Roddy White calls Ochocinco's ‘gifts' disrespectful

TMZ reported the Bengals' eccentric receiver shipped boxes of shirts featuring the "Mad Chad" character from his forthcoming iPhone game to the Falcons' secondary. The 4-2 Falcons play the 2-3 Bengals at 1 p.m.  Sunday in the Georgia Dome.

It would not be out of character for Ochocinco to taunt his opponents. Last year he sent gift baskets of deodorant to the Baltimore Ravens, and in 2004 he sent Pepto-Bismol to the Cleveland Browns.

TMZ said Ochocinco sent the shirts to Falcons cornerbacks Dunta Robinson, Brent Grimes and Chris Owens and safeties William Moore and Thomas DeCoud.

DeCoud and Grimes told the AJC said they haven't gotten them.

"If he sends us something, whatever, it's cool," Grimes said. "If that's what get him going, then it's cool. It has no effect on me or anybody else in the locker room."

Added DeCoud: "I haven't even heard about it. I'm not really paying attention to it. I'm just going in and going back to the drawing board this week."

White, however, took it as an insult.

"For us, personally, on offense, we're going to try to run the score up on them, whatever the circumstances are in the game," he said. "I don't think Terrell Owens ever did that to anybody. But that's his alias. That's what he does. We'll see on Sunday how it goes.

"Those are my teammates and I'll defend them for anything," White continued. "When we're out there on Sunday, I'm out there with them. And if they knock him out of the game, who cares?"

The gag gift could be part of Ochocinco's promise to return from Cincinnati's bye as the "Chad of old."

The 32-year-old has done little since catching 12 balls for 159 yards and a touchdown in Cincinnati's opener. In the last four games, he's amassed just 157 receiving yards with zero scores. Meanwhile, Owens has been targeted 12 more times by Carson Palmer.

When Ochocinco got a chance to make a big catch in Cincinnati's last game Oct. 10, the ball bounced off his hands and was intercepted with 25 seconds left. Tampa Bay promptly kicked the winning field goal.

"I haven't been the Chad of old," he told Bengals.com last week. "The Chad we're all used to. The boisterous, sometimes little borderline cocky-arrogant. But that's what everybody feeds off as a city and an organization."

When he gives opponents bulletin-board material, Ochocinco said, "I know I have no choice but to go out and perform at a high level. I feed off of that."

The drop against Tampa Bay cost his team the game, Ochocinco admitted. It helped convince him to revert to the "Chad of old."

"I was just trying something new, you know?" he said. "You're 32, you're trying to be a little bit more mature and try a different approach.

"That (bleep) doesn't work."