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.

“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]