LJ Pushes Bengals to Brink of Disaster

CINCINNATI -- Now you can add frequently bad actor Larry Johnson to a Cincinnati Bengals locker room already noted for drama.

Yeah, this makes sense.

It actually does, but only to a point.

Starting running back Cedric Benson has an aching hip flexor, and since nobody worth mentioning wanted to sign Johnson, he came this week as a cheap insurance policy for the Bengals. It's just that you have this little thing in sports called "chemistry," and Benson didn't exactly suggest after practice on Wednesday that he would celebrate Johnson's arrival by baking a batch of chocolate chip cookies.

"Oh, I didn't know I was supposed to be jumping out of my seat or anything, so I really have no feelings about (Johnson's arrival)," said Benson, among the NFL's leading rushers, responding to it all without the hint of emotion.

So will Johnson help the Bengals?

"I haven't broken down film (on Johnson), so I really don't know," said Benson, still straight-faced. Then Benson added, "They make decisions for the team and stuff, and I don't have any thoughts."

Here are mine: to the dismay of Benson when it comes to Johnson, for instance, the Bengals have placed an imaginary sign outside of Paul Brown Stadium that says to their peers, "Give us your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to make us not look absolutely ridiculous if this doesn't work out." The thing is, given the sorry ways of the Bengals since the 1991 death of Paul Brown, their venerable founder and first head coach, they have nothing to lose. As a result, they've taken the spirit of hiring rejects from George Allen's days with the Over The Hill Gang in Washington. And then they've combined that with the philosophy of the 20th century Oakland Raiders who believed in adding the bad boys of other teams to those of their own. And then they've kept repeating the process.

The result? Great -- so far. The defending Super Bowl champion Pittsburgh Steelers already have lost twice to the 7-2 Bengals. Plus, only the Indianapolis Colts at 9-0 have a better record in the conference.

This is a Cincinnati franchise with just one winning season in its last 19 years, and during one recent stretch, the Bengals challenged the NFL record for most players fingerprinted before, during and after a season.

Such a strategy (or lack thereof) of stacking a roster with undesirable and unwanted players didn't work for the Bengals back then, but their ownership and management is confident that they've got it right this time.

Maybe they have.

"I think a lot of guys have bricks on their shoulders, because you had an image of being a different player somewhere else, and you try to come here and try to get your career back on the right track," said Chris Crocker, the leader of the secondary, whose nomadic story is the dominant story for most on the Bengals' roster.

As for Crocker's story, he joined Cincinnati in the middle of 2008 after he was released by the Miami Dolphins. He began his seven-year career with the Cleveland Browns, but he was unwanted three years after that. Then he went to the Atlanta Falcons, but he was unwanted two years after that before his brief stay in Miami.

"In this locker room, we don't judge people by their past. We just judge people on what we know about them right now."
- Chris Crocker,
Bengals safety Added Crocker, "This (move to the Bengals) has worked for the positive for us because so many of us realize that second and third chances don't come very often. I give them (Bengals officials) credit for putting a bunch of guys together who hadn't done well at other places. That's hard (for management) to do.

"For players who are on this team, there's always an image, always a reputation that you carry that's good, bad or indifferent. There's always something that people said about you that may not be true."

Then again, it probably is true, but the Bengals decision makers (primarily owner Mike Brown and seventh-year coach Marvin Lewis) couldn't care less. I mean, if Terrell Owens isn't on his way to this side of the Ohio River, just wait. The same goes for Michael Vick, who only was a "yes" from heading to the Bengals after his prison time for that dogfighting mess.

Can Dennis Rodman block or tackle?

Let's go back to Johnson, who was considered so disruptive by his Kansas City bosses that he was waived earlier this month despite sitting 75 yards shy of becoming the Chiefs' all-time leading rusher. Most recently, he spent a couple of weeks suspended after using a derogatory term in public regarding homosexuals. He also was involved in a Twitter controversy when he ripped Chiefs first-year head coach Todd Haley in childish ways.

Before that, Johnson was arrested several times for alleged incidents involving the abuse of women, ranging from shoving the head of one at a nightclub to spitting a drink into the face of another to waving a gun at a former girlfriend.

The Bengals signed Johnson anyway.

Said Crocker, "In this locker room, we don't judge people by their past. We just judge people on what we know about them right now. We brought in Larry Johnson, and you have Cedric Benson, the guy in front of him, who he has had the same experience (of people doubting his worth). So (Benson) can help him out."



Yes, Benson can, but only theoretically (see above). Soon after the Chicago Bears picked Benson as the fourth player overall in the 2005 draft, he was labeled a bust. That's because he was. He was released in June 2008, and he was out of the league until the Bengals spread their always open arms three months later.

Elsewhere on the Bengals' offense, you have Chris Henry, their perennial reclamation project. His impressive season ended this month with a broken forearm, but only after he was waived last year and then signed again for a final chance to save his career after numerous encounters with the law. Placekicker Shayne Graham was released five times by other NFL teams. Punt returner Quan Cosby joined the Bengals as a college free agent. Wide receiver Laveranues Coles wasn't wanted by the New York Jets anymore after last season for various reasons, but along came the Bengals.

Then you have what the Bengals call the Scrap Iron Defense, because as linebacker Brandon Johnson said, "We've got a lot of pieces that nobody wanted."

Linebacker Dhani Jones was jobless for three weeks before he was signed by the Bengals in September 2007. Linebacker Rey Maualuga was bypassed in the first round of the 2009 despite his stellar career at Southern Cal. Defensive end Tank Johnson joined the Bengals as a free agent this year after an explosive past -- on and off the field.

The list is endless.

Still, the Bengals prosper. They will do so through the rest of the regular season and deep into the playoffs if they remember this: they are about one more Larry Johnson-type acquisition away from blowing it.

For verification, listen to that sound of mostly silence from Benson.

Terence Moore is a national columnist and commentator for FanHouse. He is a frequent panelist on "Rome Is Burning," an ESPN show hosted by Jim Rome, that is seen Monday through Friday at 4:30 PM ET. Moore spent more than three decades working for major newspapers, including 26 years as an award-winning sports columnist for the San Francisco Examiner and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He resides in Atlanta.