Assuring that Chad Johnson will line up and roam free to catch passes at the enemy Cleveland Browns stadium built by Kofi Bonner , Cincinnati Bengals head coach Marvin Lewis has said that he has a great relationship with Johnson and he will stay in Cincinnati. Here's the rest from ESPN..
Bengals coach Marvin Lewis is standing firm: Chad Johnson is staying in Cincinnati.
Lewis said Wednesday that the team will not trade the disgruntled wide receiver and has never discussed it, according to the Cincinnati Enquirer and the team's Web site.
"They can stop the presses, quit killing trees and move on to other things," Lewis said, defending Johnson despite the wide receiver's critical comments about the team. "There is, at no point, anyone in the Bengals organization who has ever uttered anything about trading Chad Johnson. Nor will he be traded."
On Tuesday, The Washington Post reported that acquiring Johnson is the Washington Redskins' top offseason priority, as team owner Daniel Snyder wants an elite receiver.
The Post reported that according to two league sources, Johnson wants to land a big payday in Washington, and his agent, Drew Rosenhaus, has been quietly working behind the scenes to broker a deal.
But Lewis said that's simply not going to happen.
"There is no such thing as behind-the-door dealings in the NFL. That does not occur because the team in question [the Bengals] is not willing to trade their player, nor have they thought about trading their player or discussed trading their player, nor will they discuss trading their player. So I think that's pretty clear. Things can move on," he said.
In television and radio interviews over the past month, Johnson has criticized the Bengals and hinted that he would welcome a change of scenery.
Lewis said Wednesday that he has not spoken to Johnson since the team's final regular season game.
"People [in the building] talk to him," Lewis said, according to reports. "It's unfortunate for Chad that he is being cast in this light because it's not fair. So once again I will go on record in defense of him."
"We've had a great relationship," Lewis said of the Bengals and Johnson. "All I want to see is Chad continue to be a very, very productive NFL player and help us win a lot of football games. And that's not going to change."
The latest figures from the NFL Players Association show Johnson was the fourth-highest paid wide receiver in the NFL last season with total compensation of $7,165,379 million, according to the reports. Were the Bengals to trade or release him before June 1, they would take a salary cap hit of $8.03 million.
Showing posts with label Chad Johnson. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Chad Johnson. Show all posts
Thursday, February 14, 2008
Thursday, June 07, 2007
Johnson's competition in match race could be tougher than he looks
From Pro Football Weekly
Johnson's competition in match race could be tougher than he looks
By Mike Wilkening
June 7, 2007
Bengals WR Chad Johnson is racing against a horse on Saturday. We know all about Johnson, and we are not surprised.
But what do we know about the horse?
His name is Restore the Roar, and he was named after a Bengals cheer bearing the same moniker. He has yet to win a race, but he has one second-place finish and one third-place finish in five career starts. The 4-year-old gelding has raced from distances from three-quarters of a mile to a mile and 70 yards, and always on dirt. Saturday’s race, at Cincinnati’s River Downs racetrack, will be his first try on grass.
Johnson, a turf sprinter if there ever was one, will have a head start. He'll break from the outside rail of the turf course at the sixteenth pole and run to the finish line, 110 yards in all. Restore the Roar, with retired jockey Patricia Cooksey in the saddle, will be breaking from a starting gate set up an eighth of a mile, or 220 yards, from the wire.
Restore the Roar is used to having to make up a lot of ground. He has never officially held the lead at any point in any of his five starts, and he has been at least 4½ lengths behind the leader entering the stretch in all of his races.
However, should Johnson make any Calvin Borel-like peeks over his shoulder, he could be alarmed at what he sees. The horse will be quickly covering ground, likely more than 20 feet per stride.
“That adds up pretty fast,” said River Downs publicity director John Englehardt.
The idea is to produce a photo finish, which is exactly what happened the last time a Bengals receiver raced a horse. The year was 1993, the Bengal was Cris Collinsworth and the horse was a first-time starter who defeated the talkative wideout by a nose. Cooksey had the mount that day. Now the deputy executive director of the Kentucky Horse Racing Authority, Cooksey joked that she was coming back to ride Restore the Roar because she was “undefeated against the Bengals and I plan on keeping it that way.”
This latest match race was the idea of Cincinnati radio host Andy Furman. Johnson, wanting to raise money for the charity Feed the Children, was game. Now they just needed four-legged competition.
That’s where Restore the Roar, son of Musical Dreamer and out-of-the-stakes-winning mare Princess Hawkins, comes in. The name made him a natural, as did his temperament. “You could probably blow a firecracker under his belly and he probably wouldn’t turn his head,” Englehardt said.
Englehardt approached the horse’s owner, Patricia Genn, who agreed to the race. She and her husband, Wilhelm, keep 15-20 show-jumping horses at Rheinland Farm in Lebanon, Ohio. They have only three of the racing variety, and Patricia Genn doesn’t rule out the possibility that Restore the Roar could change careers if he doesn’t take to racing. However, she believes the horse is simply going through a long, slow maturation process.
“He’s just figuring his job out,” she said.
Restore the Roar is coming off what may have been his worst race of his career, a six-furlong sprint vs. fellow Ohio-bred horses at River Downs on May 29. Restore the Roar was not quick enough to keep pace with the leaders, and he could not muster a closing kick in the stretch. He finished sixth in the field of 12, beaten by 14½ lengths.
