Fred Smoot is...Johann Cavalli

The Fred Smoot and Carlos Rogers show began during Smoot's group interview session today, when Rogers was heckling his fellow cornerback and rooting around in his locker.

"Man, I can't....What's wrong with you man?" Smoot said.

In fact, he got so rattled he attempted to end the interview, until a TV personality invited Smoot to interview Rogers on camera.

"Alright Carlos," Smoot began, "after having you a pick-six [last] week, what do you plan to do this week against Green Bay to back door that pick-six you just had against Detroit?"

"Pick six, again," Rogers said. "And have you mad at me, again."

"Is that a guarantee?" Smoot asked, but Rogers ended the session and walked away.

More importantly, earlier, I had spoken to Rogers about what he claimed was his new alter ego: "Johann Cavalli Valentino."

He said the name was an amalgamation, not a real person, "just a couple of names I put together" that served as "more of my business name."

"Fred calls me that occasionally," Rogers said. "Sometimes he don't like it, though, because he thinks it's his name. It can't be both our names."

True, that. Whose names served as his inspiration?

"Just a famous guy," Rogers said. "I forgot, what's his name? I know he got glasses out. That's my new name."

"Man, that's a Fred Smoot thing," Mike Sellers told me. "They've got some little crazy nicknames."

So I asked Smoot to clear up this confusing situation.

"First of all, he's not Johann, I am," Smoot said. "Johann is a name given to me by a legion of women. Physically, facially, I'm one of the gifted guys in the NFL. That's why they call me 'Johann.' 'Cavalli' came from me just being an established family guy, just one of those notable last names. You know, Cavalli. 'I'm a Cavalli!' First you're thinking, you know, 'maybe he's Italian' or something like that. That's all. But he's not Johann; I am Johann. 'Johann Cavalli' is my whole name. Valentino is a name I used to have when I was here the first time, that's when I was 'Sugar Ray Valentino.' Don't let this name dropping kill you."

"This guy is lying, this guy is lying," said Rogers, overhearing.

"Butts, I need you for a minute," Smoot said to the nearby Ladell Betts. "This guy's stealing all my names."

"Why, what happened?" asked Betts, the voice of reason.

"You know I'm Johann, right?" Smoot said.

"Yeah, I remember you used to go by Johann, why, what's up?" Betts asked.

"WELL WHY IS HE JOHANN?" Smoot shouted at Rogers. "If you are the prince, who am I?"

Then they laughed, left and began heckling Jason Campbell, who was addressing a massive press gathering. Then Sellers approached, told the still-speaking Campbell "I need you to rub my feet," and threw a shirt in his face as teammates called the quarterback various colorful names and whooped in his honor. This is why you want the home team to keep winning.

"We've got a wild group of guys," Campbell said. "It's a lot of different characters going on. You try to put all us together, it's like bringing a whole bunch of first graders together."

By Dan Steinberg |  October 10, 2007; 3:56 PM ET  | Category:  Redskins
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