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On Sunday, ESPN's Chris Mortensen reported that Chad Johnson is privately threatening to sit out the 2008 season if he's not traded. Yesterday, Mr. Cinco's agent, the esteemed Drew Rosenhaus, responded to Mortensen's report:

...Rosenhaus ... had a provocative response to the report for The Enquirer on Sunday afternoon. "Chad Johnson will play football in 2008," Rosenhaus said when told of the contents of the ESPN.com report.

Will Johnson be playing for the Cincinnati Bengals? "Our plan is for Chad Johnson to play football in 2008," Rosenhaus said. "That is how I will respond to the report."

Ah, yes, the non-answer answer. Dana Milbank would be impressed. Spinning is nothing new, and Rosenhaus has gotten pretty good at it (thanks, T.O.!). Whatever Johnson's agent tells the media, it's pretty clear that No. 85 wants out of Cincinnati. So now the question is what do the Bengals do? I mentioned earlier that they have all the leverage, and there's still no reason to think otherwise.

The Cincinnati Enquirer's Mark Curnutte writes that trading or releasing Ocho Cinco would be expensive, although Pro Football Talk thinks moving the disgruntled wide receiver is manageable under the salary cap.

No matter what happens, the Bengals shouldn't release Johnson. And if they can't convince him to stay, I say trade him to the Dolphins. Johnson's hinted that he'd like to play in South Florida, the Bengals might as well get draft picks out of the deal, and then they can enjoy the schadenfreude of watching him pout his way through a four-win season in 2008.