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Huit-cinq est ici! Chad Johnson shows up to Alouettes’ rookie camp after McDonald’s lunch, tweets with P.K. Subban, reporters

Andrew Bucholtz

Get your poutine-flavoured popcorn ready, because we're one step closer to seeing former NFL star Chad "Ochocinco" Johnson actually suit up in a CFL game. Johnson hasn't played high-level football since he was cut by the Miami Dolphins in preseason camp in 2012 (following a domestic battery arrest), but he trained hard (with fellow former NFLer and current ESPN analyst Cris Carter) for a free-agent camp opportunity with the Montreal Alouettes and earned a contract with the team. There were still questions about if Johnson would actually make it to the CFL, especially considering the visa issues some players with criminal records have had, but he was able to earn a Canadian work visa, and he showed up to the Alouettes' rookie camp Wednesday at Bishop's University in Sherbrooke (albeit a couple of hours late thanks to having lunch at McDonald's.) Johnson's Twitter commentary on the whole thing is pretty hilarious, including his discovery of a McDonald's inside a Walmart, his complaints about the weather, his official welcome from Montreal Canadiens' star P.K. Subban, and his adoption of both poutine and Canadiens' trash-talk (language warning):

So, yeah, this is going to be quite the experience. (Johnson's already doing a much better job on Twitter than the guy he's arguably replacing, though.) There's still a ways to go before he suits up in a preseason or regular-season game (if we even get to games on time, not a certainty given the ongoing CBA dispute and strike vote), of course, and the Alouettes' crowded receiving corps won't be the easiest to crack, especially for a 36-year-old who hasn't played high-level football in a couple of years. At his peak, though, Johnson was one of the NFL's top receivers; we'll see what he has left, but it's certainly quite possible he could prove to be a valuable player for the Alouettes, and maybe he'll even follow in the footsteps of that other NFL star named Johnson who played for Montreal. At any rate, his time in Canada will be entertaining.