Mike Pettine responds to Greg Little's criticism

It kind of snuck up on everyone. Bengals wide receiver Greg Little went off on facing his former team, the Cleveland Browns:

"Everything about this game is personal to me," said Little via the Cincinnati Enquirer. "I'm going to go out and lay it on the line. They cut me. They said that I wasn't good enough to play on their team. That's about all I need. Somebody has to pay."

Later, when asked if he got along with head coach Mike Pettine, who was hired on Jan. 23, 2014, Little, who was released by Cleveland on May 16, 2014, didn't offer the most complementary of praises.

"No, I didn't get along with Pettine, Pettine doesn't talk to any of his players. You will walk past him in the hallway and he doesn't even speak to you so to have that type of relationship for a coach is kind of odd. I can't go out and say that i'm going to lay it on the line for a guy that won't even speak to me if we are the only two people in the hallway."

Pettine responded to Little's criticisms on Tuesday.

"It's unfortunate, because the one thing I really pride myself on is communication, not just with the players but with the staff and the building,'' said Pettine via the Cleveland Plain Dealer. "I think that's important. You learn as a coach, it's less about the X's and O's and more about relationships and the human side of things than people would think."

Mo Egger, with ESPN 1530, headlined a posting that says, "Shut Up, Greg Little."

2) Dude, you're Greg Little. A month ago, you were unemployed and now you're launching salvos? Come on. I'm not even sure Greg attended the game against Jacksonville. If the fires of a rivalry are going to be stoked, shouldn't someone with more than four catches on the season stoke them? Don't you have to be a little more firmly entrenched on the new team before you start airing out your beef with the old one?

While I was reading Mo's perspective... I thought of: