Arena The Official NFL Discussion Thread

Unbelievable that a Belichick player would make that mistake. Another strike against him as a coach.

 

Former NFL star Chad Johnson lived inside Cincinnati Bengals stadium for two years

 

I don't buy it.

He may have spent an inordinate amount of time there. But that was not his residence. His drivers license didn't say "Paul Brown Stadium".

He probably kept his legal residence as his parents' house.

One thing not mentioned in the piece when he's talking about showers and gaming consoles...there are no beds or bedrooms in the stadium.

Could he be curling up on a cot, Rudy style...I suppose. Found a nice couch in a suite.

More likely he crashed on friends couches and at girlfriend's places.

I can believe he had no apartment or place of his own. But this isn't like Baker Mayfield's commercials living in the Brown's Stadium.

 

I buy it. It's completely consistent with what's been known about him for a long time. His teammates have been saying these things for years.

Saying the stadium wasn't on his license is pointless, because that's not legal. I've known several people who were secretly sleeping where they worked, but obviously it wasn't on their licenses, either.

Your legal residence isn't always where you live. My older sister kept our childhood home as her legal residence long after she got kicked out and was living a vagabond life. He doesn't need a bedroom, either. Lots of people don't have a bedroom or a bed.

 

I believe it too. I’ve been fortunate enough to work two jobs with arts organizations where people would be so inspired they lived there at least part time. That would happen off and on until they got burned out from work or saw the organization leaders were taking advantage of them.

 

I can believe he crashed there on occasion. I have heard of other players in the past "sleeping" at the practice center.

But this becomes one of those things that people would start to notice when he's always the last guy there.

If nothing else, I could see a veteran teammate seeing the rookie doing this and bringing him home for a few nights in a guest room or the like.

I can believe he didn't have a bed or a bedroom...but I think the point of the article was to suggest he was frugal and thrifty and didn't need much that the stadium didn't have...but what I don't believe is that he was operating persistently in that manner just at the stadium. I would think it is a liability the stadium/team aren't insured for. Security might worry as well. Did he have guests there? Did he have keys to the stadium? All questions which lead to more questions if this is actually factual.

To use @CT-867-5309 phrase, I think he was living a vagabond lifestyle. Wherever he laid his head was his home ...I just don't think that was an NFL stadium, consistently, for 2 seasons.

But, after further thought, I could see him thinking of the stadium as his home. Anything important to him could be kept safe there. It was his refuge he could come back to.

 

When I’m saying live at work part time I knew multiple people who slept there most nights for months straight.

 

So there were numerous people doing this at the same time?

That suggests a culture in that workplace that accepted that. And as you said, perhaps it was a culture that was taken advantage of.

But that does make me wonder if the Bengals had a similar thing going. Was Johnson the only player crashing at the stadium? Or was their a crew of 20 something guys playing Madden and ordering pizza every night to hang on to those college dorm days.

THAT, I could buy.

 

It was usually one at a time that I was aware of. One of my good friends did find out a manager whose wife kicked him out was staying there the same time he was. But that’s different.

It was a big building. I can see how people who are allowed to be there could hide in a stadium. More likely I can someone living at the training faculty. Wherever the coaches have their offices. That place must have people working there round the clock during the season.

 

I meannn…. I don’t know how a coaching staff would see an athlete always being at the building as a bad thing. It’s not like he’s broke and Ochocinco was beloved by that franchise.

I feel like Mahomes decided to move into KC’s stadium full time… no one would say anything either.

 

Mahomes could live in the median of I-70 and thousands of people would buy him house-warming gifts. Probably start a real-estate boom in "on freeway living"

Winning a couple Superbowls makes unusual behavior "eccentric" or "quriky", at least for a while.

It wears off, Aaron...

I think the point of the article was this was a time before Johnson was so beloved. His first 2 years...he had just started to "earn" for the first time in his life, and the story is he wasn't going to spend it and instead focus on football by living at the stadium.

Now, in the rear view, I think people are okay with the story knowing what he became. But if it came to light at the time?

I do wonder if coaches could fill in the story. Was he helping with film every night? Was he doing drills all night? Trainers had to tag team to keep up with him all week?

That's not in the article. The article just says he's frugal.

Maybe he is teasing for this upcoming book "A light left on in Stadium".

 

I’m sure a lot of people are in the facility late all season. If he wants to sleep on a couch, who’s going to stop him? I’m sure he wasn’t living there in the offseason. People probably noticed, but what are they going to do? Kick him off the couch and make him sleep in the parking lot?

After the second year, Lewis “persuaded” him to get his own place, which probably consisted of “CHAD GET OUT OF MY GODDAMN STADIUM AND GET A PLACE LIKE A NORMAL PERSON,” but it took him doing it twice to become a “Hey man, we have to talk” issue.

 

I totally buy it and it doesn't even shock me. It completely fits with who Chad is, particularly his frugality and his work ethic. I don't believe the claims that he would have had to hide it either. I'm sure at least the cleaning staff knew it, and probably the coaches as well. They probably pleaded with him multiple times to get a real place and he told them "Child, please." (okay, maybe not those exact words, but you get the idea).

Keep in mind that Chad was drafted in 2001 and lived in the stadium for two years. Marvin was hired in 2003. So basically Marvin showed up and evicted him on the spot. Add that to the list of reasons why I don't like Marvin Lewis.

 

Chad's one of the most open and honest players you'll ever see. I interviewed him in 2020 (*dramatic hair flip*) and he always shoots on any topic super candidly, including owning his violent behavior which is just not something you tend to see.

He also one of the smartest with money, saving most of his earnings. His Football Life episode hilariously opens with him strolling past luxury cars to pull out in a minicar. In the same interview re: staying at the Bengals stadium, he talks at-length about buying fake jewelry when he played b/c there's no point blowing monster cash on appearances (particularly when he'd cultivated so much fame in just his name/persona).

It's allowed him to live comfortably post-career and he constantly goes viral for doing this:



So maybe he embellished a bit, but also...he probably didn't lol

 

NFL's saturday story of the night:

 

Awesome to hear someone with as much gravitas openly speak about the dark aspects of the NFL that rather distressingly make the whole enterprise sometimes to be a kind of human stockade, but I’m curious as to what his socioeconomic background is. Living a life of 9-5 drudgery in the contemporary USA is soul-destroying in a way people who have never experienced it can’t understand. I’m sure a goodly number of the upcoming draft class have made the very calculated risk that elevating one’s station beyond that is worth the potential chronic injuries and pain, and it’s hard to say that they’re wrong.

 

The Haslams are buying the Bucks:

https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/35746705/sources-marc-lasry-agrees-sell-bucks-haslams-35b

See if they can mess up another franchise though the Browns were a dumpster fire before they bought it.

 

Yeah I hate it.

 

Good news @Juliet316 Commanders just let go of Carson Wentz:



Addition by subtraction.

 

Congrats @Juliet316

 

It'll be interesting to see where Wentz ends up. Panthers? Saints? Bucs? Falcons? The NFC South, amirite? Titans?

I wonder if the Raiders are a surprise team to take a QB in the draft. No one has them taking a QB. People think they're after a veteran. The GM has obfuscated. They're currently sitting at 7, just ahead of Atlanta and Carolina.

 

There is no way in hell the Titans would ever sign Carson Wentz. He’s the absolute antithesis of the kind of player Mike Vrabel looks for.

 

Wentz will go to the Jets if they can't land Carr or Rogers