Bengals could use a history lesson (Carl Pickens)

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Home > Blogs > Chick Ludwig At Large > Archives > 2008 > March > 29 > Entry

Bengals could use a history lesson (Carl Pickens)

By Chick Ludwig | Saturday, March 29, 2008, 11:55 AM

BENGALS SHOULD USE HISTORY AS A GUIDE

===’LUDWIG AT LARGE’ ALERT: My next blog entry will be Monday at 6 a.m. Readers’ top “Ruth Lyons 50-50 Club” memories===

History should be our best teacher.

We must learn from our mistakes so that we don’t repeat them.

Unfortunately for the Cincinnati Bengals, they keep ignoring the past. They keep giving it the ol’ Heisman-Trophy-stiff-arm. And they keep repeating their mistakes.

I believe they’re going to pay dearly for keeping wide receiver Chad Johnson on their roster instead of trading him.

Exhibit A is Carl Pickens, the talented, but turbulent wide receiver who played for the Bengals from 1992-99.

Pickens was the first restricted free agent in NFL history to sign an offer sheet with another club.

As Yogi Berra would say, “You can look it up.”

Arizona Cardinals head coach Buddy Ryan tendered Pickens with an offer sheet on March 17, 1995 — the Green Bay also wanted him — but the Bengals matched it and kept him.

And Pickens was miserable until he was terminated after the 1999 season. And he made his teammates miserable, too.

Now Chad Johnson is miserable. Even his absence from the locker room during the club’s offseason workout program is causing a distraction.

Like T.J. Houshmandzadeh said so eloquently in the midst of 2007’s misery: “Talent doesn’t win games, obviously. You can look at us and see why. We’re a good example of that. Talent doesn’t win games. Or, maybe we don’t have as much talent as we think we do.”

Precisely. Absolutely. Obviously.

The Bengals arguably do less with more talent than any team in the NFL.

The Bengals’ eight year record with Pickens: 40-88 (5-11, 3-13, 3-13, 7-9, 8-8, 7-9, 3-13, 4-12).

The Bengals’ seven-year record with Chad: 50-62 (6-10, 2-14, 8-8, 8-8, 11-5, 8-8, 7-9).

Bottom line: The Bengals have a .446 winning percentage with Chadly. They can do the same —- if not better —- without him.

And don’t give me this crap about salary-cap ramifications. I don’t care if Chadly’s exit counts $20 million against the cap.

The salary cap is $116 million per club in 2008. There’s plenty of room to absorb his $8 million.

It’s a hit worth taking to save the team from further turmoil.

History says so.

WHOOEE, PIG SOOEY!

I miss Lisa Cornwell!

The former sports & news anchor at Cincinnati’s WCPO-TV (Channel 9) recently moved to Knoxville, Tenn., where she’s working for WBIR-TV (Channel 10).

Even though Lisa and Russell Biven have taken over the morning news slot on Channel-10, Lisa is following the Tennessee Lady Volunteers’ march through the women’s NCAA Tournament.

Lisa, a Fayetteville, Arkansas, native, was a two-time All-State basketball player in high school, a three-time All-American junior golfer, a four-time winner of the Arkansas Women’s State Golf Championship, and in 1992 was named the Arkansas Female Athlete of the Year.

She tells me that even though she’s deep in the heart of Volunteer Country, she’ll always be an Arkansas Razorback.

Lisa knows that if she ever needs a caddie for a golf tournament, I’m her guy.

Together, we’re The Beauty and The Beast.

For Lisa’s picture & bio, point your Web browser to:

http://knoxtrivia.blogspot.com/2008/03/lisa-cornwell-debuts-on-wbir.html

DADDY-O OF THE RADIO

Chick Ludwig’s next radio appearances:

—-Sunday, March 30, at 11 a.m. on WLW-AM (700) in the ‘Nati with Ken Broo (The Broo-Master’s Golden Touch).

—-Monday, March 31, 6-8 p.m. on WONE-AM (980) in Dayton with Mark Schlemmer (“The Skipper” knows baseball inside & out).

