Those Bungals

It's hard to be a Bengals fan. Well, okay, it isn't because I live in Viking country . . . and if there is a team that rivals the Bungals for screw ups, it's the Vikes (Gary Anderson wide right, the Love Boat scandal, Demetrius Underwood, 41-0 'they had out signals' loss to the Giants, Drew Pearson last minute touchdown grab, Troy Williamson, DJ Dozier, Darrin Nelson . . .). But it's still hard. The Bungals have a franchise quarterback.  I think there are few people in the league who would argue that. Penny-pinchers though they are, the Bungals shelled out millions to make him the highest paid qb in the league toward the end of '05.  Then to protect him, they shelled out millions more to extend the contracts of their stellar offensive tackles (both high first rough draft picks). Things looked up. However, keeping with the Bungals tradition, Willie Anderson, one of those stellar tackles, began to be plagued by injuries and missed much of the '06 and '07 seasons before being cut.  Levi Jones, the other tackle, had the same problem.   To remedy this they decided to take a tackle with the sixth pick this year. And who do they choose? The logical choice would have been Eugene Monroe.  He had a solid pedigree.  He was so good in college that Virginia played a future first round draft pick, Branden Albert, who would play tackle in the NFL, at guard!  Monroe earned All-American honors his senior season. Instead of Monroe, they chose Andre Smith.  Now to be fair, he was the #1 player in the country at his position (and a coveted position at that) for the majority of his junior year.  He played for the #1 team in the country (until they choked against Florida in the SEC title game).   He was a sure fire high first round draft pick. Then disaster struck. For reasons that were unclear at the time (now we know it was for contacting an agent), Smith was deemed ineligible for the Crimson Tide's Sugar Bowl game. Suddenly, the #1 player in the country was not such a sure thing. Then came his early decision to enter the NFL.  Then his disastrous performance at the scouting combine (he left early).  Then the joke that was his Alabama pro day where he ran the 40 without his shirt on (you don't want to see a 350 pound man run anywhere without his shirt on - let alone a 40 yard sprint with all things flipping and flopping). He rebounded a bit with his personal workouts for NFL clubs and he had an excellent recommendation from his coach, Nick Sabal, (ironically, the man who told anyone who would listen not to draft his then player from Michigan State, Demetrius Underwood). The Bengals could have had Monroe.  But no, in true Bungal fashion, they took Smith. Again, in true Bungal fashion, they dragged their feet in negotiations and the fatty missed 31 days of training camp (a sure sign of disaster for rookies). The sticking point seemed to be a clause in the Bengals' contract that stipulated that Smith must weigh in under 340 pounds.  Otherwise, he loses a lot of money. Now, a normal person would think, why not just draft a player, like Monroe, where you wouldn't have to worry about his weight? Now in true Bengal fashion, the fatty signs his contract late and in one of his first practices, the guy manages to break his foot in a non-contact drill! Typical Bungal luck. This is the team who finally seemed to do the right thing and traded up to the #1 pick 14 years ago to draft Ki-Jana Carter, only to have him blow his knee out in his first pre-season game and never live up to his potential.  Or the team that took Charles Fisher out of West Virginia to play corner.  But on his first defensive series of his career, he tore his knee up and never played again.  Or Kenny Irons, who the took out of Auburn, who tore his knee up in a pre-season game and had his career cut short! But fatboy will recover and some time be inserted into the starting line up.  At which time their franchise quarterback will be crushed. Now, the question has to be asked - for a franchise that is a laughingstock, why not try and do something right?  For once????