+ Just how certain is Hard Knocks. It wasn't until early May of last year in which HBO announced that the Dallas Cowboys would appear on Hard Knocks. Save for PFT's headline that it would happen, using language in the body of their post to suggest that they "might" appear, nothing has been officially announced yet. Other headlines are doing this. Sports Biz headline writes, "Bengals to Appear on Hard Knocks".

I've learned long ago not to fix a certainty to anything until it's official, and that's yet to happen. The second sentence writes:

The Cincinnati Bengals, the closest actual team the NFL has to the one quarterbacked by first Burt Reynolds and then Adam Sandler in The Longest Yard (one and two), is under consideration to be the featured team on HBO's training camp series Hard Knocks.

OK, I'm ignoring the obvious point here in which this site, writer, poster, blogger, whatever, has absolutely no grasp of the Bengals today -- which leaves me to conclude that their grasp on the Bengals is very limited -- the headline illustrates certainty, while the sentence uses "under consideration". Think that's a little misleading?

PFT had the headline "Bengals to be on Hard Knocks", while having absolutely no picture for certainty, in which the first sentence reads, "Joe Reedy of the Cincinnati Enquirer reports (via TSB) that the Bengals might be the next NFL franchise featured on HBO’s Hard Knocks."

The Bengals very well could be the team on Hard Knocks. However, not only is it unofficial, but nearly everyone posting about it has very uncertain language in their writings about it. Boy this was a trivial post. Off-season. Post-draft. You know how it is. Moving on.

News and notes.

Rookies will be in town for Bengals rookie minicamp.

Alex Marvez writes his "seven deadly signs of an NFL Draft bust." They are carelessness, sloth, ostentation, arrogance, wrath, addiction and gluttony.

Only James Walker (and maybe Peter King) react this way to the announcement of Shayne Graham signing his franchise deal with the Bengals. "With that salary, what happens if Graham misses his first chip shot next season?" So Clear Channel cuts C Trent Rosencrans, reduces Mo Egger's on-air time, and dumps Alan Cutler and Paul Daugherty and we still have Walker.

Geoff Hobson writes a feature on Andre Smith.

The Kansas City Star writes, "Ghiaciuc became expendable in Cincinnati after the Bengals took Arkansas center Jonathan Luigs in the fourth round of the draft." He became expendable so much sooner than that.

A good review on Ben Utecht's debut Christian Album. Yes, I even look through Christian sites for Bengals related news.