Carson Palmer recalls clashing with Mike Brown, moving on from Bengals

Everyone knows Carson Palmer's time with the Bengals didn't end well.

After years of frustration with how the team was run and a lack of consistent winning like Cincinnati now features, Palmer demanded a trade in the 2011 offseason with the threat of retirement if it didn't happen. And, well, we all know the rest of that story.

Palmer's clash with owner Mike Brown led to him eventually being traded to Oakland, and after a failed stint there, he's now having success with the Arizona Cardinals. This season, like the Bengals, the Palmer-led Cardinals are 3-0 to start the season and have looked dominant in the process. Palmer is thankful that's now the case after being "shunned" in league circles, as he told NFL.com's Michael Silver.

"I took an owner head-on, you know?" Palmer said. "That's shunned in this league, and people don't like it -- and the NFL definitely doesn't like it. That's hurt me a lot, and I've been bounced around pretty good since it happened."

I guess his definition of 'shunned' is getting sent to the Raiders, which is pretty brutal. Palmer went 8-16 across two seasons in Oakland, which led to him getting sent to the Cardinals for a late-round draft pick.

Since then, Palmer has gone 19-6 as Arizona's starter and now has his team atop the NFC West and poised for another playoff berth. He's also having one of the best starts he's ever had in his 13-year career with a 117.8 QB rating (fourth in NFL) and 91.1 passer rating (2nd in NFL).

"He's pretty [expletive] good," former Bengal and current Cardinal Jermaine Gresham said of Palmer in the NFL.com story. "I think he can be even better."

Many around Cincinnati still have a sour taste when the mention of Palmer comes up, but the past is the past. There's no sense in keeping a grudge against someone for simply wanting to win more, even if he didn't go about it in the best way possible.