Bengals' Johnson channels passion in positive way

	Chad Johnson caught eight passes for 189 yards and a touchdowns in the Bengals' loss to the Colts. Andy Lyons/Getty Images
	MAILBAG Peter King will answer your questions each week in Monday Morning Quarterback: Tuesday Edition. Your name: Your e-mail address: Your home town: Enter your question:

CINCINNATI -- "I love the hell out of 81,'' Chad Johnson was telling me last night from his cell phone. "I love the fool. I just hate what's going with him right now. I don't get involved in any of that. He just called. When we get off the phone, I've got to call him and see how he's doing.''

I was driving away from Paul Brown Stadium after Indianapolis' barrel-of-fun 45-37 win over the Bengals last night. (Barrel of fun, I guess, unless you're a Bengal or a Bengals fan.) Johnson was with his family at a downtown hotel, getting ready to call his friend Terrell Owens. "We talk every day,'' Johnson said.

I am what you might call old school. Not Paternoesque old school, but the latter-day old school. I hate degrading crap on the football field. The taunting, the celebrating six-yard gains, the gravedigging, the throat-slashing, the T.O.-stomping-on-a-star, the T.O.-reaming-out-of-quarterbacks-and-coaches. That stuff I hate. Chad Johnson I like. Over the past couple of years, I've thought he needed to be slapped a couple of times, like when he lost his mind on the sidelines one game because he wasn't getting thrown the ball enough.

Johnson and Owens are demonstrative guys who want the ball badly. Owens plays angry. Johnson plays with joy. That's the difference right there. Maybe that's because Owens is angry and Johnson is happy. Like Sunday. Owens sat home somewhere instead of helping the Eagles get out of this 4-6 hole they're in. Johnson had the biggest day of his career: eight catches, 189 yards, one touchdown, one marriage proposal.

Was that hilarious or what? Johnson scored on a 68-yard bomb from Carson Palmer late in the first quarter -- a great catch and run play. Sprinting out of the end zone, he curled around, ran toward the cheerleaders around the 10-yard line, took his helmet off, ran to the nearest Ben-Gal, dropped down on his knee, took her hand and said, "Will you marry me?'' She, and 66,000 other people (and a few Colts, I might guess) chuckled. "Last Tuesday,'' Johnson said, "I went to the head of the cheerleaders and told her when I scored against the Colts, this is what I was going to do, regardless of what side it happened on. So I told her to have the cheerleaders ready. It was just my way of trying to have fun this week.''

And it was fun, like his RiverDance in Chicago and some of his other gems. "I will never degrade an opponent,'' he said. "What I do is only for fun. My goal is for people to come to games and to say, 'What's he going to do today?' It makes the game fun. I respect the game. I love the game. I have fun playing, and I want fans to have fun watching.''