TOM KNOTT: Name change certainly is not by the numbers

By Tom Knott (Contact) | Monday, September 1, 2008

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Chad Johnson should have changed his surname to Look At Me.

There would have been truth in advertising then, and it would have been easier to pronounce.

At least he kept the Chad.

"It's something I don't think anyone has ever done before," Johnson told the Bengals' Web site.

No NFL player ever has changed his name to Pain In The Rear either, although plenty fit the bill.

Johnson is from the new school of hype over substance, of all publicity being good publicity, so long as the name is spelled correctly.

That could be a problem with the newly dubbed Chad Javon Ocho Cinco.

That is Mr. Ocho Cinco to all junk-mail purveyors.

Bengals coach Marvin Lewis once referred to Johnson as Ocho Psycho, which was an interesting play on the surname the wide receiver legally embraced last week.

The Ocho and Cinco complement his attention-getting personality, with Ocho being eight and Cinco five in Spanish, which happen to be the two digits on Johnson's jersey.