"Did the MRI show anything scary?''

Palmer: "I'm not going to comment on everything.''

"Do you think it's long term?"

Palmer, after a pause: "I hope not.''

There's growing concern that Palmer's injury is much more serious than we're being led to believe. The above quote by a recent Paul Daugherty piece included, there's a thought that one has many speculating. The Bengals went into Sunday at 0-3, living off a shoe-string tackle of reversing the season and obtaining some positive momentum from it with the Cowboys, Jets and Steelers upcoming. Palmer has historically had career games against the Browns. And it's the battle of Ohio.

So what would keep him from playing, even though he practiced Wednesday and Thursday of last week?

Well, the rumor going around is an injury so severe that he may require Tommy John surgery; Jake Delhomme had the procedure last season and recovered in time for the season opener. We're not suggesting that Palmer's injury is serious, just writing the speculation that's going around; after all we're not rumor mongers -- then again, do you expect us to keep talking about the crap we're seeing on the field?