JonCJG
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POSTED 8:21 a.m. EDT; UPDATED 8:48 a.m. EDT, September 25, 2006
ANOTHER BENGAL BUSTED
On the same day that the Cincinnati Bengals re-established their regular-season superiority over the Pittsburgh Steelers, linebacker Odell Thurman became the latest member of the team to be arrested.
Thurman, per various news reports, was arrested for DUI shortly after 3:00 a.m. on Monday when police spotted him driving left of center roughly a block away from a police checkpoint. Thurman was behind the wheel of teammate Reggie McNeal's SUV. There were other Bengals players in the vehicle, but their names have not been released.
Thurman's blood alcohol content was measured at 0.17 percent, more than twice the legal limit of 0.08 percent.
The second-year linebacker currently is serving a four-game suspension for violation of the league's substance abuse policy. He's now in the same potential predicament as Packers receiver Koren Robinson -- charged with an alcohol-related offense at a time when the player is already "in" Stage Three of the substance-abuse program. Depending on the specific requirements of Thurman's treatment plan, the 0.17 percent test result could be enough to trigger a one-year suspension.
The arrest couldn't have come at a more inopportune time for the Bengals, who went into Heinz Field on Sunday and humbled the Pittsburgh Steelers. The fact that a carload of players were out celebrating the victory by getting blotto (we can only presume that no one in the car was sober, since common-sense suggests that the sober one would have been driving) strongly suggests that coach Marvin Lewis still has a loooooong way to go before he gets some of his guys to understand the difference between acceptable and unacceptable off-field conduct.
And our guess (and it's only a guess) is that it's just a matter of time before word is released that the group of other Bengals in the SUV included Chris Henry and/or A.J. Nicholson and/or Frostee Rucker and/or Eric Steinbach.
Just last week, new NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell visited with the Bengals told them that they have a "responsibility as players that they continue to represent the league, the Bengals and their community in a positive fashion."
Why do we have a feeling that, regardless of the legal niceties, the Goodell signature appearing on the official NFL ball eventually will be branded on Thurman's buttocks?
WHERE WERE THE BUCS' DOCTORS?
One of the things that we can't figure out in the wake of the emergency splenectomy performed Sunday on Tampa quarterback Chris Simms is why in the hell the team's training staff and/or medical staff allowed Simms to continue to play while he likely was demonstrating what a reasonable medical professional might interpret as symptoms of having a busted spleen?
Indeed, we initially presumed that Simms' continued presence in the game despite the condition didn't necessarily connote "toughness" because we likewise presumed that the team's training and/or medical staff is sufficiently schooled and skilled as to the signs and the symptoms of a guy who might have suffered an injury that is by no means rare for someone who is suffering repeated blunt force trauma to the abdomen.
So what in the hell did the trainers or the doctors do when Simms was taken to the locker room in the second half? Did it just not occur to anyone that Simms might have popped a spleen? Or did someone decide not to make a big issue about it until after the game since, after all, the team was on the verge of pulling out of its cannon hole the first win of the season?
Either way, it's unacceptable -- and it should re-ignite the discourse as to whether the best medical care is available for players at all times, and as to whether "team" physicians are more beholden to the folks who sign their checks than to their actual patients.
It's definitely been a problem in the past, in other cities. Landing the local football team is a coup for any medical practice, and at times the decision isn't made based on quality of care but on how much money the medical practice will re-invest in stadium signage and suites.
Maybe, then, Simms really was in horrible pain and continued to fight through the fact that an organ was seeping blood into his abdominal cavity. We assumed that he wasn't in such a condition simply because we also assumed that the folks who were supposed to take care of him were doing so.
Whether or not they were is the question that needs to be asked of Bucs coach Jon Gruden, G.M. Bruce Allen, the doctors, and anyone else in a position of authority. We're not talking about getting a sound bite with a softball, either. We're hoping that "real" journalists from "real" media outlets with "real" access to the powers-that-be will take up this cause for Simms.
