It appears that yesterday was much ado about nothing. It was reported, well, Twittered or Tweeted or Twiddled, that Andre Smith fired his agent, Rick Smith, with a plan to rehire former agent Alvin Keels. The Enquirer's Joe Reedy pointed out yesterday, after making contact with Keels, that Smith's former agent has yet to be rehired. Later that night, Reedy wrote that "At the moment it appears to still be Rick Smith."
I know some of you are asking how is this all relevant. And honestly that depends on your point of view. The person that's advising Smith, while he self-destructed at the NFL Combine, was Keels. Hiring him would only seem to have those destructive properties reintroduced, causing alarm as to both his signability and general guidance. Rick Smith, reportedly Andre Smith's current representative, even points out that Smith is "a guy who’s always done the right thing when he’s gotten good advice." The concern is that Andre Smith could be going back to the guy that potentially gave him terrible advice.
If you're of the mind that it doesn't matter who Smith's agent is, provided he's signed and limits his potential holdout, I wouldn't have a problem with that perspective either. I'm in the same boat, although the sea seems a bit uneasy.
The irony in all this is that nothing changed. That's not preventing people from dusting off their outdated criticisms of both the Bengals and Smith. Which is sad really. It would be like saying baseball is the worst sport because they're all steroid users, so they all cheat. Of course that's a terribly inaccurate characterization, limited to several high profile players. But sometimes we have to move on from these characterizations. Otherwise, you look like a complete dolt, of the Peter King variety. No, worse!
I know. I know. I really should let it go. I know. Maybe the Bengals can win this year, or next (why not both) and have this characterization dissolved. I hardly doubt that people will be so willing to get rid of their dusty one-liners about the Bengals, but at least I'll shut up about it.