Chad Johnson Jr. is a name that resonates with football fans, carrying the legacy of his father, Chad Ochocinco Johnson, a former NFL star. As Chad Johnson Jr. steps into the spotlight, he aims to carve his own path in the world of professional football.
He has the look of a top wide receiver, he has the game to back it up and the name, well, that speaks for itself. Chad Johnson, Jr., is a 2020 standout from Los Angeles Venice and he’s the son of Ochocinco, or Chad Johnson, or however you might know him - NFL receiver, Pro Bowler, the guy with a lot of talk and a lot of action to back it up.
Early Life and College Career
Chad Javon Johnson was born on January 9, 1978, in Miami, Florida. He graduated from Miami Beach Senior High School. Johnson briefly attended Langston University. In 1997, Johnson transferred to Santa Monica College, a community college in Santa Monica, California.
In 2000, Johnson transferred to Oregon State University, after being aggressively recruited by coach Dennis Erickson to play for the OSU team. His first cousin, Chad Johnson, is from Oregon State University and is considered among the top three receivers and possibly the top 10 overall in the NFL draft his year.
Oregon State coach Dennis Erickson gave him a chance even though he had only one year of eligibility remaining. Johnson said, "I didn't qualify until three weeks before my first game. From there, Johnson's value as a football player soared. He played on one of the top offenses in the country. At the Senior Bowl, he caught everyone's eyes with his speed and ability to make big plays.
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Facing Expectations
“There’s a lot of pressure because you come out here and they expect you to be just like him,” Johnson said last weekend at the Under Armour Camp. “It takes a lot of hard work. I’m not there yet but I will be eventually.“I have to prove myself everywhere I go.”
Still just a kid trying to carve out his own path in football, Johnson is savvy enough to know people are gunning for him at every event. Shut down Ochocinco’s kid and make a name for yourself. He knows it - and embraces it. And he does it with his mouth shut.
“I just feel I have to be better than them, in every aspect of the game,” Johnson said. “He was pretty good so I have to be very good.“For me right now, to be doing all that talking and stuff, I’m not there yet. I just keep my mouth shut and not change my number to a Spanish number. I’m just being me and playing my game.”
That’s not to say father and son don’t talk football regularly because they do. All the time, the 2020 receiver goes to his father for tips, advice, lessons. He wants to be great - and his dad knows how to get there.
“After every game I go straight to him, send him a couple videos, ask him what I did wrong, what I did right,” Johnson said. “We always chop it up.”
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Recruiting and "Dream School"
As for recruiting, things are just kicking off for Johnson, who has offers from FAU, Oregon State and Arizona State so far. The Beavers - to no one’s surprise - is the “dream school” for Johnson, whose father played in Corvallis before an NFL career that lasted more than a decade.
“The coaches, the relationship with the coaches, stand out (at Oregon State),” Johnson said. “I don’t know, it’s always been the dream school.“He doesn’t care about (recruiting). He says just work on your craft. The recruiting comes easy. That’s the easy part.
NFL Career of Chad Ochocinco Johnson
Chad Ochocinco Johnson played in the National Football League (NFL) for 11 seasons. He played college football for the Santa Monica Corsairs and the Oregon State Beavers, and played for the Cincinnati Bengals and the New England Patriots during his tenure playing in the NFL. He was selected by the Bengals in the second round of the 2001 NFL draft, and played for them for 10 seasons.
Ochocinco, which means "eight five" in Spanish, was also his number. In 2012, Johnson played for the Miami Dolphins during preseason but was released following his arrest for domestic violence. He played for the Montreal Alouettes of the Canadian Football League (CFL) from 2014 to 2015, and played one game in 2017 for the Mexican team Fundidores de Monterrey of the Liga de FĂştbol Americano Profesional (LFA).
During the 2005 NFL season, Johnson announced that he would keep a checklist, titled who Covered 85 in '05, that would evaluate the defensive backs who successfully managed to cover him. On November 2, 2005, Marvin Lewis, the Bengals' head coach, replaced Johnson's list with another one titled, Did 85 do everything he could to lead his team to victory 11-6-05.
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The list, an obvious parody of the original, asked several questions regarding Johnson's performance both on and off the field. Johnson was not pleased with the new list, as he had developed a superstitious faith in the older list. In 2007, Degree and Yahoo! created an online version of his checklist.
During the first half of the 2006 season, Johnson saw little activity. After being bogged down by an early injury, his productivity endured a sharp decline. During the first eight weeks of the 2006 season, Johnson caught two touchdown passes, while amassing 483 yards.
However, after shaving his Mohawk and changing his mentality, he had a breakout game in a losing effort against the San Diego Chargers. Johnson accumulated 260 receiving yards and scored two touchdowns, which broke the previous Bengals record for most receiving yards in a game. In addition to being one of the most productive receivers in the NFL, Johnson was also one of the most popular in balloting for the Pro Bowl.
In the fan voting for the 2006 game, he finished first in votes for wide receivers, and fourth overall with 987,650 total votes. Johnson earned nationwide attention for his flamboyant attitude, which was often seen during his infamous end zone celebrations after catching touchdown passes.
In the first game of the season, on Monday Night Football against the Baltimore Ravens, Johnson scored the game's first touchdown on a 39-yard pass from Carson Palmer. Following the touchdown, he grabbed a jacket that resembles the Pro Football Hall of Fame inductees' jacket that said, "Future H.O.F. 20??"
