Cincinnati Bengals owner Mike Brown has a right to say what ever he pleases about his players, when they’re his players. Right now, they’re not his players. He, along with the other 31 NFL owners, locked out all their employees, including current Bengal Chad Ochocinco.
Mike Brown gave up his right to gripe about what his team does when he told them he didn’t want them around. Here’s a Brown snippet about Ochocinco from the Cincinnati Bengals Blog;
“He’s always up to some stunt. They amuse me in a way. They concern me because let’s face it we want a football player. We aren’t hiring a bull rider, a dancer, a soccer player. We want a football player. It’s simple. And that should be the focus, not on other things.”
Really? Really? You want a football player? Then let him be a football player. He didn’t decide to lock himself out of the Bengals, you did that. Chad Ochocinco is just doing what any young man with time, money, and a big imagination would do. He’s having fun. From Pro Football Talk via The 2 Live Stews podcast;
“Mr. Brown, it’s a lockout, therefore I can do whatever I please.”
Ochocinco has 1 more year left on his deal worth 6 million dollars. Odds are he’ll be released as soon as the lockout is lifted. I find it telling that with so much back and forth between he, his owner, and his coach Marvin Lewis, that there’s nary a mention of it on the teams official website. It’s like the mandate has been laid down to not even cover any of his drama because the team is prepared to move on. And Ochocinco knows it.
There are plenty of teams that would offer him a deal once football is back in business. And once he’s a football player again, he’ll focus on football, but he’ll do so for his new team.