There's two reasons we haven't ripped more into Andre Smith when we learned he was still recovery from a procedure that he should have reportedly long been healed from. One, the start of Training Camp has us focus more on the positives of having football return. Two, Terrell Owens signed.
We examined this in this week's Six-Pack of Hu-Dey, but let's quickly recap (again) the same way Hurley did when recapping Lost in 30 seconds. Even with a collection of questionable judgment decisions before the draft (workouts, shuffling agents, etc), the Bengals selected Smith sixth overall in the 2009 NFL Draft. Long contractual holdout. Busted foot during non-contact drills. Smith misses more than half the season and then has a February procedure to prevent future issues with the foot. He has yet to receive medical clearance on a recovery time that was expected to be completed months ago.
So Marvin Lewis was asked about his recovery. With an unusual display of honesty and frustration, Lewis said:
“Andre’s doing OK. That’s not a well, that’s not a jumping jack. That’s not a backflip, he’s doing OK,” Lewis said.
“Whenever he gets to where I want him that’s when we’ll have him,” Lewis said. “He’s being monitored hourly.”
After that, Lewis laid into Smith:
“Andre’s going to figure out how to become a pro and do things the way it’s asked to do all the time. Hopefully he continues to do it in a timely fashion. Because otherwise, I’m not going to go through this year in and year out.”
Lewis doesn't give in much to his frustrations, but it's evident that Smith is living in the master bedroom in Lewis' doghouse. In other news, is freaking scary how soon after I posted the Six-Pack that talks about Smith needing an attitude adjustment with Marvin saying the same thing a little later. All I can say is, "Hello Marvin!"