Ian Allan

Two years ago, Chad Johnson was fined for wearing an “Ocho Cinco” nameplate on the back of his jersey during warmups.

Now, he might be able to wear “Ocho Cinco” during games. Miami radio station 790 The Ticket is reporting that Johnson has legally changed his name to “Chad Ocho Cinco”.

I think it’s brilliant. I like the celebration antics that we’ve seen from the likes of Johnson, Steve Smith, Terrell Owens and Randy Moss, and I thought it drained some life out of the game when the league got more serious about stomping out that type of behavior. I love that Johnson now has twisted the tail of this monster corporation, which no doubt has its team of attorneys trying to figure out how it can stop this latest stunt.

It’s clever as hell. It’s going to bring a lot of attention to Johnson – er, “Ocho Cinco” – and he’s also going to make a ton of money. He’s going to get a cut of all of those jersey sales, and I expect those Ocho Cinco No. 85’s are going to be flying off the shelves.

What will the league do to counter this latest stunt? I think it will come up with something. It doesn’t want to sit back, I imagine, and allow players to change their last names to stuff like “He Hate Me”. And the league wouldn’t allow a guy, I think, to display his name as something like “www.fantasyindex.com”. But on the other hand, it is the guy’s own name. NBA basketball player Lloyd Free changed his name to “World B. Free” in 1980.

I’m looking forward to watching the show.

There’s a blurb on this on the ESPN blog.

—Ian Allan

• Comments [3]

Readers' Comments

Add a Comment

Already a registered user? Please sign in to add comments.

To add comments, you must become a registered user of our site. To register, please click here.