Sprints, Genn admits, are not Restore the Roar’s game. “He can run all day,” she said. “Short distances, I don’t know.”
Advantage, Johnson.
Or is it?
If Restore the Roar takes to the grass, what a race Johnson could be in for, and what a race this could be. “His father’s biggest win was on the turf at River Downs,” Englehardt pointed out, referring to Musical Dreamer’s triumph in the Green Carpet Stakes 10 years ago.
The humans involved in this match race are primarily concerned with its charitable goals. River Downs is holding a silent auction of items autographed by Johnson, and the track will book “wagers” on the race, drawing winners for cash and prizes and donating some of the proceeds to Feed the Children. Also, Genn has pledged to donate a share of Restore the Roar’s future earnings to the charity.
To date, he’s made $4,354 for his owner. On dirt, he’s a one-paced plodder. On turf? No one knows, except maybe his daddy, and he isn’t talking. And that’s why Chad Johnson, who can cover 110 yards perhaps as fast as any human in the Cincinnati area, better not underestimate his competition, no matter what the racing form says.
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Ok So Chad's gonna race a horse. thats great, he just better not wind up looking like the horses rear!
Johnson's competition in match race could be tougher than he looks
By Mike Wilkening
June 7, 2007
Bengals WR Chad Johnson is racing against a horse on Saturday. We know all about Johnson, and we are not surprised.
But what do we know about the horse?
His name is Restore the Roar, and he was named after a Bengals cheer bearing the same moniker. He has yet to win a race, but he has one second-place finish and one third-place finish in five career starts. The 4-year-old gelding has raced from distances from three-quarters of a mile to a mile and 70 yards, and always on dirt. Saturday’s race, at Cincinnati’s River Downs racetrack, will be his first try on grass.
Johnson, a turf sprinter if there ever was one, will have a head start. He'll break from the outside rail of the turf course at the sixteenth pole and run to the finish line, 110 yards in all. Restore the Roar, with retired jockey Patricia Cooksey in the saddle, will be breaking from a starting gate set up an eighth of a mile, or 220 yards, from the wire.
Restore the Roar is used to having to make up a lot of ground. He has never officially held the lead at any point in any of his five starts, and he has been at least 4½ lengths behind the leader entering the stretch in all of his races.
However, should Johnson make any Calvin Borel-like peeks over his shoulder, he could be alarmed at what he sees. The horse will be quickly covering ground, likely more than 20 feet per stride.
“That adds up pretty fast,” said River Downs publicity director John Englehardt.
The idea is to produce a photo finish, which is exactly what happened the last time a Bengals receiver raced a horse. The year was 1993, the Bengal was Cris Collinsworth and the horse was a first-time starter who defeated the talkative wideout by a nose. Cooksey had the mount that day. Now the deputy executive director of the Kentucky Horse Racing Authority, Cooksey joked that she was coming back to ride Restore the Roar because she was “undefeated against the Bengals and I plan on keeping it that way.”
This latest match race was the idea of Cincinnati radio host Andy Furman. Johnson, wanting to raise money for the charity Feed the Children, was game. Now they just needed four-legged competition.
That’s where Restore the Roar, son of Musical Dreamer and out-of-the-stakes-winning mare Princess Hawkins, comes in. The name made him a natural, as did his temperament. “You could probably blow a firecracker under his belly and he probably wouldn’t turn his head,” Englehardt said.
Englehardt approached the horse’s owner, Patricia Genn, who agreed to the race. She and her husband, Wilhelm, keep 15-20 show-jumping horses at Rheinland Farm in Lebanon, Ohio. They have only three of the racing variety, and Patricia Genn doesn’t rule out the possibility that Restore the Roar could change careers if he doesn’t take to racing. However, she believes the horse is simply going through a long, slow maturation process.
“He’s just figuring his job out,” she said.
Restore the Roar is coming off what may have been his worst race of his career, a six-furlong sprint vs. fellow Ohio-bred horses at River Downs on May 29. Restore the Roar was not quick enough to keep pace with the leaders, and he could not muster a closing kick in the stretch. He finished sixth in the field of 12, beaten by 14½ lengths.
Sprints, Genn admits, are not Restore the Roar’s game. “He can run all day,” she said. “Short distances, I don’t know.”
Advantage, Johnson.
Or is it?
If Restore the Roar takes to the grass, what a race Johnson could be in for, and what a race this could be. “His father’s biggest win was on the turf at River Downs,” Englehardt pointed out, referring to Musical Dreamer’s triumph in the Green Carpet Stakes 10 years ago.
The humans involved in this match race are primarily concerned with its charitable goals. River Downs is holding a silent auction of items autographed by Johnson, and the track will book “wagers” on the race, drawing winners for cash and prizes and donating some of the proceeds to Feed the Children. Also, Genn has pledged to donate a share of Restore the Roar’s future earnings to the charity.
To date, he’s made $4,354 for his owner. On dirt, he’s a one-paced plodder. On turf? No one knows, except maybe his daddy, and he isn’t talking. And that’s why Chad Johnson, who can cover 110 yards perhaps as fast as any human in the Cincinnati area, better not underestimate his competition, no matter what the racing form says.
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Ok So Chad's gonna race a horse. thats great, he just better not wind up looking like the horses rear!
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