Sunday night, Jonathan Joseph became the 9th Bengal arrested in 14 months for possession of marijuana in Boone County, Kentucky. He was riding in a car with a woman who had a suspended license and when she was pulled over, policed demanded to search his Super Bowl logo bag which contained the illegal substance. Joseph will not be suspended by the league because this is his first offense, but will it be his last?
Here's the list of Bengals that bungled the law:
Chris Henry
Eric Steinbach
Deltha O'Neal
Odell Thurman
Matthias Askew
A.J. Nicholson
Reggie McNeal
Frostee Rucker
Jonathan Joseph
Everyone around Cincinnati who calls themselves Bengals faithful want to know why this has happened and when is it going to stop. I have looked at all of these players and compared them to each other and one thing remained constant. It's not that they are all young players who don't know how to handle the fame that comes with being a professional football player. O'Neal and Steinbach are veterans, they should know better right? What remains constant is that they are all players that have been brought to Cincinnati under Marvin Lewis as head coach, drafted or free agents.
When he arrived in Cincinnati in 2003, he wanted to finally bring a winning team back to the city that has been starved of gridiron success for so long. He knew that the city wanted a winning team, and they wanted one so quickly that it generated a lot of pressure on the new Lewis Regime in the front office. In response to that pressure, Marvin went to players with huge potential but huge risks in order to satisfy the Bengals fans that longed for the playoffs, prime time games, and eventually the Super Bowl. That decision worked temporarily, carrying the Bengals all the way to their first playoff birth since the first Bush administration. However, the decision backfired so hard that it brought the team into a tailspin that lead to another average 8-8 season. Does all of the blame rest on Marvin? No, but half of it does. After all, wasn't there a slogan that read, "In Marvin We Trust?" That trust is dangerously close to being broken.
The other half of the blame rests squarely on the shoulders of the nine players on that list. No one else on the roster can be blamed for it. What bothers me is that none of them, I repeat, NONE of them have came forward publicly and apologized to the team, the city, and Mike Brown for the disgrace and humiliation that it has been brought on us. Another guy in the league that got in trouble recently for violating the steroids policy, Shawne Merriman of the San Diego Chargers, held a press conference to apologize to the city of San Diego and the Chargers organization for "being a distraction, especially the critical time we're going through as a team." He even dropped his appeal of the suspension so he could come back in time for their important match-up against the division rival Denver Broncos. Merriman received a lot of negative press about his steroid use, but at least he did the right thing by admitting he was wrong and I salute him for that. I will gain some confidence that the Bengals will rise from the ashes and commit themselves to winning when at least one of the nine uses Merriman as an example and tells the city that he is sorry and it won't happen again. It seems to me like none of them care enough about what it means to wear that orange and black uniform on Sundays and the traditions they are upholding. None of them care enough about representing the city and giving it an outstanding national image. Until I see some of the players start to care, I will not be convinced that this team can win no matter how much Marvin promises to make the arrests stop.
Here's the list of Bengals that bungled the law:
Chris Henry
Eric Steinbach
Deltha O'Neal
Odell Thurman
Matthias Askew
A.J. Nicholson
Reggie McNeal
Frostee Rucker
Jonathan Joseph
Everyone around Cincinnati who calls themselves Bengals faithful want to know why this has happened and when is it going to stop. I have looked at all of these players and compared them to each other and one thing remained constant. It's not that they are all young players who don't know how to handle the fame that comes with being a professional football player. O'Neal and Steinbach are veterans, they should know better right? What remains constant is that they are all players that have been brought to Cincinnati under Marvin Lewis as head coach, drafted or free agents.
When he arrived in Cincinnati in 2003, he wanted to finally bring a winning team back to the city that has been starved of gridiron success for so long. He knew that the city wanted a winning team, and they wanted one so quickly that it generated a lot of pressure on the new Lewis Regime in the front office. In response to that pressure, Marvin went to players with huge potential but huge risks in order to satisfy the Bengals fans that longed for the playoffs, prime time games, and eventually the Super Bowl. That decision worked temporarily, carrying the Bengals all the way to their first playoff birth since the first Bush administration. However, the decision backfired so hard that it brought the team into a tailspin that lead to another average 8-8 season. Does all of the blame rest on Marvin? No, but half of it does. After all, wasn't there a slogan that read, "In Marvin We Trust?" That trust is dangerously close to being broken.
The other half of the blame rests squarely on the shoulders of the nine players on that list. No one else on the roster can be blamed for it. What bothers me is that none of them, I repeat, NONE of them have came forward publicly and apologized to the team, the city, and Mike Brown for the disgrace and humiliation that it has been brought on us. Another guy in the league that got in trouble recently for violating the steroids policy, Shawne Merriman of the San Diego Chargers, held a press conference to apologize to the city of San Diego and the Chargers organization for "being a distraction, especially the critical time we're going through as a team." He even dropped his appeal of the suspension so he could come back in time for their important match-up against the division rival Denver Broncos. Merriman received a lot of negative press about his steroid use, but at least he did the right thing by admitting he was wrong and I salute him for that. I will gain some confidence that the Bengals will rise from the ashes and commit themselves to winning when at least one of the nine uses Merriman as an example and tells the city that he is sorry and it won't happen again. It seems to me like none of them care enough about what it means to wear that orange and black uniform on Sundays and the traditions they are upholding. None of them care enough about representing the city and giving it an outstanding national image. Until I see some of the players start to care, I will not be convinced that this team can win no matter how much Marvin promises to make the arrests stop.
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