During his Shayne Graham got franchised piece, Joe Reedy of the Enquirer picked up a few quotes from T.J. Houshmandzadeh in response. One of which isn't an actual quote; rather a summation by Reedy.
When asked about his chances of returning to the team and signing a new deal, Houshmandzadeh gave it less than a 10 percent chance. The Bengals had contacted his agent, Kennard McGuire, but there wasn’t any contract talk.
Houshmandzadeh gushes about himself when asked about his eight-year career in Cincinnati.
“You think about obviously what is most recent memory, and it wasn’t good. But I was a seventh-round pick, who would’ve thought I would’ve done what I did."
Who would have thought that a team kept a seventh round pick around who, in the first three seasons of his career, suffered a season-ending injury, fumbled the ball four times on punt return and two on kickoff return. Truth be told, what he's become is amazing; through his first three seasons, he was hardly that. And if a player that's drafted in the seventh round, suffers the first three seasons like Houshmandzadeh did with a knack for fumbling the ball and getting hurt, it's rather difficult to even get your foot back in the door, much less get established.
Houshmandzadeh goes on to suggest that the Bengals won't have either Houshmandzadeh or Chad Johnson around next season.
And when asked about his friend and teammate, Chad Ocho Cinco, Houshmandzadeh thinks that he might not be back with the Bengals, either.“He doesn’t want to be there and if he doesn’t want to be there, let him go,” Houshmandzadeh said.
There you go.
Houshmandzadeh, in our opinion, is being a tad bit self-congratulatory about the opportunity Cincinnati gave him -- more importantly, sticking with him when he was pointless dime-a-dozen returner who fumbled the football.