Larry Brown Sports

The Cincinnati Bengals will be featured on HBO’s “Hard Knocks” training camp TV program this season, according to a few reports.

Paul Domowitch of the Philly Daily News first reported that the Bengals would be the featured team, but he later deleted his tweet. Joe Reedy of the Cincinnati Enquirer says he confirmed through league sources that the Bengals will be featured again. Reedy expects an official announcement to come sometime in the next few weeks.

The Bengals were featured on “Hard Knocks” in 2009 and would be the second team to be featured more than once (the Dallas Cowboys are the other). This will be head coach Marvin Lewis’ third time being involved with the show. He was the defensive coordinator of the Baltimore Ravens when they were featured in the premier season of the show in 2001.

Reedy says the Bengals had been approached about doing the show again in recent years, but Lewis was not too interested. Apparently he feels more comfortable this time.

Though the Bengals do not have as many troublemakers on the squad as they once did, they still have Pacman Jones, who recently was charged with assaulting a woman at a bar. Maybe HBO is hoping they can strike some more TV gold like last season when Chad Johnson’s arrest and release by the Miami Dolphins was featured on the show.

When players leave the Bengals organization, they are happy to get away from what has ultimately been a losing environment. In his first five NFL seasons, Texans cornerback Johnathan Joseph was stuck in Cincinnati. The team finished with a winning record only twice during that span and failed to win a playoff game. Last year, Joseph was able to escape to Houston and join a contender. In fact, his new team beat his old squad in the opening round of the playoffs. But Joseph was thrilled to get away for reasons that span beyond wins and losses.

“The first thing about Houston is it’s an organization run from a different perspective,” he said during an interview with HeraldOnline.com. “In Cincy, the team lives off money it earns from football. Houston’s owner has other business interests and he controls the money. Numerous things that go on such as the way Houston interacts with my family; we’re treated in a first-class way. They helped us when my wife lost our baby daughter in a miscarriage.

“But they help with anything you ask of them because they are a very caring organization with positive attitudes about its players. In Cincy, we’re told how much Gatorade we could take home. In Houston we get what we request. You get soap and deodorant at your request. You don’t have a roommate on road trips.”

Professional athletes love being pampered, and it sounds like Cincy is not the place to be if you want first-class treatment. Those of you who have seen the movie “Moneyball” are probably thinking about how the A’s charged $1 for soda in the clubhouse — something that supposedly irritated the players. Clearly, it is not just the fans on their death bed who dislike the Bengals organization.

H/T Sports by Brooks Live
Photo credit: Brett Davis-US PRESSWIRE

This has truly been a strange year in the NFL.  Granted, every year is strange in the world of professional football.  We have teams that start out smoking hot and finish the season 6-10.  We have others that start out 1-4 and scratch and claw their way into the playoffs.  This season, however, seems to be more of a mystery than ever — particularly in the AFC.  The Packers are the clear-cut favorite to win the NFC and the Super Bowl at this point, but what about the rest?  With the AFC up for grabs, here’s a look at the teams that are in the hunt. We start with the least likely to play in Indianapolis on Feb. 5 and end with the most.

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When a sports team or figure is mentioned in a person’s obituary, it is usually in the form of either the ultimate compliment or an epic insult. Last week, a Minnesota man’s obituary expressed displeasure with a certain Minnesota Twin.  If I were to tell you the Cincinnati Bengals were mentioned in someone’s obituary, my guess is you might already have an idea of the context.

On Tuesday, The Big Lead called our attention to the obituary of 95-year-old Saul Shuller, which can be read in its entirety on Legacy.com.  Shuller was apparently a Bengals fan, and like almost any other Bengals fan he had grown tired of watching the team lose.  As a result, he considered being freed from the frustration of watching the Bengals to be one of the positive components of his demise.

“Accepting that the end was near, the funny grandfather and great-grandfather said earlier in the day there was an upside to death: at least he wouldn’t have to watch another Bengals loss.”

This is one of the many reasons Cincinnati has emerged as the black hole of professional football.  Marvin Lewis keeps his job year after year and the Bengals continue to miss the playoffs and play mediocre football on their best days.  Sports are supposed to be for our entertainment and enjoyment.  When people are glad they are dying so they no longer have to watch you play, it may be time to make a change.

Arizona Cardinals kicker Jay Feely stirred up the racial pot Tuesday tweeting about Carson Palmer’s retirement from the NFL. Here’s what he wrote:

Feely apparently is auditioning for a spot as a future talk show host after his NFL career ends, because going to the race card is an excellent way to ignite debate. Responding to his point, yes, I do believe most fans are more sympathetic to the plight of white players compared to black ones. However, this situation is different.

Much like Sportress of Blogitude wrote, I support any and all players’ efforts to escape Cincinnati. I don’t care if you’re white, black, Asian, Pacific-Islander, or Antarctican (is that such a thing?), I don’t wish anyone the misfortune of playing for that disaster of a franchise. Look, if man-bander Nick Lachey calls your franchise a joke, then you know it’s a bad situation. I really think something would be wrong with a person if they did not want out of Cincinnati.

The Bengals were recently ranked the worst franchise in professional sports by ESPN The Magazine, an extremely well-earned honor. That Cincinnati can’t see what they’ve done to deserve the title is further proof of how clueless they are. There was only so long Carson Palmer could take playing for them before he wanted out, and it’s a wonder he lasted as long as he did.

But he’s not the only one who feels that way.

Former two-time Outland Trophy winning center Dave Rimington is the latest player to rip on the organization, saying it’s like a black hole. Check out what the former Nebraska star offensive lineman told Big Ten Blog, as shared by Pro Football Talk:

“I went from one of the best organizations in college football to probably one of the worst organizations in the NFL,” Rimington said. “I went from a weight room that was half the size of a football field to a weight room that looked like a junior high weight room, and the strength coach didn’t want anybody to lift. … It was ridiculous the stuff we had to go through there. I just had to shake my head. It’s like the black hole of professional football.

“Good players go there and you never hear from them again.”

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Singer and performer Nick Lachey is a hardcore Cincinnati sports fan and actually almost bought the Reds several years ago. I used to call him a man-bander and think he was just a storefront fan posing as a hardcore guy, but I have to admit I was wrong. After reading his interview with SI’s Jimmy Traina earlier in the week, I have to say Lachey comes across as a true Cincinnati sports fan who knows his stuff.

The best part of the interview was when Traina asked what it’s like being a Bengals fan. As someone who has divorced from the team, I can relate and I agree 100% with Lachey’s answer. Here’s what he said:

“At one point, I tried to defend the team. But if you care about your city, your fanbase and ultimately your team, you can’t defend that ownership any longer. It’s a joke. I’ve been pretty vocal about saying there needs to be a change there. Quite frankly, I think Mike Brown would love nothing more than if this labor situation ended the season because then he wouldn’t have to pay any players, he can run scabs out there and make guaranteed money. For him, no season is a best-case scenario.”

It’s so true. You want to defend your team, but their ownership is a joke. They’re too cheap to get a new coach, too cheap to get a proper scouting department, and too cheap to get their first-round picks in camp on time. It is a joke there. I also agreed with Lachey about Ochocinco whose act in Cincinnati is played out. But the area I disagree with him on is Carson Palmer.

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