Fired twice in barely two months after 11 seasons in the NFL, receiver Chad Johnson is once again available.
It’s easy to conclude that his career is over, given that his release by the Dolphins came after he was accused of head-butting his wife. But in an offseason that has seen Randy Moss, Braylon Edwards, Antonio Bryant, and Terrell Owens get new opportunities after being presumably out of the game, it could be foolish to assume that Johnson won’t get a shot at redemption.
The problem is that Johnson hasn’t shown much on the football field in recent years. In 2010, his final season in Cincinnati, Owens outplayed the man known at the time as Ochocinco. In 2011, his only season in New England, Chad was lost and confused.
Johnson’s arrest — the first of his career — came a night after he looked not much different than he did last year in his debut with the Dolphins, dropping the only pass thrown his way.
With Seahawks coach Pete Carroll rounding up has-beens like he’s directing the next Stallone-driven ensemble cast, it would make plenty of sense for Seattle to reunite Batman and Robin.
But the real question is whether Robin can still play. Lost in the fact that he has been arrested and cut only a day apart is the very strong possibility that, from a football standpoint, it’s over.
It’s also possible that, in the heat of the moment on Saturday night, Johnson decided — consciously or otherwise — to go out in a blaze of glory rather than in the indignity of the Labor Day weekend roster purge. It doesn’t make it right, but it makes it a lot more dramatic than fading away.