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What an embarrassment, I found this little tidbit in yesterday's Sports section of the NY Daily News!
Middletown officials say there was a Chad Johnson at the game – sort of. A former NFL receiver calling himself Chad Plummer Johnson was among the eight players on hand.
“Apparently his name is Johnson but he goes by Plummer because he’s always getting thought of as the other Chad Johnson,” Middletown Township Administrator Tony Mercantante tells The Score. “It was just an unfortunate error.”
Mercantante says that two days before the game, the head of the charitable organization procuring players for it sent Middletown a list of players who were confirmed, “and he said Chad Johnson was coming from Cincinnati. The assumption was, who else could he be talking about? … Apparently they know (Plummer) as Johnson.”
“So we ran with it, and we probably should have double-checked,” Mercantante says of the township promoting an appearance by “NFL Pro Bowler Chad ‘Ochocinco’ Johnson’” on the Middletown Day website.
The Score could not find any record of a Chad Plummer Johnson playing in the NFL, but Chad Plummer did play four games for the Indianapolis Colts from 1999-2000. He played his college ball at Cincinnati and did see preseason action as a Bengal, which could have added to the confusion, as could this tidbit: according to one festival attendee, Plummer/Johnson said he was Ochocinco’s cousin...
