+ This Monday, the Cincinnati Bengals will start selling ticket packs for 2009, the site announced on Thursday. The two packs will be broken down to four regular season home games each, ranging from $256 to $328 per pack.

ORANGE PACK:  Sept. 13 vs. Denver (regular season home opener), Oct. 25 vs. Chicago, Nov. 29 vs. Cleveland and Dec. 6 vs. Detroit.

BLACK PACK: Sept. 27 vs. Pittsburgh, Oct. 18 vs. Houston, Nov. 8 vs. Baltimore and Dec. 27 vs. Kansas City.

We can only assume that last Saturday's walk in the park, while watching the team practice, didn't prompt as many season ticket purchases as the team would have liked. If the four-game packs don't sell out, then it's likely their home-stretch of panic finalizes with two-game and single-game tickets later. So the blackout watch is on.

Paul Daugherty says, "I would urge you to take a massive pass on that. But I'm not one to tell people how to spend their money." At 1:30 AM on Friday, the really tired Chick Ludwig writes the never before used headline, "Bengals fans may be a little fed up."

My favorites are comments:

"No thanks…I’d rather enjoy myself reading a book or playing video games. I’ve given up as a fan."

"I cannot be a Bengals fan again until Mikey boy is in diapers in an Arizona rest home. Losing just hurts too much."

"I quit cheering for the bengals when they all started having serious trouble staying out of jail."

"I am just tired of it all. Every year same old story. Lose lose and lose, arrest, arrest, arrest."

So the question is this. Are you glad those people aren't fans anymore? Or do you laugh like I do that non-Bengals fans comment on an article that's clearly about the Bengals?

+ How is Carson Palmer going to build his arm strength?

“Throw,” Palmer said. “It’s just like when a track guy needs to get faster. You don’t do 5,000 squats, you run and run some more. To get your arm in shape you throw and continue to throw. So I will be throwing all summer long as well as in training camp.”

Apparently even Gods of the Golden Arm need work.

Moving on.

James Walker's AFC North mailbag has all Bengals. Say what?!

The New York Jets claimed former Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Mario Urrutia on Thursday.

KC Joyner says that the Bengals will see a significant improvement in the overall rushing productivity in 2009.