CHAD JOHNSON, CINCINNATI, and BILL PARCELLS.

I doubt that too many people outside of Cincinnati have much followed the Chad Johnson saga. But, it's true: Chad Johnson is requesting a trade from the Cincinnati Bengals.
And, my favorite player in the NFL - deserves it.

Being that I have not missed a Bengals football game in years, I am somewhat of an expert on Chad Johnson's strengths and weaknesses.

His route running is unmatched - even by Marvin Harrison. No one is better at beating the double team on a 15 yard out. No one makes as many tough catches as Chad does in a season. And he hasn't missed a game in 6 years. He also is a top notch deep receiver with electrifying speed - if not world class like Harrison.

Weaknesses - this past year he dropped some easy catches; he is not particularly great after the catch like Plax, TO, or TJ, and he is not a great blocker.

Fact: He is the only player in the history of the NFL to lead his conference in receiving yards and in a down year he just caught for 1440 yards.

And, because the Bengals underachieved at the start of the year, both national and local media (and the fucking Bengals organization) talked about how Chad needed to "just focus on football" and "stop with all that other stuff." This - for a player that has not missed a game in 6 YEARS! And for a player who has been the very best (AKA top 5) at his position for 5 YEARS!

And not only did absolute moron "hard-ass" ex-coaches (FYI: Those assclowns, Ditka, Parcells, and Cowher who for some reason didn't think talent won them games but "no-nonsense football") (Part 2: Isn't this great how now EVERY fucking studio analyst loves having an opinion about players shutting up and "just play football;" yet how many can fucking break down a Cover 3 defense? NONE OF THEM other than Jaworski can actually analyze, you know, football plays.) And this opinion filtered down to where the fans, and the Cincinnati media started to turn on him. He started being obliquely blamed for the Bengals playoff loss in 2005 when he had an emotional meltdown after Carson's knee exploded. Instead of analysts and reporters criticizing him justifiably for key drops this year and a few times he was less than tough blocking or taking on defenders, Cincinnati media criticized him as a person - his attitude - his toughness and so on.

I don't know how it is in other cities; but Cincinnati is notorious for blaming their best player on the teams failings.

Carl Pickens was painted as being disgruntled after three pro-bowls and took most of the heat when Blake's career and the Bengals seasons started being awful.

Corey Dillon - a workhorse runner and extremely special talent was run out of town after being frustrated about the team's performance when he may have been the league's best runner.

Ken Griffey Jr. - because of his injuries he has been blamed for the Reds being awful his whole tenure when his salary is actually reasonable (9 mill a year) and even if he hit like Ted Williams Cincy wouldn't have been close to the playoffs.

And now Chad Johnson is being painted as a malcontent.

Honestly, given the Bengals obsession with having a "balanced offense" and "renewing their commitment to the running game" next year, Chad would be better off somewhere else.

And if you recall, right after Corey Dillon was traded to the Pats he lead the NFL in rushing.