The Football Fan Spot

I love Chad Ochocinco. He’s one of my favorite players because I can tell through what he does off the field that he is an amazing person, though a bit misunderstood. He likes to toot his own horn and pump up the fans and energize his teammates with bizarre endzone celebrations after touchdowns and liven things up by doing harmless things that Roger Goddell sees as harmful to the league’s image. He knows Roger Goddell and his no “nonsense” policy will fine him for it, but he doesn’t care. He makes millions of dollars per year. He even has pledged to match the money from every fine he is assessed and give that money to charity. His endzone celebrations are his way of showing that money is not the most important thing to him. Having fun and giving back is.

There was no doubt in my mind that Chad Ochocinco would wear Henry’s #15 this week against the Chargers because that is the type of person he is. He is a modern day cavalier and rebel. He paid 20K to wear a sombrero on the sideline. He would be willing to pay whatever fine Goddell assessed him in order to honor his good friend and teammate and then even likely match that fine with a big charitable donation. Plus, Goddell would look like a huge asshole for fining someone for honoring his dead teammate so Ochocinco would finally come out of something looking like the good guy. And honestly, if Goddell is so concerned about protecting the league’s image, he should think about this. Which looks worse, a guy wearing a different number for a week to honor a teammate and friend, or the commissioner’s office not letting him do that? Goddell may even be breaking his own rules by doing something to hurt the league’s image. He may have to fine himself.

A new development in this saga has come out, the NFL Player Association will play whatever fine Goddell assesses Ochocinco so that he can honor his teammate. Now Goddell definitely looks like the bad guy as everyone is against him and his attempt to shoot down a sort of memorial for Henry on the back of Ochocinco’s jersey. The pressure may make Goddell just say, screw the rules, you can do it, or it may make him look like an even bigger asshole when he does assess the fine to “follow the rules.” Its stories like this, with Ochocinco not caring how much he has to pay to honor his teammates, and the Players’ Association backing Ochocinco in his endeavor, that make me smile.

Another new development: Apparently NFL rules don’t allow the NFLPA to reimburse Chad Ochocinco for the fines, which is once again showing Roger Goddell’s inability to bend the rules for special occasions. If it weren’t for his unwillingness to bend at the rules, the NFLPA wouldn’t have needed to cover Ochocinco’s fines in the first place. I still fully believe Ochocinco will be out there wearing #15 for the Bengals tomorrow in honor of Chris Henry. He will likely be fined and will willingly pay the fine and then give an equal amount of money to the Chris Henry memorial fund. For once, it will ironically be Roger Goddell and his unbending commitment to cleaning up the league’s image that will hurt the NFL's image and Ochocinco, who always seems to be the focus of Goddell's image cleaning, will look like the good guy.