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On this particular day, Chad Johnson has gone vintage. He's wearing an Ajax top from a year he can't remember, but the specifics don't matter too much. The shirt is a throwback to a fun era and a team filled with legends, which is why Johnson picked it out to wear ahead of this interview. It was a tough pick, too. He has over 900 now, and he's set a new goal for himself: to make soccer clothes the only thing he wears.
"I don't ever want to run out of tops," he says with a laugh to GOAL.
Crazy? Sure, but that's fine. Johnson's whole NFL career was defined by people mistaking his passion for chaos, so why wouldn't that continue into the next phase of his life? This phase, in many ways, is defined by football, too, but this time it's the global kind.
Johnson is arguably the world's biggest soccer superfan. He approaches the game with the type of passion that borders on obsession, and Johnson is willing to acknowledge that he takes things a bit far. The shirts are one thing. There's also the FIFA obsession that has seen him challenge all comers on social media. There are random trips around the world to attend games or meet his biggest heroes. He's ended relationships because of the sport because, if you can't understand it, you can't understand him.
One of the things Johnson has struggled with most, though, is conveying that passion. It's not something he can put into words. Try as he might, he can't make people understand. He believes that you have to experience it and you have to feel it for yourself. Until then, you'll probably keep on thinking he's crazy.
"I can tell you about a rollercoaster at Disneyworld," he explains, "And tell you about how f***ing great it was, but until you get on that rollercoaster yourself, you'll never understand what it means."
This year, Johnson is doing his best to welcome as many as he can onto that rollercoaster. The former NFL wide receiver is launching The Late Run with Ochocinco on Feb. 26, a show that gives him the chance to do what he does best: talk. The topic will, of course, be soccer, but if you follow the sport, you know that talk about soccer can quickly become conversations about life. The sport lives in the intersection of culture, athleticism, art, and emotion. That's why Johnson loves it so much. To him, it's not just a game; it's something captivating.
"When you watch the beautiful game, and you watch it in its truest, purest form, it's like watching art," he says. "It's dope and, unless you're a fan of the game in general, it's hard to understand. Once you understand the game, you can see how that art comes to fruition as teams play."
Johnson considers himself something of an artist, but most of all, he considers himself a fan. Now, via The Late Run, he'll get to live out something of a childhood dream in a way that only he can.
