Happy Thanksgiving To All Of Our Loyal Readers: Giving Thanks On This Day

Food. Football. Food. And more football. Thanksgiving is easily the American man's greatest recreational holiday with the hardest effort of the day being putting on your "nice" clothes before company arrives. All the more exciting Thursday is that while the women of the family prepare and cook the perfect meals, the 7-3 Detroit Lions host the 10-0 Green Bay Packers in a game of high-interest amongst even the most casual NFL fans. Dinner should take place around 4 p.m. today during the 3-7 Dolphins and 6-4 Dallas Cowboys game, giving enough time for the mandatory nap before Thursday night's highly anticipated Harbaugh-Bowl on NFL Network.

It's not a bad day to be alive at all.

But I'd be remiss if we didn't give thanks on this day.

Former Bengals receiver Chad Johnson was one of the team's most productive receivers in franchise history. He holds the record for most receptions (751) all-time, most yards receiving (10,783) and holds the top-five receiving seasons posting a franchise-best 1,440 yards in 2007. His 66 career receiving touchdowns with Cincinnati is another franchise best, as is his 31 100-yard receiving games, most 1,000-yard seasons (7) and most yards receiving in a game (260). Yet the Bengals traded Johnson to New England for the Patriots fifth-round pick in 2012 and sixth-round pick in 2013.

During his run in Cincinnati as Chad Johnson, the receiver sported a fun-loving personality that may have irritated fans, but in truth was harmless. Then he became Chad Ochocinco and his production declined, his personality changed. We're thankful that Chad was traded, not bringing a negative influence onto the team's next great receiver in A.J. Green, who is as close to the Anti-Chad that exists in this world.

Even though A.J. Green was the team's first round pick during the 2011 NFL Draft, we're not sure how far this team could have gone without Dalton, clearly the team's future quarterback employing a sense of professionalism through the calm pose of a confident predator.

We're fairly certain that most of you are like, "huh?" But look at it this way. Marvin Lewis has turned rebuilding teams into an art form. During his first year as the Bengals head coach, he took a 2-14 team in 2002 and gave the Bengals a six-game improvement the following year. He mirrored that success in 2009, taking a four-win team in 2008 and winning 10 in 2009, earning a playoff berth in the process. And he's doing it again this year, taking another four-win squad that's currently holding onto the second wild card position for this year's playoffs.

Now if only he could sustain the success and perhaps win a playoff game, we'd be golden.

If Carson Palmer doesn't demand a trade and plays the role of being the little soldier, the Bengals don't draft quarterback Andy Dalton nor do they receive Oakland's 2012 first round pick and possibly their 2013 first round pick based on whether the Raiders reach the AFC Championship game any of the next two years.

My first post announcing the arrival of Cincy Jungle is dated March 15, 2006. We had less than 1,000 page views for the entire month. We hit the one million mark for the first time in our history during a single month earlier this year. Without you guys giving us the energy to keep going, doing this with the little compensation we receive, we're not sure if this site would have lasted long. But we're over five years old now and as strong now as ever. So we thank you guys, our loyal readers that keeps Bengals conversations going and keeping us inspired to do it everyday.