If there isn’t anything else to this move then I might have to be a browns backer. Thurman was a playmaker. This news really makes me lose confidence in the coming season. I hope Rivers can pick up the slack.

Cut for missing WORK! Hey this guy has been gone for two YEARS. If you want your JOB then Work at it. We all have personal problems at times and deal with them in different ways. The way Thurman dealt with it has affected his job. IT HAPPENS!!! We are not all the same!
Lets STOP the BLAME game and crying for the po’boy. What a short memory we have with Thurman, as several times in the past (b4 suspension) it has been the same thing for not being here, “family matters!” Think back.
Stop the BROWN”S bashing BS!
If you need to BLAME, then its THURMAN

Wow… Brooks moved to SLB.. so Dhani is our MLB?

Thurman shouldn’t have been suspended for 2 years by the NFL. That’s his fault. The Bengals chose to keep the guy for 2 years while he was suspended, then cut him when he missed VOLUNTARY workouts because his grandmother died. Why didn’t they cut him when they found out he was suspended?

Both parties in this case are S-T-U-P-I-D.

If a team calls them voluntary, yet decides to keep track of attendance and holds lack of attendance against the player in question later, then they need to find a different description of the workouts.

You know. Like the word MANDATORY.

This kind of crap reminds me of the idiot Coughlin and his rules for being “late”. If you’re not at a team meeting 5 minutes early, he considers you late for the meeting.

Whatever happened to the K.I.S.S. method?

I find this quite shocking. I honestly thought it had to be a joke. There has to be more to the story other than the missing voluntary workouts for the funeral. One of two things-he is nowhere near being ready to play and the Bengals are cutting him like they would cut any player that was out of shape most likely not going to make the team, or they know something we don’t-like he’s been drinking—and they aren’t going to wait for another incident.

In either case, the timing is awkward and its a shame all the way around.

Even though Thurman’s probably classified in the NFL circles as a “low-character” guy, the Bengals decision to get rid of him is stupid. I’m sure the way they see it, they’re cleaning up the team’s image by getting rid of a guy who’s had problems in the past. But cutting a guy for missing voluntary workouts to attend his grandmother’s funeral? Come on. This has to be a tough time for Odell anyways, considering his grandmother was reportedly the one who raised him… talk about kicking a guy when he’s down. Especially after he’s spent the last two years trying to get back into the NFL and finally got reinstated.

I really hope there’s something else to this other than missing workouts. Odell has shown huge talent, and with this team’s linebacker situation, I can’t imagine that he’ll be easy to replace.

If I remember correctly, The Bengals blog- and Hobson, presumably, said, in advance of this past OTA, that Odell would not be in attendance precisely because of his grandmother’s passing. It was like they announced it in advance so that folks like us wouldn’t read all sorts of things into his not being there. When it was announced last year, just out of the blue, that Odell had been tagged with an unprecedented second year’s suspension, I was up in arms at the NFL and the Bengals for offering no explanation- it wouldn’t have to be specific just perhaps the nature of whatever the offense. Then, this. Fuck, man, this hurts. I just happened to hear the news on WLW a few minutes ago and it really took the wind out of my sails. If you go back to his initial offense and think about it, I don’t know anybody other than maybe a soldier or a pilot who actually loses their job over a DUI. I’m pissed.

I can just imagine how motivated Thurmond will be when (not if) he plays against the Bengals on another team. Ditto for Chris Henry. Some team will be lauded for giving Thurmond another chance; the Bengals will be worse off for it. I’m sure the Steelers and Ravens would LOVE to take a flier on Thurmond.

Mike and Marvin are the Keystone Kops of the professional sports world. Every move they make, given a choice, is the wrong one. They decide to refocus on a power running game- but with the exact same players who couldn’t run their way out of a wet paper bag last year. They let Chad sit and fester when they could have got two first round picks for his sorry ass, when they may have actually been right to let him go, they kept Odell, and, now, when they need his sheer physical ability more than ever, they let him go. These people have no business running a public school cafeteria, much less an NFL franchise.