If the "real" media won't do it, then let's hope that Simms or his family will.
ANOTHER BENGAL BUSTED
On the same day that the Cincinnati Bengals re-established their regular-season superiority over the Pittsburgh Steelers, linebacker Odell Thurman became the latest member of the team to be arrested.
Thurman, per various news reports, was arrested for DUI shortly after 3:00 a.m. on Monday when police spotted him driving left of center roughly a block away from a police checkpoint. Thurman was behind the wheel of teammate Reggie McNeal's SUV. There were other Bengals players in the vehicle, but their names have not been released.
Thurman's blood alcohol content was measured at 0.17 percent, more than twice the legal limit of 0.08 percent.
The second-year linebacker currently is serving a four-game suspension for violation of the league's substance abuse policy. He's now in the same potential predicament as Packers receiver Koren Robinson -- charged with an alcohol-related offense at a time when the player is already "in" Stage Three of the substance-abuse program. Depending on the specific requirements of Thurman's treatment plan, the 0.17 percent test result could be enough to trigger a one-year suspension.
The arrest couldn't have come at a more inopportune time for the Bengals, who went into Heinz Field on Sunday and humbled the Pittsburgh Steelers. The fact that a carload of players were out celebrating the victory by getting blotto (we can only presume that no one in the car was sober, since common-sense suggests that the sober one would have been driving) strongly suggests that coach Marvin Lewis still has a loooooong way to go before he gets some of his guys to understand the difference between acceptable and unacceptable off-field conduct.
And our guess (and it's only a guess) is that it's just a matter of time before word is released that the group of other Bengals in the SUV included Chris Henry and/or A.J. Nicholson and/or Frostee Rucker and/or Eric Steinbach.
Just last week, new NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell visited with the Bengals told them that they have a "responsibility as players that they continue to represent the league, the Bengals and their community in a positive fashion."
Why do we have a feeling that, regardless of the legal niceties, the Goodell signature appearing on the official NFL ball eventually will be branded on Thurman's buttocks?
WHERE WERE THE BUCS' DOCTORS?
One of the things that we can't figure out in the wake of the emergency splenectomy performed Sunday on Tampa quarterback Chris Simms is why in the hell the team's training staff and/or medical staff allowed Simms to continue to play while he likely was demonstrating what a reasonable medical professional might interpret as symptoms of having a busted spleen?
Indeed, we initially presumed that Simms' continued presence in the game despite the condition didn't necessarily connote "toughness" because we likewise presumed that the team's training and/or medical staff is sufficiently schooled and skilled as to the signs and the symptoms of a guy who might have suffered an injury that is by no means rare for someone who is suffering repeated blunt force trauma to the abdomen.
So what in the hell did the trainers or the doctors do when Simms was taken to the locker room in the second half? Did it just not occur to anyone that Simms might have popped a spleen? Or did someone decide not to make a big issue about it until after the game since, after all, the team was on the verge of pulling out of its cannon hole the first win of the season?
Either way, it's unacceptable -- and it should re-ignite the discourse as to whether the best medical care is available for players at all times, and as to whether "team" physicians are more beholden to the folks who sign their checks than to their actual patients.
It's definitely been a problem in the past, in other cities. Landing the local football team is a coup for any medical practice, and at times the decision isn't made based on quality of care but on how much money the medical practice will re-invest in stadium signage and suites.
Maybe, then, Simms really was in horrible pain and continued to fight through the fact that an organ was seeping blood into his abdominal cavity. We assumed that he wasn't in such a condition simply because we also assumed that the folks who were supposed to take care of him were doing so.
Whether or not they were is the question that needs to be asked of Bucs coach Jon Gruden, G.M. Bruce Allen, the doctors, and anyone else in a position of authority. We're not talking about getting a sound bite with a softball, either. We're hoping that "real" journalists from "real" media outlets with "real" access to the powers-that-be will take up this cause for Simms.
If the "real" media won't do it, then let's hope that Simms or his family will.
Got to give the devil (Florio) his due!
