DeLlav's Daily Blog: Ochocinco going back to Johnson

Ochocinco is changing his name back to Chad Johnson. Good for him. Good for everybody. I never thought it was "cool" when Chad changed his last name to Ochocinco. It was creative and unique but I just thought it was clownish. Ever since Chad changed his last name a few years ago, he was on a steady decline in terms of statistics and production. Of couse, a different last name isn't/shouldn/t bring a player down but its almost as if thats when Chad became full of himself and lost his game. After having a disaster season in Foxboro this past year, many are wondering if this is the beginning of the end for Chad "Ochocinco" Johnson.

by Josh Katzowitz (sportsline.com)

As Ochocinco reported on OCNN Twitter (via Yahoo Sports), Ochocinco will transform himself into Chad Johnson again by July 4, so, as TMZ reports, his fiancé Evelyn Lozada* won’t have a made up last name.

He changed his name before the 2008 season, and with his newest surname, his production dramatcially declined from when Chad Johnson was in his prime (particularly in 2010 when Terrell Owens was the top Bengals receiver and 2011 when Ochocinco was barely an afterthought with the Patriots).

*At the Indianapolis airport on Monday afternoon, CBSSports.com colleague and reality TV show junkie Pete Prisco pointed her out to me as we were going through the security line. I wish I could have asked her about this topic.
Eye on Baseball’s C. Trent Rosecrans makes an interesting point on the timing of the name change (if Ochocinco actually goes through with it). Although many of us in the Cincinnati market figured he would change his name back to Johnson after he retired, he might be making the move now because the league is switching from Reebok to Nike as the NFL’s official uniform provider.

With that move, the players won’t have to buy the entire backstock of their jerseys for changing their numbers and names, like they would have if Reebok still supplied the uniforms. Thus, it makes more financial sense for Ochocinco/Johnson to change his name this year, when every player hypothetically could switch numbers and names for free, than it would at any other time he is playing.