Sleeping with Bienemy and Sly have already given you their takes today on the Bengals wasting almost $9M on Antonio Bryant. But as Mo Egger points out this morning, this highlights an ongoing problem with the Bengals medical and training staff that goes back at least till 2007.
Still though, this organization needs to seriously examine its medical staff. Someone put this dude through a physical. Someone decided his knee was going to fine. Someone thought Antonio Bryant was healthy enough to give a ton of money to. Someone decided he could go through OTAs and minicamps. Someone decided to have him practice on the first day of training camp.
And remember, this is the same staff that misdiagnosed Chris Perry's knee, more or less blew off the pain Levi Jones had in his knee, and let Willie Anderson's bad foot go untreated in 2007. They also claimed Andre Smith didn't need surgery on his foot a year ago.
Those are some pretty important players.
We rip on the Bengals for having substandard scouting and personnel departments, but and NFL team cannot have sustained success with a medical staff that couldn't diagnose my face as having a nose.
These are the sorts of upgrades that we at WDR have been calling for since our founding in 2008. Yes, it is great that we won the AFC North last year. But until we have the personnel and facilities that are considered top in the league, we will continue to have to deal with these easily avoidable issues. Our third manifesto demand has always been: "THAT all training, rehabilitation and medical facilities are considered best-in-class compared to other NFL teams" for this reason.
As Doc writes: "How does a frugal, family-owned NFL corner store such as the Bengals blow millions on a defective receiver? How will this effect the PBS electric bill? I mean, will they shut down the AC until next July? Will MB charge M. Lewis now, for a place to park? Will players have to brown-bag lunch? Get a membership to the weight room?"
If you are a Bengals fan who wants the team to improve, having the team invest in better medical and training facilities will do much more in the long run than signing receivers like TO to make up for mistakes like Bryant.
So stop bitching about it and do a Project Mayhem task on this, already. Let Sly AKA "the clip art magician" dress up like an orange and black-clad Dr. Nick Riviera. Ship shards of fake, torn ligaments labeled with certain player's names on them, who have been mis-diagnosed over the years. Do SOMEthing.
Posted by: TheCarlPickensClause | August 30, 2010 at 01:42 PM
They deserve it.
Posted by: CILIIblog | August 30, 2010 at 01:45 PM
Too bad we couldn't have skipped everything from Coles until now, and instead just re-signed Housh...
But no-o-o-o, they'd rather pour 9 mill down the drain...
What was the difference between what Coles got, and what TJ was asking?
Posted by: Hofbraunow | August 30, 2010 at 07:11 PM
PS can't wait to see how Hob spins this one...
Posted by: Hofbraunow | August 30, 2010 at 07:25 PM
And now Jeanty's agent is claiming the Bengals completely misdiagnosed his broken fibula. The hits just keep on comin'.
Posted by: PattyMcFatty | August 30, 2010 at 09:14 PM
THE A/C IN THE PRO SHOP IS TURNED OFF. How cheap can you get???!!
Posted by: alex | August 30, 2010 at 09:16 PM
The staff should be fired no questions asked. This is a serious problem that has been going on for years. That said this isn't because MB is cheap so let's stop pretending it is . It is MB's blind loyalty to people even if they suck at their jobs that is the problem. MB doing this to be cheap makes no sense, if he was cheap he'd spend the 1 mil for good doctors so he doesn't lose 8 mil on Bryant. If MB were that cheap they'd have already been fired for costing him money. It's his stupid blind loyalty to staff that's killing him.
Posted by: The truth | August 31, 2010 at 12:28 AM
AB played at the end of last season and had the full offseason to rehab. There may be some issue where the knee healed in a strange way that has caused his recovery process to unfold in a very strange way that was unpredictable for the medical staff. He played through mini-camp, then things turned further south. The knee seems like a bigger issue now than last March, which is not a normal recovery progression. That sort of thing is unusual and difficult to predict in the realm of sports medicine. Some blame still goes around, but this was a tricky situation. We clearly held out hope after we signed TO that things would get better and he would practice, evidenced by the fact that he practiced in the first mini-camp. All around this was a very bad break that we should still get away with if everyone else stays healthy.
Posted by: Artrell | August 31, 2010 at 11:21 AM
Bengals head doctor Angelo J. Colosimo MD, has listed 'complex knee injuries' as one of his specialties and interests on this website - http://www.ucortho.com/physicians/colosimo.html
Kind of sounds like a hobby thing. Plus he used to play for the Patriots.
Posted by: DorsetBengal07 | August 31, 2010 at 12:25 PM
Hofbraunow - I've said this a million times before and I'll repeat it until I'm blue in the face: TJ would not have signed again with the Bengals. You asked what his asking price was - it didn't exist. He wouldn't have taken any contract Mike put in front of him because he was so sick of the team's management and other areas of ineptitude (like the medical staff). When he signed with Seattle he wasn't saying he wanted to stay in Cincy but didn't get the contract. He was saying how grateful he was to finally be rid of the Bengals.
The only way TJ was going to be kept was to franchise him. You can debate THAT decision all you want, but extending him was never a real option.
Posted by: Mockenrue | August 31, 2010 at 02:32 PM
Mockenrue - ask TJ now if he thinks that was the right choice. He has all but publically admitted it was a terrible choice as his career has stagnated in Seattle while the Bengals went to the playoffs without him.
Posted by: Artrell | September 01, 2010 at 10:34 AM
Actually what TJ said he regrets is that he turned down the Vikings' offer and opted for Seattle instead. He never said leaving the Bengals was the wrong move in itself. Of course we can all think it was (and we're probably right), but TJ's hatred for the way this team is run trumped everything else in his decision making, and probably still does.
Posted by: Mockenrue | September 01, 2010 at 02:09 PM
I travel out of Texas frequently and I must say the roads here are very, very nice for the most part. Sounds like some of you are spoiled...take a trip to some of the other states and you and your car will be glad to be back on Texas highways. With that said I do agree politics is killing our transportation department.
Posted by: Justin Bieber Supra | October 12, 2011 at 09:05 PM