He sounds like he might be intoxicated or something.
Man what a mess that team is in. One 11-5 season brought out all the “lifelong” Bengals fans with their shiny new Palmer jerseys, and now they’ve crawled back into the woodwork.
Housh wants a new big contract - I don’t know if they’ve got the cash to pay. Chad is clearly severely unhappy and Marvin had to threaten to force him to sit out the length of his contract. Their #3 receiver was arrested again and cut. Their defense isn’t getting any better, and the receiving core is suffering some major problems. Worst of all it seems like the inmates run the asylum.
Man, with the AFC North schedule, the bungles and rats are in for a rough year. Anyone want to take action on whether Ray Ray or Chad is the first guy to stab/punch their coach?
While it sucks about Henry, it isn’t very surprising. He was one of our “character risk” draftees that sadly will now never pan out. The guy is a striaght-up knucklehead of the highest order.
As far as Houshmanzadeh, he hasn’t been talking about a holdout…he skipped voluntaries last season too, and played his best year. TJ will get a new contract from the Bengals, and sooner rather than later.
As for Chad, as much of a prima donna “me-first” crybaby that he is, has already stated that he’ll be in camps when he’s supposed to be there. The Bengals have him by the balls. They already reworked his contract when they didn’t have to a few years ago, and since it was frontloaded, Chad now wants more money. Tough shit, Chad. Quit banging your spoon on the highchair and play football!
Marvin had a presser a few days ago where he stated that Chad will either play for the Bengals next season or retire. But he also softened his stance a bit and said he’d “take bullets for Chad”, meaning he’d help him repair the damage to his image with the fans here in Cincinnatti.
Overall, this sucks for my team, but all it really does is force the Bengals to draft a WR in the first three rounds now instead of expending that extra pick on defense.
Honestly, Marvin’s conference gave me hope. He’s basically saying we’re going back to smashmouth football, which is what the AFCN is supposed to be about. We got way too pass-happy the last couple years and it didn’t get us far as we lacked a running game (for a lack of effort AND oline/RB injuries) and our defense was shoddy.
I expect the defense to have a surprising turnaround with our FA acquisitions, players returning from injuries (most of our LB’s) and draft picks (Sedrick Ellis, please!).
I’ll put fifty on Stabbin’ Ray. John Harbaugh looks like the sort of guy a reasonable man might want to throttle after a few weeks. At least Marvin Lewis has an icy stare that might give Chad a moment to pause.
I can’t remember when they hold that, but Carson and Chad always do really well in those.
Are you perhaps insinuating that we have a “best shot”, “best bar brawler”, “best coach puncher” competition?
That’s an empty threat. According to the last CBA, the maximum you can deactivate a player for is four games. After four games, you have to either reactivate him or cut him. I believe you cannot bar any player from OTAs, training camp or preseason either.
This was snuck in after Keyshawn Johnson and later Terrell Owens were buried for the remainder of a season as a punishment. Though they still got paid, their free agent value was hurt because they weren’t able to play for so long. Out of sight, out of mind.
So, not sure where you heard that “sit for three years” thing, but if Marvin actually said it, he might want to brush up on the league rules.
The 4 games thing is, IIRC, the amount of time the team can punish someone without pay for some sort of infraction.
What Lewis said was that Chad can’t force the Bengals to trade or cut him - they have all the power. They can force him to either play for the Bengals or retire. He was threatning that if Chad sits out, the Bengals can still keep him on the roster for 3 years (IIRC they said 2011). So Chad can sit - and he’d get paid except for any performance bonuses - but he can’t force the Bengals to trade him.
Basically, he’s saying “go ahead, hold out, it won’t do anything, we have all the power” as a tool to try to keep him from holding out.
Again, that is not allowed. The rule was specifically instituted to prevent the situations that Keyshawn Johnson and Terrell Owens found themselves in. Neither of them had committed any infractions.
The teams sat both of them down for the rest of the season for no reason other than they were being a PITA. (“Conduct detrimental to the team.”) The latest CBA specifically prohibits this.
ETA: If Marvin is saying he’ll let Chad hold out for three years, that’s perfectly allowed. The way you’ve described it, though, is that Marvin has told him to shut up about being traded or they’ll sit him. They can’t sit him for more than four games. But Chad can sit himself out for the remainder of his contract if he wanted.
Marvin is wrong about one thing: he does not have all the power. Players can make a real headache of themselves within the rules, and as long as Chad keeps showing up, they’ll have to either suck it up or trade/cut him.
I think the confusion here is over deactivation without pay and simply not having them start a game. Chad Johnson has no right to be a starter - or even to be a game-day activation - while still being able to be carried on the roster. I think those other cases had the players not getting paid as punishment.
There are backups that spend the whole year on the roster without actually being activated on game day. They could do the same thing to Chad. They’d still have to pay him, although he’d miss out on performance/starting/etc bonuses.
No, they were paid. Don’t you remember the interview with Keyshawn Johnson that year? He was crowing about getting paid to lounge on his couch.
Terrell Owens was also paid by the Eagles. In both cases, the two wide receivers (why is it always wide receivers?) were barred from the training facilities, practices, and games, despite still getting paid and not serving any kind of punishment for an infraction.
The players union was rightfully pretty pissed about this new tactic, and wrote it into the next CBA that it couldn’t be done anymore.
