The Joke's on Ocho

The good news for one Chad Ocho Cinco is that he understands the psychology of the clown -- that you can get away with a lot of silly stuff as long as the joke's on you in the end. This is something that Charles Barkley has always understood, which makes it possible for Barkley to say just about anything and get away with it. The bad news for Mr. Ocho Cinco is that in the end, the joke will be on him, and his acting out will be more his legacy than anything he did on the field. In his case, I'm not sure that's a good thing.

In the end, I think Barkley's accomplishments were overshadowed by his antics, and Ocho's on that same path. The demands to be traded, the incessant Tweeting, the name changes -- it all adds up to a picture of a person more concerned about the attention he's getting than how he's getting it. Moreover, there's the matter of his stats, and how they've been declining. 53 catches for 540 yards and four touchdowns in 2008? Well, that's not going to feed the bulldog. And with prime target T.J. Houshmandzadeh off to Seattle, Ocho could find himself the focus of more and more double teams in an offense that has become anemic.

It's all well and good to goof around when you're making the grade on the field, but I think Chad's slipping into self-parody. He needs to stop Tweeting in meetings all the time and start focusing on how his actions affect his performance -- and his legacy.

By Doug Farrar  |  June 22, 2009; 10:57 AM ET  | Category:  Cincinnati Bengals , Doug Farrar
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