Morning Reading: Terrell Owens, Chad Ochocinco, Antonio Bryant…the Cincinnati Bengals Big 3
Not have the impact of
Chris Bosh
,
LeBron James
, and
Dwyane Wade
, but I’ll watch more
Cincinnati Bengals
games than I would have.
• Any chance Andre Caldwell emerges as the top Bengals wide receiver by the end of the 2010 season? I’ve always hoped for big things from the former Florida star. Unfortunately, the signing of Terrell Owens will dramatically cut into the number of passes Caldwell sees headed his way.
First we had the Miami Heat and their trio. Now we have the Bengals and their questionable receiving corps. If Owens, Chad Ochocinco, and Antonio Bryant were three soft-spoken, do your work and keep your mouth shut receivers, we might be looking at Cincinnati to do big things in 2010. Because of what we know about the three though, that just isn’t the case.
All three have talent. All three have issues. If they can still bring their abilities to the field and be good teammates, then the Bengals may have something here. If not, it’ll be seen as a failed experiment. If anything, it gives us another reason to look forward to the return of football season.
• Somewhere someone has located Jack Tatum’s wallet. I’m guessing it says that same thing on it that Samuel L. Jackson’s did in Pulp Fiction. Rest in peace to one BAMF.
Tatum passed away on Tuesday at the age of 61 after suffering a massive heart attack. The former Ohio State and Oakland Raiders star had battled diabetes for years after his NFL career was over.
Tatum was known as the Assassin and for good reason. One of the hardest hitters to ever play the game, opponents were literally afraid of playing against him. Unfortunately, Tatum will always be remembered for one hit that went terribly wrong. In a game against the New England Patriots in 1978, a Tatum hit paralyzed Pats’ wide receiver Darryl Stingley from the neck down. Tatum wasn’t intending to injury Stingley, but unfortunately many may have seen his career that way when in reality Tatum just played the game harder than anyone else. The legend will be missed.
• The Chicago Bulls are looking into the possibility of signing Keith Bogans. Bogans has a career field goal percentage under 40%. Enough said.
• Chris Paul said his meeting with the New Orleans Hornets went well, but he also doesn’t seem completely convinced it’s the team for him. When asked if he would say he didn’t want to be traded, Paul said there will be a time that he might do that. Huh?
So Paul had a good meeting with the team and is excited about the direction the franchise is headed in, but still won’t commit to the Hornets long-term. Keep the offers coming Orlando Magic. This isn’t over just yet.
• Ilya Kovalchuk isn’t signed. Not yet at least. First the 17-year deal with the New Jersey Devils was rejected by the league and now the NHLPA has filed a grievance against that ruling. Expect him to end up with the Devils one way or another. New Jersey will get this worked out somehow. It’s hard to imagine that if the deal doesn’t go through as originally structured, Kovalchuk would sign somewhere else. He wanted to be a Devil and they wanted to keep him.