By JOHN P. WISEOne Great Season
For those offering a don't-let-the-door-hit-you-in-the-ass to Carson Palmer, I have a message:
You are the reason why Cincinnati is considered a fair-weather town.
Now, don't get me wrong; I believe there's a strong fair-weather element in most cities. I'm a Cleveland native and I'll confess that since the Indians last made a postseason run, in 2007, I haven't cared as much. And since last summer's departure of whatshisname, I've watched the Cavaliers fewer than five times this season. It's just human nature. When our team isn't relevant in its league, it's less relevant to us.
The logic in the Queen City, however, is downright baffling.
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For 20 years, Bengals fans have lamented Mike Brown's complete ineptitude as team owner. Twenty years. Things got so bad there that by the end of the 1990s, the Stripes were mentioned along with the St. Louis Rams and Los Angeles Clippers as the worst-run franchises in professional American sports. The Rams have since won a Super Bowl and played in another, and Blake Griffin has Clippers fans optimistic for now. But the Bengals remain at least a part-time embarrassment to their city.
Palmer, we thought, was going to make the team a postseason staple. During his rookie season of 2003, he held Jon Kitna's clipboard as the Bengals made a six-game improvement under new head coach Marvin Lewis, finishing a slightly surprising 8-8.
Palmer was then the No. 1 guy in 2004, when the Bengals put together another 8-8 season. He started all 16 games in each of the next three seasons, throwing for 12,000 yards and 86 touchdowns, leading his mates to a 26-22 record and their first postseason appearance in well more than a decade.
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But major knee and elbow injuries have caught up with Palmer, who's now 31 years old.
And now that he says he desperately wants out of Cincinnati, some fans feel like jilted lovers, because it's our selfish habit to think only about how the decision of a professional football player we'll never meet will affect us and the team we root for.
That team we root for? Remember, it's owned by Mike Brown. He's the guy for whom we've saved our most offensive language the last two decades. Would you expect a franchise player like Palmer to want to continue playing for an owner who we all agree is so terribly incompetent? As much as we think we know how miserable it would be to play for such a buffoon, Palmer has actually done it for eight years. He knows.
I'd imagine — I'd hope — that many of you have left jobs because you didn't click with the management. That's completely your right, and you probably did it despite it not being the best decision for you financially.
If you were able to do it, how hard would it be for a guy who has, as Palmer says, $80 million in the bank?
It's about time someone threatens to quit the game early, rather than hang around too long just for the paycheck. We've seen that a few times, and I'm pretty sure those guys actually deserved the heat they took for it. Here's to hoping Palmer keeps his word, and sets a trend other athletes will follow.