What happened that forced the Rogers trade to fall through?

by Josh Kirkendall on Mar 1, 2008 12:12 PM EST

You have to admit, when hearing about a trade for big-man Shaun Rogers, you were excited because the front office was doing "something". Then, the NFL said no to the trade, and you deflated. Perhaps drank a little and complained to your bar buddies that the Bengals messed it up again. Or that Chancellor Goodell really does have this vendetta against the Bengals for the misguided belief that we are the fathers conduct issues.

What really happened?

Mark Curnutte wonders if the teams didn't report the trade to the front office or there was "faulty" language in the trade. If you're brave enough to read the comments, then you'd think the Bengals organization was killing poor children.

ESPN says that the trade was "apparently nixed by the league because of language issues in the trade agreement."

Alright, so the language was bad. Right? What exactly does that mean? I love generalized statements that the league won't detail. Did Mike Brown screw it up? Unlikely. I don't see him being the one that writes up the language. Though I can't vindicate his family either. Perhaps the Chancellor didn't think it was a good idea.

Or perhaps the Lions saw more benefit with a trade with the Browns that they persuaded Goodell to nix the trade. It was awfully quick after the Bengals trade was denied and when the Browns trade was approved. You can't deny that. But for a business that gets more breaks, passes and benefits from the corporate laws in the history of United States, I'm sure this will, like all of Spygate, be swept under the rug and undefined. That's what a Chancellor does.

So I'm going to do what Bengals fans do after that. Justify why the Bengals could be better without Rogers than with him. Most of them on the field, but several off the field.

Though one has to wonder about Rogers from this Detroit Free Press piece.

How he was considered the NFL's most dominant at his position, but only when he wanted to be.
How he took himself out of games, often for key plays, to hit the oxygen tank on the bench.
His incredible appetite for life -- which apparently caused him to weigh a lot more than the 340 listed on the Lions' roster.
His lack of commitment to do something about it, even though losing weight might have helped his knee problems, too. He wouldn't last two weeks on "The Biggest Loser."
His four-game suspension in 2006 for using a banned substance to help control his weight.
His nickname, Big Baby, a takeoff on former teammate Dan (Big Daddy) Wilkinson -- but maybe more apropos for other reasons, it turned out.
The Lions' bad luck with guys named Rogers -- Darryl, Reggie, Charles and Shaun, for example.
His all-world game in the 44-7 victory against Denver in Week 8 -- 2 1/2 sacks and a 66-yard interception return for a TD, punctuated by a thunderous somersault in the end zone.

Lions rid of problem child Rogers [mlive]

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