Chad Johnson is an infectious personality and a great NFL talent — if you were with us at Super Bowl LIV, back in our RADIO.COM days before Audacy was born, you would know that.
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But ahead of the 2021 NFL season, he's giving us a reason to avoid hanging out with him, one that hinges on how perhaps the best player in the league performs in his fourth season as the starting quarterback for the Kansas City Chiefs. If I were a betting man, I'd feel fairly confident in assuming that a player with 114 touchdowns, 23 interceptions and a 37-8 record over the past three years would be at or near the top of the MVP race.
And Chad Johnson agrees with me, going so far as to sacrifice a pretty important part of his daily routine if Mahomes doesn't come out on top in the 2021 MVP race.
The bet immediately brings to mind that of Jeff Lanham, who spent 57 nights on the rooftop of his restaurant until the 2019 Cincinnati Bengals won a game due to a bet he made after the team's Week 5 loss to the Cardinals. In both cases, there's a two-month punishment period, and I'd imagine that neither leaves the gambler feeling very clean or smelling too great.
However, Johnson's confidence in Mahomes is well-founded. After all, he currently ranks atop Vegas Insider's list of 2021 NFL MVP odds at +500, which leads the pack by a pretty significant margin. In second is Aaron Rodgers at +900 — and who knows whether or not he, the 2020 league MVP, will even play for the Packers this season — and in third is Josh Allen at +1100. Though the Chiefs lost Sammy Watkins, who wasn't healthy all that much to begin with, they revamped their offensive line in a big way, adding Orlando Brown Jr., Joe Thuney, Austin Blythe and Kyle Long in addition to the returning Laurent Duvernay-Tardif.
We'll see how it all ends up for Mahomes, but whether or not he wins the MVP, it's almost a guarantee that he and the Chiefs will have a strong season. Perhaps the MVP intrigue, then, stems from the fact that Johnson will need to load up on the cologne and the deodorant if his bet doesn't pan out.
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