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Thanks to late-morning thunderstorms that barreled through Cincinnati on Tuesday, I became one of 42,000 that lost power, which wasn't restored until a few ticks from midnight. My cell phone, an Android, consumes so much battery power without a reliable charge, most of my data connections were turned off for conservation. Yet at some point late in the evening, an email is sent from a fellow writer in capital letters about Dre Kirkpatrick's supposed injury. What?!
Jason La Canfora originally tweeted that Kirkpatrick was telling teammates the he "suffered an injury" in the knee area "that could cause him to miss much of camp." The Bengals aren't commenting on it. Kirkpatrick won't say anything until training camp, though he did issue an apology to Bengals fans:
According to Geoff Hobson, it appears that the injury occurred weeks ago and that the Bengals, who recently examined him, "deemed his leg injury not serious enough to make an announcement until the club does its physicals Thursday. Indications are he'll be out a month at most and they don't expect any long-term impact."
Though Kirkpatrick wasn't expected to be counted on early to be a significant contributor, there's no denying that he'll miss valuable training camp time to further his development, which he needs. Thus it pushes back the day that Kirkpatrick eventually becomes a starting cornerback, because now all of the development he needed, won't happen until at least after training camp this year.