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Award-winning columnist Tom Archdeacon — an old-school storyteller in a brand-new venue — writes about sports, the city, southwest Ohio and anything else that catches his fancy… or yours.Home > Blogs > Through the Arch > Archives > 2008 > November > 02 > Entry
blog: Eye gouges, left hooks — “It was like the UFC!”
CINCINNATI — Although Chad Johnson had two touchdown catches Sunday — equal to his totals for the first eight games of the season — and was all smiles after the Bengals first victory of theyear, he admitted one thing threw him for a loop against the Jacksonville Jaguars.
It was the third-quarter fight between Bengals 6-foot-7, 330-pound guard Andrew Whitworth and Jacksonville’s defensive tackle, 6-foot-7, 335-pound John Henderson.
As he watched Henderson’s attempted eye gouges and Whitworth’s roundhouse left hooks, Johnson — at 6-foot-1 and 192 pounds — was mesmerized…from afar:
“It wasn’t about the fighting. I just wanted to know who in the world was gonna go in there and break that up. They are huge. It was like the UFC!”
In topping Jacksonville, 21-19 Sunday, the Bengals did a lot of things they hadn’t been able to do in their 0-8 start.
They had their first 100-yard rusher in Cedric Benson (24 carries, 104 yards.) Johnson showed a glimmer of the force he was in seasons past. Carson Palmer’s replacement at quarterback, Ryan Fitzpatrick, finally looked settled as he completed 21 of 31 passes. And the defense — which had managed just six sacks in eight games — managed to dump Jags quarterback David Garrard three times.
Yet the thing people will remember most is Whitworth’s free-for-all with Henderson.
It left the Bengals crowd — who have done everything this season from boo to walk out early on the often deserving-to-be-dissed team — to shower Whitworth with full-throated cheers. Finally, a Bengal showing them nothing but fight.
The Cincinnati players were just as struck by Whitworth’s spirited display.
“I loved it — just loved it,” said Bengals’ right guard Bobby Williams. “He kind of defined the offensive line as some mean tough guys who are going to keep fighting for this team.”
Left tackle Levi Jones felt the same: “Man, that was two 340-pound guys, both of them 6-foot-7. That’s a lot of beef. That’s two brahma bulls going at it.
“This whole thing really started (Saturday) with Whit’s talk to the team about each of us pulling for each other and not backing down. He wanted us to show a different attitude out there and then this happens and it just accented all that.
“On the football field, you can’t back down. This is the sport of men.”
In the case of Whitworth and Henderson, two of the biggest men on the field.
The confrontation began late in the third quarter on a Cincinnati run play where Whitworth and Henderson tangled.
“He slammed me. I went back at him and he felt I’d got him in back of the legs,” Whitworth said. “He swung and hit me in the helmet and I stood up and he jacked me in the face — just a blatant punch.
“Levi started screaming for the refs to throw a flag, but they didn’t.”
Jones nodded: “I knew trouble was comin’.”
It came on the next play. Jones said Henderson came up to the line “yelling” at Whitworth. As Bengals receiver T. J. Houshmandzadeh said of Henderson, “He just went plain crazy…(Whitworth) was 100 percent provoked.”
Whitworth pushed Henderson past the quarterback on the play and as the defensive tackle fell, he grabbed the Bengal lineman’s face mask and ripped off his helmet.
The bald and bearded Whitworth — who also had his helmet ripped off twice this year by Tennessee tackle Albert Haynesworth — turned and began running toward the play when he said Henderson jumped him from behind and tried to “gouge my eyes right outta their sockets.”
He said he had to defend himself — and so he threw the punches — and finally the refs flagged both linemen and ejected them from the game.
Fans reached down over the railing in the stadium tunnel to high-five Whitworth on his exit. Once in the Bengals dressing room, Whitworth said he “ranted and raved ” a while before watching the rest of the game alone in the players’ lounge.
Henderson stayed on the bench a couple of plays — a towel over his bald head — then was told to leave the field. He put his helmet back on for the long walk and then taunted Bengals fans along the way. A water bottle came flying out of the stands at him as he walked through the north end zone. Once he reached the Jags’ quarters, he dressed and disappeared without speaking to the press.
The league will certainly take action. While Whitworth wishes he would not have retaliated, he said, “Lord, it was self defense. He was digging his fingers in my eyeballs.”
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