CHICK LUDWIG TRIVIA

Chick Ludwig grew up in the Price Hill section of Cincinnati and sang in the St. Williams School boys choir from the fourth-through-eighth grades under the direction of the immortal Dave Allen.

The highlight every year was the “singers ‘n’ servers” bus trip to LeSourdsville Lake Amusement Park.

I was a soprano through the sixth grade, then became an alto.

Other highlights: Singing on The Rosemary Clooney Show; singing in the annual Cincinnati May Festival, singing on a float in The St. Patrick’s Day Parade; and singing as a beggar boy in an opera at the Cincinnati Zoo.

Hard to believe I was a soprano once upon a time, considering nowadays I fancy myself as the reincarnation of the late, great John Facenda, voice of NFL Films.

Find more on Chick Ludwig at:

http://www.orangefrazer.com/cgi-bin/disp.cgi?pg=chickludwig&matchauthor=Chick+Ludwig

LUDWIG AT LARGE ‘GUERRILLA MARKETING’

To all my loyal blog readers, thank you for helping make “Ludwig At Large” one of the most popular blogs at the Dayton Daily News.

Tell a neighbor. Phone a friend. Twist a relative’s arm. Send ‘em my link and have ‘em book mark it as a favorite.

http://www.daytondailynews.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/dayton/chickludwig/

Until next time, this is “The Chickster” saying: “Make Love, Not War; Give Peace a Chance; and Strawberry Fields Forever.”

Contact Chick Ludwig at (937) 225-2253 or cludwig@DaytonDailyNews.com

Permalink | Comments (35) | Post your comment | Categories: Bengals

Comments

By ms

March 29, 2008 12:50 PM | Link to this

You a soprano?? That’s like saying Barry White sounds like Michael Jackson…I agree with you on Chad’s exit but Marvin also needs to go..Both have worn out their welcome…The Bengals have lost with them and can damn sure lose without them…No team has more talent with less results than Cincy….Why any team would want to keep a player around and allow them to cause such chaos is beyond me…but then we are talking about the Bengals…Not only Bengals history but NFL history should convince them to cut ties…Didn’t Terrell Owens destroying 2 teams teach them anything?? I don’t know what is funnier,,you as a soprano or Mike Brown as a GM…

By Stone

March 29, 2008 3:02 PM | Link to this

It’s amazing to me how everytime there is a Star player on a Cincy pro sports team, the media decides to say stupid things to p**s them off, ostracize them, and crucify them. Maybe if the reporter who mentioned trading him in the first place had shut his hole, Chad would have never felt betrayed. The guy is a star player, and the media crucified him for it because they can. And now, you have a bad situation on your hand. If only you stupid sportswriters would leave your worthless opinions out and report the facts, we wouldn’t have situations like this with Chad, or Ken Griffey Jr, or Pickens etc…

By ps

March 29, 2008 5:29 PM | Link to this

History is indeed a great teacher. That’s why we should know not to waste our breath on the Bengals trading “Ocho Sinkhole”. Mike Brown’s stubbornness runs roughshod over all things, including sound judgment, and he doesn’t like to trade star players. As someone who has met both players, Chick, how would you compare the personalities of Pickens and Johnson? From the outside looking in, it seems like Pickens was much more stoic, surly, and grudge-carrying. Maybe the Bengals aren’t quite as bad off this time around.

By Louie

March 29, 2008 5:31 PM | Link to this

God bless you for speaking the truth about Chad. And you’re absolutely right about the “company line” (including most in the local media) about the salary cap modifications. Truth be told, all they would need to do is renegotiate Carson’s deal in order to clear the space and I’m sure he’d be glad to do it. How about a trade with KC where we give them #9, our second round pick, and Chad Johnson for Bowe and their #5 (in order to land Ellis). If that doesn’t work then a straight up trade of Chad to Philly for their #1. This isn’t rocket science, and it’s a sad state of affairs when fans like me have put more time and effort into thinking of a resolution than Mike Brown. Even worse is that by keeping a malcontent like Chad around, it makes it hard to even root for this team on a personal level. Keep up the great work!

