Now Big Willie is going around the Bengal's official word and telling reporters what actually is going on with his heel. And I think it may be time to start worrying about how available and effective he'll be this year. I'm not saying he won't be ready. I'm just saying that his injury is more serious than the team let on.

I asked if anyone else was worried about this two weeks ago. Well, how about now?

And I'm annoyed that Willie had to tell us because the team refuses to be forthright with their fans. There's no player that tells the truth, good or bad, more than Willie. I have so much respect for him because of that. I am not glad that the team I love isn't going to tell me when something major is going on with one of my favorite players.

There's hope that Willie will be available when the games start counting, but I think we need to be realistic. He's played at the top of his sport for a long time now, and has taken some serious punishment. Maybe we should appreciate it when he can play now, because it may not be that much longer.


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Really, what else could explain why he always, consistently, ignores or runs down the Bengals? For those who are unaware, one of King's first jobs after he graduated from Ohio University (Go Bobcats) was to cover the Bengals for the Cincinnati Post. And based on his career at Sports Illustrated, he must have had a horrible time when he was here. How else do you explain how he "covers" the Bengals?

As some of you may know, we here at WhoDeyFans have a certain opinion of King. But when we disagree with him, we try to do so with, you know, facts.

If somebody did call him a fat idiot back when he was here, congratulations. You were the first of what I'm sure is many. And you were right.

What has gotten my wrath from King today is his list of the current Dream Team. Granted, these lists aren't really about anything other than trying to drum up some site traffic. Which is why I'm not going to link to it. If you want to publish crap to try and get people to visit your site, Sports Illustrated, I don't want to make it easy for people to come to your site. Let me know when you decide to start actually covering the game.

Anyway, what's got me worked up is that he went out of his way to not choose a single Bengal for his Dream Team for this year. The big omissions, in my mind, were no Carson Palmer (his final choice for QB was Vince Young) and no Chad Johnson (Mike Furrey? Mike Furrey!!??)

I don't know what to say, so I'll let the numbers talk for me.

2006 Season------TD------INT-----CMP%-----Rating
Carson Palmer------28-------13-----62.3%------93.9
Vince Young---------12-------13-----51.5%------66.7

The story on Young is that when he was made the starter he "elevated the team." But that's just it, a story, and as a writer, King loves stories more than he loves the truth. The other thing about Young is that he can make things happen with his legs. I'll admit, he does have that over Carson, but show me the last running quarterback who won a Super Bowl, and I'll give you one of Michael Vick's prized puppies.

I'd take three seasons worth of impressive-to-awesome football over 15 games of mediocre football with legs and a story.

But, hey that's me.

Oh, and the other thing:

2006-------------REC-----YDS------TDS-------Google searches it took
--------------------------------------------------until I figured out who he was
Chad Johnson-----87------1369-----7------------0
Mike Furrey------98------1086-----6------------1

More catches for less yards and one fewer touchdown. Sounds to me like defense don't key in on one guy because he does less with the ball when he has it.

Plus Mike Furrey's a year older than Chad, but has been in the league two years fewer. And outside of last season, in his other four seasons, he has a grand total of 21 catches.

One more thing: Mark Furrey plays for Detroit. Yeah, I didn't know that either. And based on his picks for his "Dream Team," I wonder if Peter King knows that.


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Safety Madieu Williams and wide receiver Chad Johnson exchanged punches in two different incidents during the afternoon practice.

How it began:
The first came after Johnson caught a pass in front of cornerback Brandon Williams. He wheeled and whipped the ball at Madieu Williams and after it whizzed by, Madieu went after him and they tangled. After a pause, Johnson charged him and had to be restrained by head coach Marvin Lewis and defensive line coach Jay Hayes with Lewis getting his hat knocked off in the melee.

Tale of the tape:


Chad Johnson
29
6-1
192
32¼-inch arm length


Madieu Mohammed Williams
27
6-1
203
31 3/4-inch arm length

Talk about an even match up. Chad has the slightest of advantages in reach and another one in speed, but Maideu has him by 11 pounds. You also have to take into account that Madieu is used to hitting. Chad is used to being hit. How do you call this one? I’m guessing that if the helmets came off, and they go at it one-on-one, Madieu busts some of that gold out of CJ85’s mouth.

Labels: Chad, Fight, Madieu

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Preseason Week 2 – Saints

Keys to the Game.
This is the first preseason game in Paul Brown Stadium which is good for 2 things, 1) Catching up with the tailgaters and fans in your section who you haven’t seen since January, and 2) Drunk hillbillies. Last year, the first preseason game was an 8:00PM start on a Monday night. At 6:00PM, I saw a total grit, shirtless, about 40 years old, in cut off jean shorts, and on all fours throwing up face down in the parking lot. I thought to myself, “Wow, puking uncontrollably at 6 o’clock on a Monday, I really hope Dale and his whole family are sitting right next to me all season.” Actually, I was a little jealous that I wasn’t that fired up for the season. Lets get to the keys.

