Chad Riding Shotgun

Chad Ochocinco has had a more eventful lockout than most of the other players in the NFL. Firstly he tried out for major league soccer team, Sporting Kansas City followed up by a 1.5 second bull ride down in Duluth Ga. In Chad’s latest outing he has been riding shotgun with U.S stock car racer Jeff Burton.

Although Burton didn’t let loose completely he and Chad still reached speeds in excess of 150mph. As he did after his bull riding in Duluth; Chad also credited the NASCAR racers saying “How the hell they are able to do that with 30 other drivers on the track is beyond me”.

All these antics will likely put further strain on the relationship between Chad and Bengals head coach Marvin Lewis. It is strain that Chad could probably do without now that there is further competition for him at the wide receiver position, after the Bengals drafted A.J. green fourth overall in the 2011 draft. Furthermore Marvin Lewis probably has enough problems; not knowing if Carson Palmer will be back to start under centre for him. http://nflfansuk.blogspot.com/2011/06/will-carson-palmer-return-to-bengals.html

As the lockout draws on; this leaves us wondering: What will Chad get up to next? There has been talk of him heading off to Florida to catch alligators and with Chad I don’t think you can rule anything out!

Will Carson Palmer return to the Bengals?

According to the Cincinnati Enquirer, Carson Palmer has now found a buyer for his house in Indian Hills, Ohio after putting it up for sale earlier this year. This would seem to add further weight to his threat that he will retire from the NFL if the Bengals refuse to trade him.

However, Cincinnati Bengals President, Mike Brown has said that they have no intention of trading Palmer and wishes for him to return to the franchise. Brown also said that they will go with rookie Andy Dalton at quarterback should Palmer stick to his guns and not come back once play resumes in the NFL, but ideally he would like to have both of them.

Quarterback, Andy Dalton who the Bengals drafted in the second round out of Texas Christian University would seem like a good prospect at the position. Nevertheless it would likely be of great benefit to him if he could spend some time learning from an eight year veteran like Palmer.

It would seem like a difficult position to be in for the management in Cincinnati. If Palmer does decide to retire then they will have lost quite a valuable player. On the other hand if he comes back they will have to choose whether they want to start him or Dalton. If Carson is as unhappy playing in Cincinnati as he seems to be then he probably won’t give it his all, meaning it may of more benefit to the Bengals to trade him. However Mike Brown is a stubborn man and I don’t think he would be prepared to set such a precedence by giving in to Palmer’s demands; whatever the situation is, after all  he didn’t give in to Chad Ochocinco’s desire to be traded in the past. If I was Carson Palmer I wouldn’t get my hopes up for a trade.