Peter King Responds To A Bengals Fan

Some of us have wondered why the Bengals haven't received much acknowledgement this year, considering that rookie quarterback Andy Dalton and wide receiver A.J. Green have played up to, if not exceeding, expectations this year.

Well Chris from Cincinnati asked Peter King why with "all the talk about (Cam) Newton and even Carson Palmer and not a single mention of Dalton?"

Well, King responded.

"There are a lot of worthy events and people I do not mention in Monday Morning Quarterback each week. Look at the letter above yours about Jason Hanson. Should I have mentioned what he did? Of course. If I had the time and the vision to see all aspects of all games, the column would be significantly more thorough, and probably longer.

"Here's my situation, Chris: I am on NBC on Sundays during the season. I watch quite a bit of the early games and makes notes on them for my column and for phone calls I want to make after the games, preparing for the Football Night in America show on NBC. So I don't see a lot of the late games, though I see the big plays in them usually. Particularly in a game of low national importance -- the late Cincinnati-Denver game -- I don't focus my attention unless something fairly extraordinary happens, or a major injury happens.

"Then, after doing some reporting for NBC and SI, and then some video stuff for SI.com, I get back to my hotel to begin writing about 5,500 words for my Monday column. That begins about 11:15 p.m., usually, and if the Sunday night game is a good one, as it was the past two weeks, I'll watch the end of that. Then I write 'til about 7 a.m. I miss things. In fact, I miss a lot of them. I try not to, but in a column like this one, with one person doing everything from soup to nuts, it's inevitable.

"All of that is not an excuse for missing things. It's just the reality of the job I do. I will try to watch some of Dalton this week against the 49ers."