T. J. Houshmandzadeh
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| T. J. Houshmandzadeh | |
|---|---|
| Date of birth | September 26, 1977 (age 29) |
| Place of birth |  Victorville, California |
| Position(s) | Wide receiver |
| College | Oregon State |
| NFL Draft | 2001 / Round 7/ Pick 204 |
| Statistics | |
| Team(s) | |
| 2001–Present | Cincinnati Bengals |
Touraj (T.J.) Houshmandzadeh, Jr. (born September 26, 1977 in Victorville, California,) is an American-born wide receiver for the National Football League's Cincinnati Bengals. He was a seventh-round pick in the 2001 NFL Draft by the Bengals. He was a third alternate to the 2007 Pro Bowl.
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[edit] College years
Houshmandzadeh was a high school dropout who later earned his GED and enrolled at Cerritos College where he helped his team win two national championships. Believing he was too tall to play running back, he voluntarily moved to wide receiver. Based on his junior college performance, Houshmandzadeh was offered a scholarship at Oregon State, where he and current Bengals wide receiver Chad Johnson were teammates.
[edit] Professional career
Houshmandzadeh had a modest rookie season, recording 21 receptions for 228 yards, while also being used occasionally to return punts and kickoffs. His most notable achievement was in a game against the Cleveland Browns, where he set a franchise record with 126 punt return yards.
After the 2001 season, questions about Houshmandzadeh's speed and quickness led to him slimming down to his current playing weight of about 200 pounds, which increased his on-field performance remarkably. T.J. Houshmandzadeh is more of a "possession" receiver (football parlance for a receiver who's not a particularly fast runner but excels at running route precisely and possess very reliable ball catching skills) than Chad Johnson, but has shown an ability to gain yards after the catch and make tough catches in the middle of the field which leaves him vulnerable to big hits from opposing defensive players. Additionally, Houshmandzadeh has gained a number of rushing yards on reverse plays. In 2004, he rushed 6 times and gained 51 yards (8.5 yards per attempt); in 2005, he rushed 8 times for 62 yards (7.8 yards per attempt) and scored his first touchdown.
He's been called one of the NFL's most underrated players by many pundits. In fact, ESPN.com analyst K.C. Joyner noted that with only 3 dropped passes in the 2005 season, Houshmandzadeh ranked first in the league with a 2.6 percent dropped pass percentage.
"They're both unique," says Bengals quarterback Carson Palmer of his primary receivers. "They do completely different things well and complement each other perfectly. T.J.'s a physical guy; a physical blocker, physical when he gets the ball. He's like (the Pittsburgh Steelers') Hines Ward." [1]
T.J. Houshmandzadeh missed almost all of the 2003 season with a severe hamstring injury. In 2004 he was listed as the team's third receiver behind Peter Warrick and Chad Johnson. However, Warrick went down with an injury and Houshmandzadeh was promoted to the starting lineup with Johnson.
Houshmandzadeh took advantage of his opportunity to prove himself, recording 73 receptions for 978 yards and 4 touchdowns. With the release of the talented, but troubled, Warrick during the 2005 training camp (he would later sign with the Seattle Seahawks), Houshmandzadeh retained the starting position and he and Johnson soon earned recognition for being among the NFL's most exciting receiving tandems. Houshmandzadeh and the team's high-powered aerial attack is credited as a primary reasons for the Bengals' recent resurgence and he was rewarded by the Bengals' organization in March of 2005 with a 4-year, $13 million contract and an undisclosed bonus.
Early in the 2005 season, T.J. Houshmandzadeh suffered an injury to his right hand, which limited his effectiveness for several games. In the 2006 season, he battled a recurring minor foot injury that kept him out of the first two games of the regular season. On September 24, 2006, he made his season debut, catching 9 passes for 94 yards and two fourth quarter touchdowns in the Bengals' 28-20 win over their division Foe Pittsburgh Steelers. The second of these catches was a tough reception in the endzone against Steelers cornerback Deshea Townsend. Even though he was closely guarded by Townsend, Houshmandzadeh was able to tip Carson Palmer's pass, catch it, and gain possession as he landed on his back. For his performance, he was named the AFC offensive player of the week[2]. In mid 2006, he suffered a mild concussion during the Bengals 49-41 loss to San Diego from an early hit by Chargers cornerback Marlon McCree. He started as wide-out in both of Cincinnati's following victories against the New Orleans Saints and the Cleveland Browns.
Houshmandzadeh finished the 2006 season with 90 receptions for 1,081 yards and 9 touchdowns, all career highs. His 90 receptions and 9 touchdown catches led his team. He and Chad Johnson also became the first Bengals teamates ever to each record over 1,000 receiving yards in the same season.
[edit] Andy Furman incident
Andy Furman, a sports commentator on Cincinnati's 700 WLW (700 AM) was fired on November 1, 2006 for calling T. J. Houshmandzadeh a racist on the air. On October 5, 2006, Houshmandzadeh failed to appear for a paid appearance on the show the previous evening. The next evening, Furman, a New York City native, alleged that he heard from another source that Houshmandzadeh called him a "punk-ass white boy" for criticizing the no-show. Houshmandzadeh has denied making the comment. [3]
[edit] Correct pronunciation
T.J. Houshmandzadeh's name pops up in an NFL fantasy football television commercial where a fantasy player cannot pronounce his surname properly (hoosh-mand-zaa-deh), with words like "Houshmazilla", "Houshmazode", and even to "Houshyamomma". [1]
Teammate Chad Johnson also introduced him as "T. J. Who's-your-momma" on television during an ESPN Monday night pre-season game on August 28, 2006.[2]
In Electronic Arts' Madden NFL series of games, T.J. Houshmandzadeh's surname is truncated to "Houshmandz." It can be expanded to twelve characters by the user, but not the fourteen characters required to spell it correctly. This peculiarity also occurs with Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger.
[edit] Personal life
The pony-tailed T.J. Houshmandzadeh is of mixed Persian and African American ancestry. He is named after his father, a native Iranian, who left his family and returned to Iran in the mid-1980s. Houshmandzadeh says he recalls nothing of his biological father and knows only what he looks like from photographs. Despite being raised by his mother, he took on his father's surname rather than his mother's, Johnson.
In the offseason, Houshmandzadeh resides in Los Angeles with his wife, Kaci, and his two daughters, Karrington and Kennedi.
Although he tends to keep his faith private, Houshmandzadeh mentioned in an interview immediately after the September 11, 2001 attacks that he is a Christian and not a Muslim. He is a fan of Compton rapper The Game. [4]
[edit] References
- ^ TJ "Whosyourmomma". Retrieved on September 1, 2006.
- ^ Kevin Goheen. Chad has TD celebration up sleeve. The Cincinnati Post. Retrieved on September 1, 2006.