1) Injuries: As we all witnessed first hand last week with Kenny Irons, injuries in the preseason can change the entire outlook of the season. Last year during the Bengals first home preseason game, Clinton Portis of the Redskins dislocated his shoulder making a meaningless tackle on a meaningless interception. He wasn’t himself for much of the season. This year Drew Brees comes to town, and he knows all too well about meaningless injuries. Two seasons ago he blew out his throwing shoulder in the last game of the year, and this past pro bowl he dislocated his elbow in what is supposed to be a light contact exhibition. It’s a sad fact of the NFL that when 300+ pound people are running around, major injuries can happen at any moment, even in the preseason. With the Bengals having more established starters and less position battles, the starters should be out of the game early so we can see what the Bengals have with their backups and rookies.

2) The return of Simmons and Kaesviharn: Simmons and Kaesviharn make their first trip to the jungle since being signed as free agents by New Orleans in the offseason. Simmons was a first round draft pick (17th Overall) of the Bengals in 1998 after being a 2 time All American at North Carolina. In his 9 seasons as a Bengal, he finished in the top 2 in team tackles every year except 2 seasons which were shortened by injury. Add to that 23 sacks, 11 interceptions and 2 TDs; the most memorable being the home opener Sunday night game in 2004 where Simmons’ INT return for a TD allowed the Bengals to beat the Dolphins 16-13 in Carson Palmer’s first victory. Simmons also was the silent leader of the defense on bad teams that had vocal malcontents Corey Dillon and Carl Pickens. While Takeo Spikes was widely popular due to his Kung Fu dance after big plays, Simmons quiet playmaking and leadership helped set the tone for the Marvin Lewis Bengal turnaround. If only the Bengals could get that production out of all of their first round draft picks. Simmons was cut early in the offseason in a surprise move by the Bengals. However, Simmons has slowed with age and the Bengals could no longer afford to pay him a defensive leader’s salary.
Kaesviharn will probably get a bigger ovation in his return due mostly to his status as the undrafted white guy underdog story. Kaesviharn was a great signing as a utility DB and special teams player after toiling around in the XFL and arena leagues. However, injuries in the defensive backfield the past few years forced Kaesviharn onto the field more than the Bengals could afford. His liabilities were exposed and the Bengals were forced to draft 3 DBs this year to help bolster their DB depth.
Its too bad that guys that played so hard for the Bengals in bad times will not be with the team to realize the success. But that is the way it goes in the NFL, and once players go north of 30 years old, its tough to keep any job.

3) Tailgating vehicles: First game means a first look at all of the new tailgating accessories. Every year many Bengals fans are proud to debut anything they could put together in the offseason. This does not exclude us here at Whodeyfans where a minibus was purchased specifically for the Bengals. The first preseason game tailgate will have an air of one-up-manship as people care less about the game and more about the tailgate. Once everyone gets over the first look shock of the new sites, it will be time to come together and be ready for the real games.

What you do want to see: Bengals football in the jungle for the first time since January.
What you don’t want to see: Dale and his family in your section.


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Since this is a site talking about the NFL, and the Bengals play the Falcons next week, we need to make our obligatory Michael Vick dogfighting comment. I think the NFL is thankful that PETA is a very vocal political group and that today’s media has very little to do with journalism, and very much to do with violence, shock value and ratings. The media focus so far has been on PETA protests, showing video of random dogfights, and commenting on how divisive the case is racially. The story has the media’s two favorite ratings boosters, racial tension and violence. They real story is being missed here, and it has nothing to do with race, and very little with dogfighting. If anyone reporting the story actually read the indictment, they would see that the minor charge is dogfighting. The feds do not care or get involved in animal cruelty cases usually. The major charge is “conspiracy to travel in interstate commerce in aid of unlawful activities (“Travel Act”) to promote, manage, etc. a business enterprise involving gambling;”, legal jargon for running an interstate underground gambling ring. That charge is the feds bread and butter because of the ties to organized crime. In a sport whose popularity is driven by gambling, is it a good thing to have your marquee player involved in an underground gambling ring, be it dogfighting or anything else? And when I say the NFL is driven by gambling, how many people reading this blog pore over the injury reports weekly in order to set up your fantasy team? And all that effort is to win a league with a $50 buy in. Imagine the lengths high stakes gamblers in organized crime will go to in order to win NFL bets. Could these gamblers have been shoulder to shoulder with Vick at one of these dogfights? In light of the NBA referee scandal, how nervous do you think those in the NFL corporate offices are right now that some nosy reporter will start asking how involved Vick is in gambling and dogfighting’s ties to organized crime? I’m sure the NFL would much rather look out their office windows and see middle aged PETA housewives jumping up and down holding pictures of their labrador retrievers.


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A recent letter to the editor in the Enquirer raised the question of which games to take children to. I think that this is a really good way to look at it, that some games are rated PG and some are rated R.

It reminded me of a conversation I had with one of the partners at my company last year. He had told me that he had been a season ticket holder for years, and got the tickets to take his sons to the games. But he finally got rid of the tickets after the 2005 season because he felt that Bengals games weren't the right places for his sons to hang out.

I immediately wondered if perhaps he'd been sitting near me for the playoff game against Pittsburgh. I uttered a few choice words for most of the game.

What I like about this letter to the editor, though, is that it's not calling on Bengals fans to shape up. It's telling parents that some games get the crowd riled up so much that you might not want your children to be there. This is probably more of a common sense solution than the jerk hotline.

Money quote:

I'm not condoning the drunk taking his shirt off screaming about what he's going to do to other people's sorry butts. I'm just saying it happens.

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