At the height of Chad Johnson’s NFL career, Glenn Beck was dominating conservative media.
Two men from completely different worlds, yet Johnson has a surprising habit of name-dropping the right-wing commentator, or as he referred to him recently, “Goddamn Glenn Beck.”
Back in 2011, Johnson took to X (formerly Twitter) to announce he was diving into Beck’s book “Broke,” calling its take on political and economic issues “epic.” An interesting choice, considering Beck is the same guy who once declared that President Barack Obama had a “deep-seated hatred for white people” and outright labeled him a “racist.”
Does anyone know if Glenn Beck has a twitter account?Starting on his new book #BROKE His views on political n economical issues are #EPIC
— Chad Johnson (@ochocinco) July 23, 2011
That tidbit might not have been on Johnson’s mind then, but it certainly adds some context to the man behind “Broke” — and the media empire he built with Blaze Media.
The reason Johnson brought up Beck again? Aaron Rodgers. Yes, as much of a game of Mad Libs as that sounds, there’s a connection. On his Nightcap show with Shannon Sharpe, Johnson discussed with his cohost the New York Jets’ decision to move on from Aaron Rodgers. It had been reported that the Jets wanted Rodgers not to be his own entity so much but to buy into being 1 of 53 – and that meant giving up his weekly The Pat McAfee Show appearances.
Rodgers has been a regular on the ex-Colts punter’s show for the better part of five years.
And while his teammates didn’t seem to take issue with him, his frequent appearances — and the comments he made — became an unnecessary distraction for a guy who went just 6-12 as a member of the Jets. This is the same Rodgers who insisted that all the “bullsh*t” unrelated to football had to be removed from the organization if they wanted to win. And yet, there he was, spreading FEMA conspiracy theories and suggesting that Jimmy Kimmel was a pedophile.
It wouldn’t have been a problem had the Jets had any tangible results of being a competent organization that was on the right path, but alas…
“Now, listen, if The Pat McAfee Show was conducive to the Jets — and helping in any way with winning,” Johnson began. “If it wasn’t seen in a negative light, matter of fact, if you were performing the way you should be performing if you were the Aaron Rodgers of old, you can go talk to goddamn Glenn Beck for all I care. You can talk to Fox. You can talk to CNN. If you were playing on Sundays and being productive and being the Aaron Rodgers of old, I wouldn’t care who you talk to.”
Johnson said that, for all intents and purposes, the 41-year-old Rodgers could’ve been at the Playboy Mansion on his off days.
“But it just wasn’t right,” he says. “You’re losing on the field, you’re playing bad on the field, and you’re doing a show that’s causing controversy and conflict, creating chaos. And then your performance isn’t where it should be.”
At the end of the day, Johnson didn’t care who Rodgers talked to — Glenn Beck, Playboy models or anyone in between. But when you’re stirring up controversy off the field while floundering on it, even Ochocinco is going to call you out.
