Goldberg and Guthrie

I've been meaning to make fun of this for a few days. As you are no doubt not aware, the Bengals recently resigned running back Rudi Johnson to a long term deal for $26 million or some such amount.

Here is the first part of the article about it on the Bengals' web site:

Maybe the turning point in the deal came on one of those myriad of calls to the Bengals’ offices while Peter Schafer was on hold listening to the stream of radio highlights from the Marvin Lewis era. That’s when Rudi Johnson’s agent realized his client is on a first-name basis with all of Bengaldom.

It would be, “Carson Palmer drops back to pass,” or “Chadjohnsonwideopentouchdown.” But with Rudi Johnson, it is always, “Rudi up the middle, touchdown,” or “Rudi gets a big hole and busts it for the first down and more.” And, of course, there are always the “Rudi, Rudi,” chants from analyst Dave Lapham.

“Any time you have a connation like that, the player should stay where he is,” Schaffer said as he and Johnson soaked in Wednesday what has been reported as a five-year, $26 million deal.

Clearly, Bengals fans have singled out Rudi Johnson as the best player, and this is the only reason his first name is used and chanted. Why, we've taken to him to the same way Notre Dame fans took to that scrappy player who was able to walk on and play for them after being on the practice squad for years. What was his name again?

(Although, FWIW, I think this was a good signing.)