Chad “Ochocinco” Johnson made it big in the NFL. Not only did he entertain thousands of fans with his end zone, locker room, and sideline antics, but he was also a helluva player. Over 11,000 yards, three All-Pros, six Pro Bowls, and a spot in the Cincinnati Bengals’ Ring of Honor. But his journey to get there was far from conventional.
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Johnson attended HBCU Langston University out of high school briefly before transferring to Santa Monica Community College. After a couple of years there, he transferred to a bigger school, Oregon State, for his final year in college in 2000. He was good enough to earn himself a second-round selection in that year’s NFL draft.
Despite his high draft pedigree, Ochocinco actually lived at the Bengals’ facilities for his first few years simply to save money. Johnson’s frugality has been well-documented, and no doubt he learned that financial responsibility early on, growing up in Miami.
We would say that he probably got it from his mother. But Johnson says he was raised more so by his grandmother than his mother, Paula “Hurricane” Johnson, with whom he didn’t always see eye to eye, partly due to her propensity for alcoholic beverages.
“But man, when the times were good, oh man, they were good. But when it was bad? … She was proud of all the things I was able to accomplish during my days in the NFL, and all the stuff I did off the field,” said the former Bengal. He then shared why bringing his mother to red carpet events was never an option.
“But she was so unpredictable, I couldn’t take her to important stuff. Red carpets, stuff like that, I couldn’t have her in those rooms because I don’t know which Paula was going to show up.”
Ocho, who was doing a guest spot on Theo Von’s podcast when he was discussing his mother, watched a clip with Von from when he and Paula were on Marriage Boot Camp Reality Stars: Family Edition together in 2017.
With Ochocinco in a pretend coffin, she hilariously says “he got his kids and baby mommas, line ’em up, let them roll his ass outta here.” Johnson said that spunk made her a legend in their neighborhood.
“She’s a legend. She’s a legend. Especially in our area. We have a thing, you’re not really a friend of mine if you haven’t been cursed out by my mom. That means you haven’t been around long enough. And we loved her just like that.”
Unfortunately, Paula Johnson passed at the age of 65 in early 2021. Ocho shared a heartwarming tribute to her on his Instagram page, a video of the pair dancing in a bar.
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Sadly, Ochocinco says that the manner and timing of his mother’s passing didn’t allow him to say goodbye. However, he was able to save a few messages that, even though harsh, keep Paula’s wild spirit alive.
“And I never got a chance to say goodbye. I never got a chance to say I love you. But I have the messages saved before she passed away. And it’s her cursing me out. I mean letting me have it. Letting it rip. Like, paragraph paragraph, f*ck you. And I wouldn’t want it any other way.”
Since his mother’s passing, Johnson has moved to the media side of football. He joined the CW’s Inside the NFL team in 2023 and has been hosting a podcast, Nightcap, with Shannon Sharpe since 2024.
