8/20/08

Troubled WR Henry back with Bengals

I've put off commenting about the Cincinnati Bengals' resigning of WR Chris Henry until now. Henry, who was cut loose in April 2008 after his fifth arrest since being drafted in the third round of the 2005 NFL draft, will have to serve a four-game suspension and should be available for the October 5 game at Dallas.

Bengals head coach Marvin Lewis stated earlier that they're moving on without Chris Henry. The onus of Henry's resigning is on the shoulders of owner Mike Brown, not Marvin Lewis: "I obviously know that at the end of the day, that the owner has the final say-so on whether or not he wants to give a guy an opportunity or not. Mike has wanted to give Chris this opportunity, and asks that we do the best job that we can to try to prepare him and get him ready to play football."

Henry's attitude during last night's press conference, however, seemed to raise questions and contradict statements he made about knowing this is his absolute last chance. I cannot help but wonder if Henry feels that an NFL career is owed him regardless of his conduct. Another potential problem I saw was that his and Coach Lewis' press conferences were separate.

The onus is on Mike Brown. If the Henry experiment fails again, I expect him to stand up and take responsibility, not pass it off on Marvin Lewis. If Chris Henry can keep his nose clean and help the Bengals, I'm all for it. Henry is 6'-4" and 200 pounds. When he's on, he's difficult to cover. He's got the tools to be a perennial Pro Bowler. Hall-of-Famer Michael Irvin, who himself had legal issues during his career, advised Henry as he had Henry's teammate at West Virginia, Adam "Pacman" Jones, to clean up his act.

Bengals fans should be guardedly optimistic. If our receiver corps wasn't so banged up, Mike Brown wouldn't have resigned Chris Henry. He's got one final opportunity. Let's hope and pray the young man takes the straight and narrow path
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