For those of you following the Chad Johnson rants this week about requesting to be traded and threatening to sit the year out if he is not, here are the Chad Johnson salary numbers broken down by Chick Ludwig.  As everyone knows, Chad Johnson is under contract with the Bengals until 2011.  The salary information below give Bengals fans a look at what Chad has been paid and what he is due to be paid.

I think it is interesting to see that the Giants have just pulled off a major upset to win the Super Bowl despite they are missing two star players that everyone for years always thought the Giants needed to make a run at the Super Bowl (Tiki Barber and Jeremy Shockey).  For those Bengals fans that have been keeping up on the Giants drive to the Super Bowl this week, there have been multiple sources quoted as saying that the reality of the situation was that these two supposed star players not being in the locker room really made all the difference for their team this season.  The team was actually able to pull together and become more of a team because two of their biggest head cases/drama kings/headaches were not in the mix.

There is something to be said about playing as a team in the NFL.  If a team does not have the ability to leave their egos at the door, then they are going to struggle.  Some say this is the problem the Bengals are facing, and many people are saying Chad Johnson is the front runner when it comes to putting his ego before the team.  I don't think he has done anything but fuel this fire over the past week with his trade me or I will sit out leadership approach.  The actions of the team too often reflect the leadership of the team.  If Chad Johnson is the leader he thinks he, then he had better begin to look more closely at his actions.  It may be time for the Bengals to start drawing some lines in the sand, and looking for some new team leaders.   Where I come from, you judge a leader by the amount of people following him.  I am not sure many Bengals players or fans would choose to follow Chad Johnson after a week listening to his thoughts on team vs. ego.  No doubt Chad Johnson is a great player, but is he becoming a great player with too high of cost to keep on the team?  Can he really be a team player?  Chad is definitely the Bengals biggest ego headache, and the Giants just proved tonight that team always out plays ego.  With that being said, here are the numbers.

Chad Johnson Salary History:

2001 $301,000
2002 $351,250
2003 $426,500
2004 $526,750
2005 $1 million
2006 $2.75 million
2007 $2.5 million
2008 $3 million
2009 $4.5 million
2010 $5 million
2011 $6 million