Chad Johnson recently dropped hints about coming out of retirement and suiting up for his old team once again. So, the wide receiver is set to take the next steps in that process by making his move in football, just not the NFL kind, and not with the Bengals.

“With the FIFA World Cup about to take place in North America, the former Bengals wideout [Chad Johnson] is launching The Late Run with Ochocinco, a weekly podcast celebrating the culture of the sport,” Front Office Sports reported on February 26.

The Late Run with Ochocinco is set to launch Thursday, with comedian Bert Kreischer lined up as the first guest. Soccer media company Footballco and OchoCinco Productions are bringing the podcast to life. It will be hosted by Chad Johnson himself alongside co-host Raheem Taylor-Parkes. 

What makes this pivot feel so natural is that Johnson’s love for soccer did not come out of nowhere. It traces back to his childhood, sitting beside his grandfather and stumbling onto a sport that would quietly shape him for decades.

“I sat down with my grandfather and had no idea what was going on, but I kept hearing the name ‘Maradona’ over and over. It was 1984, I remember telling [my grandfather], ‘Papa I want to play this,’” Ochocinco told FOS. 

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“But where I was, there was no soccer. I didn’t have the access or resources to be able to play. My way out of my circumstance as a child was [American] football. I wasn’t gonna be a goddamn academic scholar. I didn’t make the damn dean’s list. But my love for the beautiful game is still there.”

That love never faded. Apart from his NFL career, Johnson has chased soccer at every opportunity he could find. In 2011, he went through a four-day trial with Sporting Kansas City. Between 2018 and 2019, he played for Boca Raton FC. 

In 2020, he also competed in a soccer tournament. And this summer, he is set to join Villarreal CF as a guest player. The man has never stopped running toward the sport his grandfather introduced him to. Yet even as Johnson builds his soccer world, he keeps looking back over his shoulder at the NFL. And the Bengals keep coming up in conversation.

Chad Johnson keeps teasing a return, but why did he actually leave?

Johnson has always had a knack for stirring up unretirement buzz, and just a week ago, he made his most direct move yet.

“I’m coming out of retirement @Bengals,” Johnson posted on X on February 21.

He may post it with a wink and a smile, but the Who Dey Nation does not take it lightly. That is because deep down, they would probably love nothing more than to see him back in Cincy. “I’m in! Let’s go!” one fan commented on the post.

And why wouldn’t they? Johnson spent 11 seasons in the league, with a decade of that time in Cincinnati. He was one of the most electric receivers of his era, earning six Pro Bowl selections. But in 2011, the Bengals traded him to New England, and that chapter ended faster than anyone expected.

With the Patriots, Johnson (a receiver who had routinely eclipsed 1,000 receiving yards in his prime) managed just 276 yards, 15 catches, and one touchdown across 15 games and three starts. It was a quiet, underwhelming finish for a player who had been anything but quiet throughout his career. Things got worse after the season. 

The Dolphins signed him in 2012, but released him just a month later following off-field incidents that overshadowed whatever football he had left in him. By 2013, Johnson himself explained what had really happened. 

“Let me tell you what my goal was: How can I make the equivalent of what I make on the field off the field?” Johnson said in 2013. “That’s what happened, and no matter how much I try to say I’m going to do this over here and then I am going to try to come back to football, it didn’t work like that.”

Johnson’s exit felt abrupt, almost unfinished. But looking back, he was already building the next version of himself. His media career and viral social media presence were proof that Johnson never really left the spotlight. He just changed the stage.