Paul and Mike Brown in 1986

While announcing Ricky Hunley as one of our ten draft busts on Wednesday, during our research we came across some worthy Mike Brown quotes during contract negotiations with Hunley. On July 4, 1984, Mike Brown said:

"We're not going to start paying rookie linebackers and rookie defensive linemen a half-million dollars a year."

On August 15, 1984, when it was announced that Hunley was "seeking as much as $500,000 a year", an "expensive car, insurance policies and real estate as well as cash", Mike Brown released a statement that the team was thus refusing to negotiate with a position that will seem very familiar to Bengals fans today.

''While this will cost the Bengals a draft choice, we prefer to pay this price instead of setting a precedent whereby a player can force our club to trade him by holding out.''

Oh, how things never change.

The Bengals eventually did trade Hunley's rights and received draft picks that would result in Tim McGee and David Fulcher, along with punter Greg Horne.