Chad ‘Ochocinco’ Johnson: Jailed for Playing Too Much

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Former NFL player, Chad ‘OchoCinco’ Johnson married reality TV show actress, Evelyn Lazado in a lavish and highly publicized wedding in 2012.  The marriage lasted  only 41 days.  Lazado filed for divorce as  a result of domestic violence. Johnson, 35, is charged with head butting his wife during an argument. He was arrested, charged with domestic battery, and given probation in stead of jail. Due to the negative publicity, the Miami Dolphins cut him from the team before the start of the football season.

Recently, Johnson appeared in court to answer charges of probation violation. This could have resulted in jail time, but his attorney successfully argued a no-jail plea deal with the prosecutors and the judge. The judge offered an additional 3-month probation and counseling because Johnson failed to meet with probation officer for 3 months. As the judge was rendering the verdict, Johnson patted his attorney on the butt causing the courtroom to erupt into laughter. The judge became so offended by Johnson’s lack of taking the court seriously, that she rescinded her verdict and sentenced him to 30 days in jail.

After serving seven days in jail, Johnson appeared in court to offer an apology for his behavior, stating that the butt slap was not meant to be offensive, and that since he had never been in trouble before, he was unaware that his behavior was unacceptable in court.

Clearly, this is a prime example of how professional athletes can lack maturity in real life. While embroiled in an argument he chose to head butt his wife resulting in an injury that required stitches on her forehead. She promptly divorced him. Head butts are not allowed in contact sports, yet he thought this was an appropriate way to react in an argument with his wife? When he appeared in court he was not dressed in an appropriate manner for a 35 year old man, opting for the ‘hip hop’ look as opposed to business attire. To add insult to injury, he patted his attorney’s butt, as an ‘attaboy’ gesture during sentencing, not once but admittedly three times during court, like he imagined he was on a football field. And just as he’d done numerous times on the football field, he opted to entertain the spectators at his own detriment.

Chad appeared on Good Morning America, saying he’d learned his lesson.  Let’s hope he did. Because clearly Chad Ochocinco Johnson is a grown man who has a tendency to play too much.