Cinco in Cinci

Es de verdad - Ocho Cinco is now official on the field.

The Bengals WR formerly known as Chad Johnson is now officially being recognized by the NFL as Chad Ocho Cinco.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Johnson is the second most popular surname (Smith is the first, FYI). And oddly enough, there is not one other person in the world with the Ocho Cinco moniker.

[UPDATE] CNBC's Darren Rovell is reporting that Chad is being forced to buy out the stock of the 100,000 remaining "C. Johnson" jerseys before making the switch to "Ocho Cinco" because the switch took place so close to the beginning of the season. If Reebok asked Ocho Cinco to pay for the cost of making the unsold jerseys, the total could reach upwards of $4 million.

The name -- Spanish for "eight five" -- refers to the star's jersey number 85. He directed media to refer to him as Ocho Cinco two years ago in a very memorable lockerroom interview. Gotta love the Chad...

Phelps v. Ocho

Michael Phelps may be going for eight gold medals in Beijing this year, but that's not the Ocho I'm talking about...

On ESPN's Pardon the Interruption last night, Cincinnati Bengal's wide receiver Chad Johnson gave Wilbon and Kornheiser "five good minutes," which included an outright challenge to the seemingly untouchable Phelps. Check it out below (about 4 minutes in). Apparently we had no idea that Olympic talent is swimming rampant in the inner-cities.



Overall, Chad --otherwise known as Ocho Cinco by way of my favorite interview ever-- seemed pretty subdued during the interview, even during the awkward and heartwarming threat against quarterback Carson Palmer, who was standing behind him. On this morning's Sportscenter, a clip of him at training camp showed that he was being threatened with fines from management to talk to the media.

And while we're on the topic of Chad... Word on the street is that the wide receiver has taken the first steps to officially changing his last name from 'Johnson' to 'Ocho Cinco' to avoid getting improper jersey fines when he wears the incorrect Spanish translation of his number 85 on his back. He's a headcase, but I love him.