Disgraced football star Chad Ochocinco appeared on "Good Morning America" this morning where he described his 7-day jail stint (23 days shorter than what he was originally sentenced) as one of the best things that's ever happened to him. Find out why jail was a "good" thing for Chad inside...
Now that's he's out of jail, and photos of a bloodied Evelyn Lozada have surfaced, Chad Johnson (Ochocinco) is on a public campaign to repair his badly damaged image. During a stop through GMA this morning, the disgraced baller talked to Robin Roberts about his stint behind bars where he expressed remorse for his bad "courtroom etiquette". He also revealed that he hopes he'll get a "second chance" at playing football again. He better get to doing a bit more than hoping.
Here are the highlights from his interview:
On why he tapped his attorney’s butt in court:
"I know there’s a certain thing called courtroom etiquette. I’ve never been a part of the courtroom system. It was a light tap. It wasn’t in any way to disrespect the courtroom and I actually didn’t think anyone would see that because it was my third time doing so. That’s the way I’ve always interacted throughout life, just in general."
On if the judge was justified in her sentencing:
I support her and her decision to give me the sentence that she did, based on me not meeting the guidelines and criteria that I was supposed to meet in a certain amount of time.
On why he’s thankful to the judge:
"I think that Judge McHugh was able to get me do something many people have tried to get me to do for a long time: slow down, just at life in general. She was able to get me to do that. maybe not in the best circumstances for those on the outside but I see being able to sit down and think about life and where I’m going from this point was probably one of the best things that could happen to me right now.?
On what he's learned from the situation:
"Usually, situations like this break people…but I wouldn’t allow anything to break me. I going to be my same positive self. I think with me being Chad it kind of made the judge feel that I wasn’t being serious about the situation but, trust me, I understood exactly what I did. I lost two of the things in life that I love the most at the time. Football and my now beautiful, I did say beautiful, ex-wife.
You have to understand, I haven’t had any chances because I’ve never been in any trouble before. I’ve done nothing wrong ever. This is my first time being in trouble with the legal system. My trouble in the past has been having fun entertaining fans when it came to playing the game of football so this is all new to me.
On playing football again:
I don’t want the last thing to be remembered you know, well, Chad was cut from the Dolphins for an incident he had with his wife. I would love to grace the football field one more time and to help some team. I’m not injured. There’s nothing wrong with me.
I’ve learned my lesson, especially over those past seven days. I think everyone deserves a second chance. Many would say I might not deserve it. I would like to finish my career off the right way.
Don't know about y'all, but we're not totally convinced Chad truly understands the gravity of the situation. He seemed to give excuses and explanations instead of a true apology. And we're hoping he learned about tact and respect during that time he was mulling over his life in the jail cell. Not just thinking about "slowing down".
Watch the full interview here: