Daily Dose of Sports, Hanging Chad Edition!

When T.J. speaks: Everyone listens, both because he's Chad Johnson's friend and because he's become a quiet leader on the Bengals. ESPN reported yesterday that T.J. Houshmandzadeh said if his disgruntled teammate isn't traded, as Johnson is demanding, "it's going to be a problem." The Enquirer's Mark Curnutte follows up today with T.J., who says Johnson likely will be a "distraction" while everyone waits to see if Chad shows up and acts like a professional.

Paul Daugherty compares Johnson to Terrell Owens, with the two show-off receivers sharing the hated Drew Rosenhaus as their agent. T.O. pulled a similar stunt a few years ago while playing for the Philadelphia Eagles, and (as an Eagles fan) I think the team still hasn't really recovered from his holdout and public hammering of QB Donovan McNabb. At least the Eagles were coming off a Super Bowl season. Do the Bengals want a three-year funk to pervade this team due to Johnson's whining?

Chad Johnson isn't the only NFL star demanding a better contract or else.

Junior closer to 600: Ken Griffey Jr. hit homer No. 596 as the Reds took one from the Cubs. The Brew Crew come to town for a weekend series starting tonight.

NFL draft busts: With the NFL draft coming up next weekend, ESPN lists their top 50 "draft busts," and the Bengals have four of the top 42. Surprisingly, the team's back-to-back No. 1 picks KiJana Carter and Big Daddy Wilkinson don't rate in this list.

— John Fox

Comments

[Chris Iafolla]

John,

Enjoy the work you do here, keep it up.

I was just perusing the ESPN article on draft busts and brought to mind something I have always felt was a bit of a double standard. we often write and read articles on draft busts that focus solely on the players. In reality, the GM should that made that selection should take the brunt of the blame for these draft busts--not the player.

[John Fox]

You're right -- and given that the Bengals have not had a General Manager like most teams, you have to wonder how much the team's structure has to do with its lack of success. But other teams with GMs have made plenty of mistakes, too.