Chad Johnson
American gridiron football player (born 1978)
Chad Ochocinco Johnson (born Chad Javon Johnson, January 9, 1978), known from 2008 to 2012 as Chad Ochocinco, is an American former professional football player who was a wide receiver for 11 seasons in the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Santa Monica Corsairs and the Oregon State Beavers, and played for the Cincinnati Bengals and the New England Patriots during his tenure playing in the NFL. He was selected by the Bengals in the second round of the 2001 NFL draft, and played for them for 10 seasons. "Ochocinco", which means "eight five" in Spanish, derives from his number, eighty-five. In 2011, Johnson was traded to the Patriots, for whom he played in Super Bowl XLVI.
In 2012, Johnson played for the Miami Dolphins during the preseason but was released shortly after being arrested for domestic violence. He played for the Montreal Alouettes of the Canadian Football League (CFL) from 2014 to 2015, and played one game in 2017 for the Mexican team Fundidores de Monterrey of the Liga de Fútbol Americano Profesional (LFA). Johnson emerged as one of the NFL's most productive wide receivers of the 2000s and holds nearly every Bengals receiving record.
In April 2011, CNBC listed Johnson as number one on its list of "most influential athletes in social media". Johnson was a six-time Pro Bowler, was named to three All-Pro teams and was voted as the number one wide receiver on the Bengals 40th Anniversary team.
Early life
Johnson was born in Miami, Florida and is of Bahamian descent.
He played high school football at Miami Beach Senior High School, catching 118 career passes and averaging 26.4 yards per catch.
The public source identifies “Chad Johnson” as american gridiron football player (born 1978). This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Chad, Johnson and American.
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Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 5, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q471833. VIAF identifies the subject as 70816080. The Library of Congress control number is n2006042073. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1978, 2008, 2012 and 2001.
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This entry incorporates text from “Chad Johnson” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.