In the fourth quarter of the Bengals' week-nine loss to the Buffalo Bills, Johnson was rolled off the field on a stretcher, with a reported head injury. He dove out for a pass, with under a minute left in the 33-21 loss, and then was sandwiched by Donte Whitner and Coy Wire. Johnson was reported to be mobile at the hospital.
Johnson was passed up for the 2008 Pro Bowl team, which instead selected his teammate T. J. Houshmandzadeh. Due to injury, however, Patriots' receiver Randy Moss was forced to withdraw from the Pro Bowl, and Johnson was selected as his replacement. The selection marked his fifth consecutive Pro Bowl selection.
On January 13, 2008, Johnson was a guest on ESPN's Mike & Mike radio show. During the interview, he addressed how the media and team treated him during the 2007 season, saying, "I was labeled selfish and a cancer, and it hurt...Fingers were pointed at me this year. If the team and the organization wants to further itself (make the playoffs), I think you need to get rid of the problem...It hurt me. To do me that way and not to have my back. Things were said, and nobody came to my defense."
The Bengals began the season 0-8, with Carson Palmer forced out for the season with an injury incurred early in the campaign and Johnson experiencing his worst statistical season of his career to date. During the season, Johnson expressed remorse for the developments in the 2008 season and attempted to make it up to the fans in Cincinnati through numerous actions.
Johnson opened up the 2010 season with 12 receptions for 159 yards and a touchdown in the Bengals' opening day loss to the Patriots. In doing so, he tied the franchise record for touchdown catches (which he later surpassed) and became the sixth player in NFL history to amass 10,000 receiving yards with one team.
On July 28, 2011, the New England Patriots acquired Johnson in a trade with Cincinnati after he restructured a three-year contract for $6.35 million. Johnson had statistically the least productive season of his career, catching 15 passes for 276 yards and one touchdown, all career lows. Johnson played in his first Super Bowl, catching one pass for 21 yards. His 21-yard reception was the longest pass completion for the Patriots in that Super Bowl.
Johnson signed a two-year deal with the Montreal Alouettes of the Canadian Football League on April 17, 2014. During the 2014 CFL season, Johnson appeared in only five regular season games, mostly due to nagging injuries. In total, he accumulated seven receptions for 151 yards, and scored one touchdown. Johnson was suspended by the Alouettes after he failed to report for mandatory training camp in the spring of 2015.
In March 2016, Johnson tweeted to the Cleveland Browns head coach, who was also his former wide receivers coach with the Bengals, Hue Jackson, to ask if he would let Johnson work with the receivers during training camp. He is currently a panelist on the weekly highlight show Inside the NFL, a role he has held since the show moved to The CW in 2023. He also co-hosts the podcast Nightcap alongside Shannon Sharpe.
NFL Draft Player Comparisons
Player comparisons are a common practice in NFL draft analysis. Here are a few comparisons for wide receivers and defensive players:
* **Travis Hunter, WR, Colorado:** Compares to Chad Johnson (2001-'11; CIN. NE) - "Yet, Hunter’s twitch, ball skills and slender build give me “Ochocinco” flashbacks."* **Mason Graham, DL, Michigan:** Compares to Kenny Clark (2016-Active; GB) - Two former high school wrestlers who know how to unlock power from their lower half but lack length.* **Abdul Carter, EDGE, Penn State:** Compares to Brian Burns (2019-Active; CAR, NYG) - They both possess excellent explosiveness off the ball to win around tackles with the speed rush.* **Shavon Revel, CB, East Carolina:** Compares to Antonio Cromartie (2006-'16; SD, NYJ, ARI, IND) - Both are big, explosive man cover corners with long speed.
Off-the-Field Ventures
On March 1, 2010, it was announced that Johnson would be a contestant on Dancing with the Stars for the tenth season. He was paired with two-time champion Cheryl Burke. He was eliminated from the show as one of the final four competitors on May 18, 2010, after receiving the lowest judges' score and number of votes.
During the 2010-2011 NFL season, he and teammate Terrell Owens teamed up for a talk show, The T. Ocho Show on Versus, talking football, basketball, and pop culture. In 2010, Johnson was featured on his own reality television dating show called Ochocinco: The Ultimate Catch on VH1. Aspiring singer-songwriter Rubi Pazmino won the show.
Ochocinco was a soccer player in his youth and has stated he is an avid fan of the sport. His trial began on March 23, 2011. On March 25, he was asked to play in a reserve game. In 2018, Johnson returned to soccer, signing for then-National Premier Soccer League side Boca Raton FC in October after a period of training.
On May 3, 2021, Johnson was added to the undercard for the Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Logan Paul fight card in a fight against Brian Maxwell. The fight completed the four two-minute rounds for which it was scheduled.
Ochocinco is known for his frugality and focus on financial responsibility. For the first two years of Johnson's tenure with the Bengals, he lived at the team facility, utilizing the variety of on-site amenities the team provided.
Name Change and Legal Issues
On October 25, 2006, in honor of Hispanic Heritage Month, Johnson, whose jersey number was "85", announced that he would prefer to be called "Ocho Cinco," which is "eight five" in Spanish ("Eighty-five" would be "ochenta y cinco"). Quarterback Carson Palmer ripped the label off the jersey to reveal the usual "C. Johnson legally changed his name to Chad Javon Ochocinco on August 29, 2008.
Johnson and Lozada married on July 4, 2012. On August 11, 2012, Johnson was arrested on a charge of domestic battery according to the Davie, Florida police. On June 10, 2013, Johnson was sentenced to thirty days in jail for violating his probation.
Chad "Ochocinco" Johnson's Can't Cover Me Career Highlights | NFL Legends
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