It’s been 20 years since the Pittsburgh Steelers won Super Bowl XL. Their first championship since the 1979 season wasn’t easy to earn as the Steelers had to go on the road for each of their playoff games. However, they got a slight break in the first round against the Cincinnati Bengals. Quarterback Carson Palmer tore his ACL on his first pass of the game, leaving the Bengals at a severe disadvantage. Former Bengals wide receiver Chad Johnson revealed that he didn’t help matters with a locker room meltdown.
“This is my only asshole moment,” Johnson said recently on his Nightcap podcast. “It’s halftime. I’m getting the IV. We come in. I’m hot because, Carson goes down, why are we not including me in the offense? Why are we allowing the Steelers to dictate what we’re doing in a playoff game, a game of this importance?
“I lost it. I snatched the IV out of my hand, I come out of the room, blood flying everywhere. I swear to God, I lost it and I came out and I’m fussing and I’m not screaming at anybody directly, I’m just snapping in general. ‘Get me the fucking ball. Give me the ball. It’s not that hard. I can do whatever you want me to do. Just give me the ball.’ Are we even trying to win?”
Johnson posted one of the best seasons of his career in 2005. He caught 97 passes for 1,432 yards and nine touchdowns, earning first-team All-Pro honors for the first time. The Bengals looked like a favorite to win the AFC.
However, Johnson didn’t have much of an impact against the Steelers in the playoffs with four catches for 59 yards. Despite Johnson catching just two passes for 30 yards in the first two quarters, the Bengals led 17-14 at halftime.
Johnson’s halftime histrionics seemed to have an effect on the Bengals as they tried to get him the ball more to start the third quarter. The Bengals twice targeted Johnson on the Bengals’ first drive, although he only reeled in one pass. He only got one other target after that, an eight-yard catch to start the fourth quarter.
The Bengals totally collapsed in the second half. They didn’t score another point, ultimately losing 31-17. Bengals backup quarterback Jon Kitna played admirably for most of the game, but he wasn’t as good as Palmer. Kitna’s two interceptions in the fourth quarter basically killed Cincinnati’s chances at victory.
Johnson has said before that he believes the Bengals would have won the Super Bowl had Palmer not gotten hurt. That helps explain his halftime meltdown. That was the Bengals’ best season during Johnson’s Cincinnati tenure. It was his best shot at a Super Bowl, and an injury ruined the Bengals’ postseason not long after it started.