By Mike Wilkening
June 30, 2008

For months, Bengals WR Chad Johnson publicly, and repeatedly, lobbied for a fresh start elsewhere. But, lo and behold, Johnson reported to the team’s mandatory minicamp in June and is now expected to report for the Bengals’ training camp in Georgetown, Ky., on July 27.

Yes, it has been an offseason of Chad Johnson mood swings in Cincinnati. And the pendulum, the way we hear it, has swung toward peace.

How did we get to this point? Two factors stand out:

1. The Bengals held firm in the face of Johnson’s demands.

Say this for Bengals owner Mike Brown: He is not going to be cajoled into making a decision he doesn’t want to make. Witness how he dealt with disgruntled WR Carl Pickens almost 10 years ago. Pickens vowed never to play for Cincinnati again, even threatening to retire, but Brown refused to trade him. The contentious, protracted dispute lasted until June 2000, when the Bengals finally released Pickens.

Fast-forward to this offseason, when Johnson — approximately two years after receiving a six-year, $35.5 million contract extension — demanded a trade of his own. Not surprisingly, Brown was not willing to acquiesce. Nor was head coach Marvin Lewis, who sharply criticized Johnson and declared that Johnson’s options were to play for Cincinnati or to sit out.

“What happened was (Johnson) tried to stir it up to get the team to move him,” said one personnel director, speaking on condition of anonymity. “Mike Brown has been around a long time. He is one guy who is not going to crack. I think Chad realized he was not playing if he was not playing for the Bengals.”

And if Johnson isn’t playing, he isn’t getting paid — and that is not going to happen, the way we hear it. 

2. Chad Johnson loves the game of football.

Johnson’s passion for the game is apparent, and his work ethic has long been praised by those associated with the Bengals. A longtime team observer told PFW that Johnson was at his most relaxed, playful and happy at the mandatory minicamp when he was on the practice field with his teammates.

That pure enjoyment of the game is one of the major reasons a Johnson holdout always seemed far from a sure thing, even when the rhetoric between player and club was at its most harsh.

The Bengals are left to hope Johnson’s bad mood has passed, and that he will be ready for training camp after undergoing surgery on June 18 to remove bone spurs from his right ankle. Johnson, who has not missed a game since his rookie season, is expected to be on the field when the Bengals begin camp on July 28.

For his part, Johnson has ceased his sharp criticism of the club, the strong words — recall his rebuke of QB Carson Palmer — that overshadowed just about everything else the Bengals had done this offseason.

But for now, it’s all quiet in Cincinnati, perhaps a little later than Bengals brass would have liked, but preferable to the alternative.