If Marvin wants to spend one of his precious 53 slots on a guy he doesn’t intend to play, I think he’s crazy. But you’re right, Marvin can let Chad come to practices and sit in streetclothes on the sidelines during games if he wants.
Of course, so could the Eagles and Bucs, but the point is that Keyshawn and TO were huge distractions in the locker room, and management just wanted the headache to go away without letting them go play for a rival.
What I’m saying is that I think Chad is equally capable of being a massive distraction/headache, and if Marvin thinks he can just carry Chad on the 53-man roster without playing him and Chad will just sit there and be a model citizen, he’s fucking crazy.
In such a scenario, Chad could derail the entire franchise without breaking a single rule, and short of cutting/trading him, Marvin can’t do anything to keep Chad out of the locker room, away from practice, or off the sideline during games.
Marvin needs to rethink his whole “I have the power” strategy, because he doesn’t. And I guarantee Chad already knows it.
I think it’s a threat that he doesn’t intend to carry out. By trying to convince Chad it’s “play nice or retire”, he might get him to stop holding out and talking openly about wanting to be traded. I don’t think he would actually carry Chad on the roster for a few years uselessly, but he has to act like he’s willing to in order to get Chad to drop the requests for trades.
It’s all talk at this stage. Chad will probably play for the Bengals this year, but unless they start winning early, it won’t be happily.
Maybe Chad will sit out, and TJ sits out due to the contract issue, and Chris Henry got cut, and so the starting #1 WR for the Bengals becomes… let’s say Cedric Wilson. His 1 or 2 arrests (I forget) are way below the Bengals average.
A few things: TJ has never indicated that he’s holding out. And he will get a new deal from the Bengals, he’s good and works/plays hard.
Chad has said he’s going to show up, and odds are he’ll play. He loves his precious stats too much not to.
Finally, there are other teams in the NFL that have had just as many or more arrests than the Bengals since 2005. Why do you never hear of that? Because the Bengals are still perceived as the lowly team they once were in the 1990’s-early 2000’s.
No, he’d forfeit his game checks if he refused to play. He’d only get paid his roster bonus(es).
Anyway, Johnson and Whosyourmama will both be on the field by Week 1. For all his gaudy numbers last season, Housh is a complementary receiver and he knows it, and Johnson, for all his mouth-running, is a gamer.
Yeah, it was a damn shame to see that. I think Palmer will have a good year this year. Nice Ewing Theory potential with Chad Johnson, assuming he’s gone.
These are the teams around or above the the number of Bengals players arrested since 2005. I only counted each player one time. Players names may have spelling errors as I was writing them down quickly
Vikings - 13
Bryant McKinnie
Darion Scott
Dwight Smith
Ronyell Whitaker
Cedric Griffin
Travis Taylor
Koren Robinson
Moe Williams
Daunte Culpepper
Fred Smoot
Marcus Johnson
Kevin Williams
Kelly Campbell
Jags - 12
Brat Hawkins
Stockar McDougle
Justin Durant
Richard Collier
Khalif Barnes
Ahmad Carrol
Gerald Sensebaugh
Charles Sharon
Bobby McCrae
Brian Williams
Reggie Williams
Tommy Hendricks
Titans - 10
Lendale White
Adam Jones
Robert Reynolds
Randy Starks
Cortland Finnegan
Albert Haynesworth
Tyrone Calico
Brad Hopkins
Tank Williams
Samari Rolle
Broncos - 10
Marcus Thomas
Andre Hall
Daniel Graham
Todd Saurbrun
Darrell Hackney
Brandon Marshal
David Kircus
DJ williams
Sam Brandon
Willie Middlebrooks
Dolphins - 9
Matt Roth
Chris Chambers
Kelly Campbell
Fred Evans
Joey Porter
Keith Traylor
Damien McInstosh
Randy McMichael
Quinton Williams
Bengals - 9
Chris Henry
Quincy Wilson
AJ Nicholson
Jonathon Joseph
Deltha O’neal
Reggie McNeal
Odell Thurman
Eric Steinbach
Mathias Askew
Chargers - 8
Anthony Walters
Ryan Krause
Terrence Kiel
Cletis Gordon
Markus Curry
Steve Foley
Shawn Phillips
Derrick Robinson
Colts - 8
Darrell Reid
Dhominic Rhodes
DeDe Dorsey
Cato June
Vincent Burns
Nick Harper
Mike Doss
Montae Reagor
Steelers - 8
Cedrick Wilson
James Harrison
Najeh Davenport
Richard Siegler
Deshea Townsend
Barret Brooks
Santomio Holmes
Trai Essex
It’s also well known, that a member of the Bengals is much more likely to be arrested in Cincinnati then say, a Cowboy in Dallas… Some cities have more of a ‘look the other way’ policy towards athletes than others. Not that I agree with that, but it is how it is.
The numbers for the Vikings are hugely inflated by the loveboat scandal… and the organization has jettisoned almost all of those players.
And the Bengals players are particularly well known not for merely getting arrested, but getting arrested time and time again. These figures would be a lot more interesting if you included the total number of lockups, as opposed to just the number of players who have, at some point, run afoul of the law.
Matthias Askew was exonerated in a wrongful tasering lawsuit…
Chris Henry got arrested five times (does that answer your “Bengal players get arrested time and time again” issue?)
So…the numbers are HUGELY inflated by the Chris Henry issue as well…and Steinbach got a BUI and is now a happy member of the Browns…
