On Wednesday, T.J. Houshmandzadeh pimped himself with out of market sports talk shows in Chicago (around the 13 minute mark) and Philadelphia. Waddle and Silvy asked Houshmandzadeh about free agency: "I'm excited about (free agency). See what the future is." Houshmandzadeh went on to reflect Cincinnati, "It's bad, when you don't win. That's just the thing. When you're not winning games, it's not exciting, it's not fun. You have no hope. You go out there and compete, and it's fun to play football." Nor was he too thrilled about coming back, taking the diplomatic route, "I think I'm open to everything. I would never say no I won't go back. I might not have a choice."
He reiterated a competitive drive to win, be on the big show and win football games.
“To constantly lose and get your plane tickets to go home with four, five, six weeks left in the season, and then watch the playoffs and see guys like Larry Fitzgerald ball out and Santonio Holmes have a great Super Bowl, you just want to be on that stage. That’s the bottom line, you want to get on the stage to show what you can do.”
With Mike Missanelli on 950 ESPN in Philadelphia, Houshmandzadeh chimed the same things. When asked if he's ready to move on from the Cincinnati Bengals, Houshmandzadeh said, "There's no need for me to run around and say what I want to do." However, he said:
- "Actually, you know, Philly is a team that consistently wins, consistently have a good offense and I love the way Reid calls plays. I like Philadelphia."
- "If the Eagles are interested in me, then I'll be interested in them."
When Missanelli said that Houshmandzadeh was playing in "Lame ass Cincinnati", Houshmandzadeh didn't defend either the team or the players on the team (sorry, that's my spin). He said the game against the Eagles was an interview for Andy Reid.
For most of both interviews it was very apparent that Houshmandzadeh references Cincinnati in the past tense, while he makes himself known with other markets that need wide receivers. Keep your ears open for more upcoming interviews. All in all, unless Houshmandzadeh is franchised, I doubt he willingly comes back to Cincinnati; no matter the cost. He wants to win, and no one this side of the Milky Way thinks winning in Cincinnati is unachievable.