news feed this morning. Chad Johnson deactivated. There was no reason for it, it was written, so we weren't sure what happened; just that he violated team rules. Two thoughts came to mind: 1) This will dominate the headlines, putting the Bengals into another welcome spotlight and 2) That trade proposal with the Redskins, or anything like that in the future, is long gone.
Adam Schefter wrote that Chad Johnson got into it with someone. Brad Johansen wrote that he overslept and missed a team meeting. Chris Mortensen reported that Chad Johnson got into a verbal confrontation with a coach. Yes, his vague discovery came nearly five hours after the reports surfaced, in an effort to "report it".
Jay Glazier details the best yet.
A few local reports have surfaced that alleged that the receiver overslept and arrived late for a team meeting Wednesday night at the Bengals practice facility. Sources confirmed Ocho Cinco arrived late and was extremely groggy. After taking his seat, Bengals offensive coordinator Bob Bratkowski told Ocho Cinco to sit up straight in his seat. After the receiver refused, Bratkowski again repeated his demand.
At that point, Ocho Cinco stood up and walked out of the meeting altogether. After shouting at his player to return, Lewis chased him down and lashed into the former All-Pro -- finally telling Johnson to go home.
This absolutely conflicts with what Johansen wrote on his blog, that Johnson was "begging" Lewis to play against the Steelers. Johansen made it sound like Lewis suspended Johnson for the game, and Johnson accepted it, appreciated it and understood it. However, Glazer's report suggests Johnson was disobedient from the start with an attitude that would obviously get him into trouble (did character-suicide campaign resume?), walked out of the team meeting after Bob Bratkowski told him to sit up straight. Johnson left the meeting and Lewis tracked him down, eventually telling him to just go home.
Depending on the sources associated with the published reports, different scenarios could emerge. If Glazer is more accurate, Johnson could find himself suspended for the rest of the season -- ala Eagles and Terrell Owens. This blogger would support it too. Based on Johansen's report, it's fair to say that this will be a one-time incident, done and (not likely) forgotten. Hobson confirms, based on indications (can one confirm based on assumptions?), that Lewis did most of the shouting during their "shouting match".
In the end, Adam Schefter's report is probably the one you want to hang on right now. It doesn't detail much, like the conflicting reports above, simply stating that "Johnson got into it last night with someone in the Cincinnati organization and left a team function." Though it's hard to ignore Glazer's report.
Thank god we're playing Thursday night. We'll need the entire weekend just to sort this all out.
UPDATE: Another conflict. Ken Broo said during Channel 5's "Ready to Roar" one-hour pregame show that Chad Johnson actually feel asleep during the team meeting; no acknowledgment that he was late to the meeting. However, he recapped exactly what Glazer said. Bratkowski told Chad to pay attention, and Johnson "stormed out".
UPDATE II: A Jesus moment. After posting this piece and reading something else, I did a Google News search on Chad Johnson. My post came up six minutes after I published it. When I saw that, I said Jesus. Hence, my Jesus moment. That is all for this update.