Chad Ochocinco Draws Attention To His ‘Tour Of Giving’ Campaign To Illustrate He Doesn’t Usually Seek Attention For His Giving
(head asplodes)
Never one to seek publicity – unless he is actively seeking publicity, which is 99% of the time – Chad Ochocinco would like everyone to know that he prefers that his charitable actions be kept secret – unless he would like everybody to know about them.
Ochocinco has embarked on something he is calling a “Tour of Giving,” a three-day charity bus tour which wraps up in Miami – Ochocinco’s hometown – but coincidentally (!) is also the site of this year’s Super Bowl. As I mentioned, a total kwinky-dink.
At a charitable event at the Freestore Foodbank in Cincinnati, the Bengals wide receiver took a moment to explain why on this occasion he has taken the unusual step of drawing attention to his good works – away from the prying eyes of the cameras he likely invited to the event himself, of course.
“Most everything I do (charitably) is under the radar,” he said. “I felt like this one time, I’d show people I can do more than celebrate and trash-talk. I wanted to call people’s attention to the good happening around them.”
Believe me, I would never begrudge a professional athlete for drawing attention to a cause that is important to them – after all, it raises awareness to something that he or she commits their time and energy to – but for Ochocinco to be so disingenuous regarding his motivation for making this particular charitable act known to the public strikes me as almost comical.
To wit:
After that, the bus headed for Atlanta and Orlando before the “Chad Ochocinco Soldiers for Giving” tour ends in Miami.
Miami is not only his hometown, it’s where a lot of TV cameras will be for the next two weeks.
Somebody told Ochocinco he should get himself a TV gig for Super Bowl week.
“I think something like that is already in the works,” he said.
Of course there is – there is no way someone who has turned self-promotion into an art form would have it any other way.
Chad Ochocinco begins ‘Tour of Giving’ [Cincinnati Enquirer]