Jackson: Chad didn't hit Lewis

Former Bengals wide receivers coach Hue Jackson, now Baltimore's quarterbacks coach, was interviewed over the weekend on Sirius NFL Radio. The topic of former Bengal lineman Shaun Smith's comment came up: Smith, now with the Browns, told a meeting of Browns fans in Maryland that Bengals wide receiver Chad Johnson was involved in an altercation during halftime of the Bengals' playoff loss to the Steelers in January 2006.

"No, he's not accurate," Jackson said of Smith's comments. "I've heard about it, obviously; someone called me yesterday to mention it to me. And if Shaun did say that I'm a little surprised because, first, Shaun doesn't work in Cincinnati anymore. Shaun works for Cleveland, and I don't know how that would come back up again when it has been dead now for a couple of years.

" To shed light on it I'll say the same thing I said before. Chad Johnson never hit Marvin Lewis. Chad Johnson never hit me. Chad Johnson never put anybody in a headlock. Chad Johnson was very emotional at halftime of that game. The true story to all that was Chad had an IV in his arm and me, and him were talking about plans for the second half and he got emotional because he said, 'Hey, coach, without Carson (Palmer) I'm not going to be able to get the ball.'

"And that's what it was and I told him, `Well, then you need to tell (offensive coordinator) Coach (Bob) Bratkowski that.' And he ripped the IV out of his arm, and it's like anything else, you see blood coming out of a person's arm people think the worst. And he went from there to go into the locker room to let Coach Lewis know that, 'Hey, look, I want the ball.' And that was it. And when he opened the door he stumbled out of the training room so he was flailing and people think that he was swinging on people. Chad wasn't swinging on anybody. Chad would not hit Marvin Lewis, and Chad sure would not hit me. So that is not what happened and I'm very disappointed that now, even after two years, we have to discuss this again. But that is exactly what happened."