I rarely react to columnists because I never think of myself as all-knowing and people have every right to dribble on about whatever their own point of view is. But for some reason, John Nolan's latest on the Dayton Daily News just irks me. I'm not sure if he's writing about the same tired rehashed outdated material that others have base against the Bengals for over four years now. Take Nolan's second paragraph for instance:
Given the Cincinnati Bengals’ penchant for hiring players who have showed up on police blotters, maybe they should call Paul Brown Stadium the “House of Second Chances.” Only in a used-car lot are there more retreads.
Of course, at this point I'm thinking to myself that we're here to rip on the Bengals, just so we can rip on the Bengals, using material that not only doesn't apply, but it's the same dribble we've heard. Nothing new here. No, that's not true. I'm actually curious right now as to whether I'd lose more brain cells reading this, or smoking every marijuana plant on the planet Earth. My study was inconclusive.
Nolan questions the team's position on some free agent players this year.
But, Matt Jones? He wound up running afoul of the law while with his former employer, the Jaguars. The Bengals saw fit to hire him for their receiving corps. What is he going to do for clubhouse chemistry?
While I think this is a fair argument, Nolan completely fails to make it somewhat plausible. And when I mean fail, I mean it's epic. Where should we believe that some guy like Matt Jones could dictate chemistry? Is he looked upon by all of the veterans and coaches as a prophet of football? Will Chad Ochocinco be persuaded by Matt freaking Jones? Hah. Does Nolan not view Marvin Lewis as a strong enough head coach to be able to combat Jones' influence in chemistry? My guess is that no matter what Jones does, he won't disrupt the team's chemistry and if he does, he goes away. Simple as that. Jones isn't the type of player that the Bengals must have. The team is clearly banking on some revival of his career to get cheap talent. Sorry Nolan. The one argument you could have made, just went down the toilet. Thankfully, there's more room in the porcelain throne to withstand more.
The Bengals reportedly are among teams interested in the discredited Adam “Pacman” Jones, who compiled an extensive rap sheet during a troubled stay with the Titans. Maybe the Bengals could hire a criminologist, or at least a social worker, if they add Jones. That might qualify as a tax write-off for protecting a business investment.
Maybe this applied in February, or the day that Jones' agent came out and included Cincinnati as teams interested in Jones. But see, this is where I get really irked. This is where I believe that the industry is dying because guys like Nolan are given a voice at an established newspaper. Hell, I hope it's not getting paid for this. Yes, this applied at one point. But if you fail to acknowledge updates that's happened since, then where's the credibility that we're supposed to hand out. There's no respect here.
No, this is the type of work that makes one think that there's an anti-Bengals agenda. It's known that Adam "Pacman" Jones' agent referred to the private workout Jones had in Cincinnati as the only point of interest by the Bengals. However, once Pacman left Cincinnati, there was little known (if any) interest in the cornerback. Furthermore, in a March 30 article, Geoff Hobson clearly writes that "the Bengals no longer appear to be in the Pacman Jones derby." This is called an update. This is something that if you don't apply to your existing argument, that it's hard for any of us to really incorporate your arguments because we now know there's nothing factual, nothing updated, and now every posting with the name John Nolan will force us to keep scrolling.
Nolan concludes:
Stop running your team as if it were a charity that accepts used furniture. Spend your money pursuing top-flight NFL free agents. Who knows? You might actually bring your long-suffering fans a winner.
Understandably so, Nolan doesn't refer to which free agents the Bengals should have gone after. So yea, I'm irked. But I'm not exactly sure whether it's Nolan's posting that makes me sick, or that the Dayton Daily News has actually come to this.