A recently resurfaced clip shows former Bengals wide receiver Chad Johnson sharing the origin of his famous “Ochocinco” name with Shannon Sharpe on “Club Shay Shay,” revealing that it was initially a marketing move before turning into a direct challenge to the NFL.
Johnson first came up with the name during the NFL’s Spanish Heritage Month in 2008.
The $30K Name Game
“Ochenta y cinco” is the correct Spanish translation to 85, but it was shortened due to the character count his jersey could display.
Wanting to embrace the moment, he had the team’s equipment manager create a velcro patch with “Ochocinco” on his jersey, he told Sharpe in February, 2023. The conversation has recently resurfaced on social media.
While Johnson thought his idea was a good plan, before a game against the Atlanta Falcons, quarterback Carson Palmer tore it off, and the league fined Johnson $30,000 for altering his uniform.
“So I had the equipment manager create the Velcro and Spanish Heritage Month obviously is the month of September in the NFL,” Johnson said. “I went out there with that on the jersey. Carson (Palmer) rips it off before the game starts. We were playing the Atlanta Falcons — I’ll never forget — Michael Vick. The league office fined me the following morning $30,000. Like 30 grand for altering the NFL uniform?”
Then what started as a fun marketing idea quickly became his way of pushing back against the NFL’s strict uniform rules. In response to the fine, Johnson legally changed his name in the offseason, leading to the 2009-2010 season. He changed his name from Chad Javon Johnson to Chad Ochocinco Johnson from 2008 to 2012, roughly the remainder of his football career in the United States.
Ochocinco is a penny pincher, so it would seem the $30,000 fine, despite his multimillion salary, rattled him.
“So my stick back to the NFL as an F-you, no disrespect to Goodell—you know we are good now. I changed my name purposely in the offseason,” he said.
“So now I put it on all my jerseys. Since y’all want to be rude and mean. Now at that time, it was a stick to the NFL,” Ochocinco said. “Then it just turned into a whole brand right at that point. And I just played it off, like it was marketing, and it worked just as that would.”
In his 11-year NFL career, he made about $49 million, according to Sporting News, and he was listed by CNBC as one of the “most influential athletes in social media.”
He would eventually play for the Canadian Football League and one charity Mexican game for Liga de Fútbol Americano Profesional before retiring in 2017.