By Frank, Linn, Bogey & Coco

March 29, 2008 6:32 PM | Link to this

Hello from sunny Ft. Myers, FL. again. We agree that Chad has become a cancer on the team as a result of his own intentional actions, but believe the Bengal’s should keep him, bench him and even suspend him when warranted. We learned a long time ago that a contract says what it means and means what it says. It’s time the NFL owners start holding their over priced intellectual morons responsible for the contracts they sign. It’s also time for the team leaders, if they exist, to have a closed locker room meeting and put Chad in his place. If the players still have his back, then the team has a real problem. Cancers like Chad only act the way they do because they can get away with it. Let him sit in the corner like a little kid and stew a bit. Finally, it’s time for the national media to start asking Chad the hard questions. The first one should be, “if your angry at one particular writer in Cincinnati, why are you refusing to talk to all local writers?” He needs to be put on the spot and held responsible for his comments and actions.

By bill

March 29, 2008 7:46 PM | Link to this

Chad Johnson is a cancer and the Bengals will never win as long as he is a member of the team.

By dan b

March 30, 2008 11:16 AM | Link to this

Chip, I remember the Carl Pickens fiasco - and Big Daddy and Takeo Spikes and Corey Dillon and now Chad. Hey, there seems to be a pattern that causes this that other NFL teams don’t seem to have. Hmm - What could that be?

By dan b

March 30, 2008 11:19 AM | Link to this

Chip, I remember the Carl Pickens fiasco - and Big Daddy and Takeo Spikes and Ricky Hunley, Corey Dillon and now Chad. Hey, there seems to be a pattern that causes this that other NFL teams don’t seem to have. Hmm - What could that be?

By shane

March 31, 2008 8:16 AM | Link to this

If we truly learned from history, we would not be Bengal fans to begin with.

By shane

March 31, 2008 8:18 AM | Link to this

If we truly learned from history, we would not be Bengal fans to begin with.

By LB

March 31, 2008 8:32 AM | Link to this

And why is it star players like Pickens and Johnson turn sour in Cincy? I’ll tell you why … Cincy is one of the most proud-racist towns in America … and pride shows when players score and dance (remember the Ickey Shuffle?) … and racism shows when they don’t. Chad’s not feeling the love anymore … what he is feeling, he’s not really saying because he knows he can’t change the racially-charged environment … “there are some things that haven’t changed” … wth do you think he’s talking about? … so its best for him to change venue. Perhaps its Bengal fans who should learn the history lesson … the common denominators of the most losing NFL franchise are not only temperamental, egotistical players … but an incompetent son-of-a-great owner AND a large portion of racial, hate-mongering fans! … we have found the “cancer” … and the “cancer” is US. Comments anyone?

By tt

March 31, 2008 2:13 PM | Link to this

Cincinnati has and will be a racist town until we get more black people in the media who dont care about making the good old boys club membership. remember, the same people all over Chad are the same people who loved the hell out of Josh “you smoke crack don’t ya” Hamilton and Ryan”two time dui” Freel as “role model” for white kids in the white community. Has Chad ever been arrested or smoked crack? Checkmate,game,set and match

By tt

March 31, 2008 2:14 PM | Link to this

By LB

March 31, 2008 3:36 PM | Link to this

TT - good point backed-up by strong examples … local media should be more objective … however, your conclusion (checkmate, et al)troubles me and perhaps serves as its own example of the root cause of racisim in Cincy … ignorance and close-mindedness. Next time just state your opinion and then listen to other views before declaring nebulous victory. Nevertheless, Thanks for your comment.

By John

April 2, 2008 10:36 AM | Link to this

Chick, First of all I want to apologize for accidentally posting my comments in the wrong area. I noticed today that my post was not there. I frimly believe that MB needs to stand firm on Chad regardless of the cap situation for the benefit of the league’s future. How can a team build if contractual law is ignored. This is bigger than our season. What say you?

By John

April 2, 2008 10:50 AM | Link to this

Yea, there is racism on both sides, not just Cinci but everywhere. There are some things you just can’t legislate. The last three players including Chad to pull this were black, but I promise you that if they were white I would feel the same way. Contracts are not racist and if Chad’s was he shouldn’t have signed it. If he wants respect he has to show some himself.

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