Synergy at its worst finest...

You know how I said in my very last post that I find ESPN The Magazine the least offensive part of the Bristol empire? Yeah, well, I may have to reassess that. Check out these two articles about Chad Johnson and the apparent end of his trade demands. The first is from The National Post, which apparently "is a Canadian English-language national newspaper based in Don Mills, Ontario, a district of Toronto." No particular reason why I chose it other than it's one of the two articles that pops up as a news result when I googled Chad Johnson. This is the photo that they used in the article:



No problems there. Simple, appropriate, whatever. It's not exactly high art choosing a photo to represent an NFL wide receiver, but well done nonetheless. A shiny Loonie to The National Post, says I.

But what about the other top news result when you google Chad Johnson? That'd be David Fleming's article on ESPN.com, which covers the exact same story. Not to pile on ESPN (too late), but this is the photo they ran with:



So instead of a relevant photo of Chad Johnson as a Cincinnati Bengal, ESPN chose an image of Johnson from the cover of ESPN The Magazine, which in turn featured not one but two other ESPN The Magazines in a display of nesting doll style brilliance not usually seen outside of Stephen Colbert portraiture. I'd rail against this and call it the death of sports journalism as per my Blogger Opinion Agreement (or BOA for short, because it, you know, constricts my ass, opinions-wise), but I honestly can't help but admire the chutzpah of such blatant self-promotion.

I think it was the caption underneath that won me over:

It's anyone's guess whether Chad Johnson will rip the Bengals or tear it up on the field for Cincy in '08.

Good to know that guy who wrote all the captions in my middle school yearbook is still getting work. I always worried about that guy.