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MORE THAN TWO YEARS LATER, VINDICATION
Posted by Mike Florio on March 6, 2008, 10:46 p.m.
We made one of our biggest stirs ever with this blurb from the evening of January 9, 2006:
“A league source tells us that multiple members of the Cincinnati Bengals witnessed a troubling incident as the team prepared to take the field for the second half of Sunday’s playoff game against the Pittsburgh Steelers.
“Per the source, the last few minutes of intermission were ticking away, when the players were startled by the sight and sound of a helmet slamming against the glass pane of the training room door. Inside, receiver Chad Johnson and receivers coach Hue Jackson were engaged in an altercation. At one point, Johnson was seen holding Jackson in a headlock.
“Coach Marvin Lewis entered the training room to intervene, and Johnson (per the source) took a swing at him.”
The team denied any such incident, and Johnson called a press conference for the sole purpose of claiming that nothing happened. Boomer Esiason of CBS partially corroborated our report, and Johnson eventually would concede that something happened.
More than two years later, one of the players who witnessed the incident has shared his perceptions with the world, courtesy of the magic that is YouTube.
On Monday night, speaking at a recent meeting of the Central Maryland Browns Backers, former Bengals defensive tackle Shaun Smith acknowledged that Chad Johnson took a swing at Lewis — and made contact.
Asked at the 5:20 mark of the clip about the incident that occurred in the team’s locker room during the only playoff game of the Lewis era, Smith said of Johnson: “He swung on Marvin. . . . [Johnson] shattered the training room glass. . . . He swung on Marving [and] hit Marvin in the eye. . . . Then he tried to swing on wide receivers coach Hue Jackson, who’s now in Baltimore.”
Here’s the video:
[YouTube]
Smith also said that Bengals receiver T.J. Houshmandzadeh will soon get a new deal from the Bengals. Houshmandzadeh is signed through 2008, at a base salary of $2.65 million.
