Overnight success: Chad Johnson's emergence as one of the game's elite receivers wasn't really all that sudden. It was the result of a work ethic that drives him to study deep into the night and often to sleep at the Bengals' facility

Sporting News, The, Oct 4, 2004 by Dennis Dillon

Somebody's been messin' with my blanket and pillows."

Sounding like a suspicious Papa Bear, Chad Johnson eyes the rumpled bedding on a black leather couch in the players' lounge at Patti Brown Stadium. This is not the work of a towheaded sleepy girl. No, the likely culprit is one of Johnson's teammates.

By day, the lounge serves as an amusement room for Bengals players who need a temporary escape from football. The accouterments include a big-screen TV, stereo, computer, pool table and a Terminator pinball machine. But on most Wednesday and Thursday nights during the season, this is where Johnson sleeps. By the time he finishes studying tape--often not until midnight--he's too tired to go home, even though his high-rise, riverfront apartment is less than five minutes from the stadium.

Sure, Johnson could watch tape at the apartment. But there would be calls and knocks at his door. The risk of distraction is much less at the stadium, where he can sequester himself in one of the second-floor offices with a laptop and DVD to, as he puts it, "get my focus."

Although he is in only his fourth season and still has some rough edges, Johnson has raised his game to a level on par with the NFL's premier wide receivers. He vaulted up there last year, when he caught 90 passes for 1,355 yards (a Bengals record) and 10 touchdowns. That performance earned him a selection to his first Pro Bowl. But Johnson, 26, is not willing to settle for the distinction of being one of the best; he is committed to becoming the best.

"That's the whole point," he says. "Otherwise, why play the game?"

That's why he keeps his blanket, pillows and alarm clock (set for 7 a.m.) inside the players' lounge; why he attended a football "retreat" last year in Dallas, where he soaked up wisdom and advice from Deion Sanders; why he had a typed sheet of five questions he wanted to ask Jerry Rice folded inside his playing glove when the Bengals played the Raiders in Oakland last season (he approached Rice at halftime but was unable to make connections with him after the game).

That's why he is siring in the office of Bengals wide receivers coach Hue Jackson at 9 last Thursday night, studying the Ravens' defense. Johnson already has watched tape of the Ravens' first two games, against the Browns and Steelers. But the Browns run a different offensive scheme than the Bengals, and Johnson doesn't think Hines Ward and Plaxico Burress of the Steelers are in the same wide receiver mold as he is. He thinks he can glean more pertinent information by watching Falcons wideout Peerless Price in a preseason game against the Ravens.

Johnson picks up a sheet of paper that has the Bengals' offensive script for Sunday's game against Baltimore. Some of the first-and-10 pass plays call for Johnson to run a slant: run downfield for three steps, then make a 45-degree cut inside. He watches Price line up against Ravens cornerback Chris McAlister, who is in press coverage, on a first-and-10 play. Price takes three strides off the line, and McAlister turns his hips and backpedals. Johnson calls it "bucket-stepping." Johnson makes a mental note: If McAlister turns his hips like that, he can slant inside unimpeded.

On a third-and-8 play, McAlister again lines up against Price in what looks like man coverage with no safety help. Linebacker Ed Hartwell and free safety Will Demps move toward Price's side, into position to blitz. The Ravens bring more players than the Falcons can block, Price does not alter his route, and Michael Vick gets sacked. Johnson makes another notation: If the Ravens do the same thing against the Bengals, he'll have to be the "hot" read and break off his original route, or quarterback Carson Palmer "will get killed."

Five minutes. Two tips. Johnson's arsenal of knowledge for Sunday's game is now deeper.

Sure enough, the Bengals' first play Sunday against the Ravens is a slant to Johnson. He beats cornerback Gary Baxter--but he drops the ball. That's about the only miscue Johnson makes in the Bengals' 23-9 defeat. McAlister and Baxter alternate covering Johnson one-on-one--McAlister frequently using press coverage--and the Ravens mix in a heavy dose of double coverage with the help of safeties. But the 62, 192-pound Johnson wiggles free often enough to catch eight passes for 99 yards. "He finds ways to get open," Baxter says.

Although Johnson makes most of his receptions against the Ravens on short to intermediate routes, he twice is open deep on post patterns near the end zone. But Palmer, harassed most of the afternoon by the Ravens' defense, is intercepted on both attempts.

"Trust me; we're going to complete a lot of those" says Johnson, pulling on a throwback Bob Griese jersey--he's from Miami and grew up idolizing the Dolphins--at his locker after the game. "Regardless of how many we miss, I will continue to be open every game. There's nothing nobody can do to frustrate me or stop me"

Yes, Johnson can be brash. After all, he is Keyshawn Johnson's cousin. Last season, he predicted (correctly) that the Bengals would end the Chiefs' 9-0 start. He can be ostentatious. After Sunday's game, he put on a necklace that had a silver medallion the size of a small manhole cover with his No. 85 on it. Last season, he was fined several times by the NFL, mostly for uniform violations. (If he had scored a touchdown in the Sunday night victory over Miami two weeks ago, he had planned to pull off his size- 11 orange shoes and give them to a fan in the stands.) Though some of his actions on the field can make him look arrogant or selfish, they're often simply the expressions of a highly competitive player.