R6: Chad "Ochocinco" Johnson's Practice of Celebrity

            Chad Johnson, formerly Chad Ochocinco, is a retired NFL wide receiver known largely for his career as a Cincinnati Bengal.  During his career, he was widely known as the biggest showboat in professional sports.  His antics sometimes overshadow his success as an NFL receiver, as he was a six-time NFL Pro Bowl selection and a two-time NFL First-Team All-Pro.  However, his list of antics may be longer than his accolades.  In 2005, he created his infamous list of opposing cornerbacks who were assigned to cover him, who Covered 85 in ’05, then in 2006 he was known more for his touchdown dances than his league-leading receiving yards, in 2007 he opened the season with his infamous “Future H.o.F 20??” jacket touchdown celebration, and then most notably in 2008 he changed his last name from Johnson to Ochocinco, because of his jersey number 85.  He has since changed his name back to Chad Johnson, but his personality remains unchanged.  His twitter account, @ochocinco, is a prime example of that. 

            It is obvious that Chad Johnson is a celebrity among sports fanatics due to his on-field antics and success.  He has made millions of dollars entertaining people with his athletic ability and personality, which has made him a celebrity as defined by Turner.  Turner uses three aspects to define celebrity, “(1) celebrity as a way that people are represented and talked about; (2) a process by which a person is turned into a commodity; and (3) an aspect of culture which is constantly being reinscribed and reformulated” (Marwick and boyd, 2011).  By the first aspect, his antics have made him a topic of discussion among the masses, by the second, he was a commodity to the organization that he played for, with his stock rising and falling as his play outweighed his antics and visa-versa, and by the third, transforming his persona from Chad Johnson to Chad Ochocinco.  His celebrity did not only live through himself on the field, but also his online self on his Twitter account. 

In 2011, a study showed that Johnson was the most influential athlete on social media, beating out numerous others, including Lebron James.  Johnson showcased an ability to effectively practice his celebrity in real life as well as online, showing that his celebrity is a sort of trait that he has naturally, but continues to utilize even after retirement.  Johnson frequently interacts with other users on social media, whether they are his contemporaries as former NFL players, or his fans and followers.

Here, we have a few examples of tweets by Johnson, one is a retweet of former NFL player Deion Sanders who is praising the athletic ability of Johnson, who is in the middle of a comeback to football, as he most recently played in  a game in 2017 for a team in Mexico.  He frequently responds to casual fans as well, here with one giving his thoughts on how he manages his money to a fan implying that he should live more lavishly.  

 Johnson's Tweets are more than interactions with others, as most Twitter accounts are.  The reason people loved Johnson on the gridiron was because of his personality.  His personality was his own, and no other player in the league were quite like him.  He has brought that same personality to his Twitter account, as illustrated in this tweet here:

 He tweets things like this that are relatable, things that the average person would experience.  And whether this tweet is true or not, this allows people to believe that his personality is actually how he acts and feels at all times.  And this warrants people to believe that this is sincerely who he is, which accurately reflects who he's always been on Twitter.  

In all, Chad Johnson's celebrity is certainly a product that he practices online, but that is not where it originated.  He practiced his celebrity on a large stage, Sunday's in NFL football games.  But he has carried those practices into his social media account and his online self.  And that is probably because that is an authentic display of who he is, but the continuous practice of his antics garnered him fame and fortune, and that is what has always drawn people to him.  Since he is no longer in the spotlight playing football, he has had to bring out that celebrity in another form, and that form is his social media, and he can, and does, continue to practice his celebrity there.  

Sources:

http://www.cnbc.com/id/42749405

http://www.realclearsports.com/lists/damaging_egos/chad_johnson.html?state=stop

Marwick, Alice, and boyd, Danah, “To See and Be Seen: Celebrity Practice on Twitter,” Convergence                           May 2011 vol. 17 no. 2 139-158, http://www.tiara.org/blog/wp-                                                                               content/uploads/2011/07/marwick_boyd_to_see_and_be_seen.pdf