Chad Johnson did show up for the start of Bengals minicamp on Thursday and was out on the practice field but he did not participate in the majority of drills.
Johnson, who did not speak to reporters, reportedly told the team’s medical staff that he had an ailment that would prevent him from participating in practice. He jogged out to the field Thursday morning for the first of five practices the team will hold through Saturday, showing up after his teammates had finished their stretching and pulling his white No. 85 jersey over his shoulders.
Whether or not Johnson would appear has been an ongoing saga this offseason; the wide receiver has been threatening to sit out the season if he is not traded and the team has repeatedly called his bluff. Johnson has four years remaining on his current contract and is due to make $3 million in base salary this season. He would have been subject to a daily fine of $8,000 if he did not attend the mandatory three-day minicamp. Johnson has not been at any of the team’s offseason conditioning workouts or on-field coaching sessions, which are voluntary.
“I know you guys (media) are all here to see if Chad was going to show and obviously he did,” said head coach Marvin Lewis. “At some point earlier in the morning he had expressed to our medical staff that he had an ailment; we’re investigating what kind of ailment that is. They’re going to do some further studying and we’ll see how it goes the rest of the weekend.”
Drew Rosenhaus, Johnson's agent, made comments later on Thursday indicating that his client has bone spurs in one of his ankles that might require exploratory surgery. The Bengals responded to Rosenhaus' comments with this statement:
“Chad Johnson was given a physical this morning by one of the Bengals’ team doctors. He did not report any physical problems to the doctor, and he was cleared by the doctor for practice. Later, after the physical was concluded, Chad told our training staff that his back was sore. He refused to practice.”
Said quarterback Carson Palmer: “I’m going to pass on talking about Chad today. I think everybody in here is probably sick of hearing about him and everybody out there is sick of hearing about him so I’ll not talk about him. I’ll talk about other guys.”
T.J. Houshmandzadeh and Marcus Maxwell were the wide receivers for the first-team offense.
Houshmandzadeh, who tied for the NFL lead with 112 receptions last season, was also making his first appearance of the offseason at the team’s Paul Brown Stadium facilities. Houshmandzadeh has been taking care of personal business and training on his own at home in the Los Angeles area.
“I was really pleased with his work today and that was a good thing to see,” said Lewis about Houshmandzadeh. “He prides himself with what he did last year, he prides himself in how he prepares. We’ve taken some of the things that he does with movement and incorporated into the things we do because we feel it helps him.
“He was able to take care of some business in California this offseason and be a great dad. That’s important to him and I’m glad he’s been able to do that. He was at graduation (Wednesday) with his daughter and jumped on the red eye to get here. We wished he was here this offseason but he was taking care of some good business. We ask in these times for guys to step up and for them to be better fathers, and a lot of people unfortunately that we get here in the NFL don’t have parents like that so I think what he is doing is very good.”