I woke up this morning, turned on the TV to ESPN and was not surprised at all to see Chad Ochocinco was fined by the NFL. The NFL announced this morning that it was fining Ochocinco $20,000 for his actions and described his behavior as "unprofessional," and "unbecoming of a professional athlete."
The Bengals played the Ravens in week 9 and during an official replay involving Ochocinco, he went to the referee with a dollar bill in an attempt to "bribe" him. The league said that Ochocinco did in fact use the word "bribe" and that is something it will not condone. It was obvious to all that were watching that Ochocinco meant it as a joke, too bad the NFL isn't laughing.
ESPN commentators have been discussing the issue all morning. Some claim that the NFL was too harsh and need to lighten up. Some think NFL punishments are not being handed out fairly: for example, recently DeAngelo Hall was involved in a fight on the sidelines during a game and was not fined at all.
Chad Ochocinco, who has been known for his controversial tweets, seems to be shrugging the incident off. The first thing I did after hearing the news on ESPN was to check Ochocinco's Twitter page, it was nothing out of the ordinary. He was tweeting about playing Call of Duty and 50 Cent songs. A couple of hours after the incident he had this to say via a tweet, "OCNN NEWS_: I've been fined 20k this week by the NFL, myself and @rocksoftware have no problem paying the 20k fine." Followed by, "OCNN NEWS: in fact I'm gonna match the fine and donate it to a good cause (league has enough)." And finally, "OCNN NEWS: Ocho Cinco and President of @rocksoftware are going to donate 20k to hillview.org and feedthechildren.org"
While I respect the fact that Ochocinco is donating money to these charities, I believe the real motive behind his actions is to show the NFL he couldn't care less how much it fined him. Some might say that the NFL is being to hard on him, but it's not like this is the first time the guy has been in trouble. He is known for causing scenes, being inappropriate and showing off. Basically the NFL does not want Ochocinco to be the face of the league. The league has to be tough on him to show fans and other leagues that they do not condone his behavior and it is not representative of what the NFL stands for.
It would probably take a day or two to get an official statement from Ochocinco with reporters and cameras, but with Twitter the public can go right to his page and see his response just a few hours after the news broke.
