Hobson: Don't Expect JaMarcus Russell to Join the Bengals

Lately, I've been absent. You'd think during the early month of May that we could, you know, have lives. But it always draws us back. We're back in routine. Drawing closer to the inevitable routine we're dying for that starts in September. In the meantime, news and reports circulate that a team interested in a player.

In the most recent hypothetical conjecturing of bored bloggers, rumor (and I emphasize RUMOR) is that the Bengals could be interested in recently released quarterback JaMarcus Russell. Joe Reedy wrote that the Bengals "inquired" about the quarterback, but "Russell’s agent, Ethan Lock, issued a terse no comment when asked about the rumors of Russell heading to the Bengals." Of course, one could suggest that this was all a ploy by Chad Ochocinco's OCNN network to, you know, have fun with people. Maybe he was offering a mere suggestion? It's more likely that he knew of the inquiry, elected to skip all of the formalities and everything in the middle and tweet:

Jamarcus Russell, you on twitter, if not its cool ill see you in #minicamp , ooopsss, did I just leak that info #ocnn

Adam Schefter confirmed the inquiry, but also said "there are no plans for him to be at any minicamps now."

Geoff Hobson put the Hob-knob on that, writing:

Two guys not to look for:

Former Raiders quarterback JaMarcus Russell and former Bills receiver Terrell Owens.

So we move on. Finding more news of interest. Stories to debunk. Or rumors that we excitedly hope are confirmed. So it shall be, the month of May.

That being said, I wouldn't have a problem if the Bengals entertained Russell. He's not going to start over Carson Palmer, so there's no worry there. At best, he'd compete against J.T. O'Sullivan for the backup spot, which begs the question, who do you think gives the Bengals a better chance to win? If you said, knowing what we know right now neither would help us at all, you'll get today's gold star (not sponsored by Goldstar). That being said, competition is always a good thing and if Russell helps, then he helps. That is if you get past all of the character questions about his work ethic, but we're Bengals fans. What the hell do we care about that as long as we win football games. Note: James Walker read the last statement and should get out of the hospital next week.