COMMENTARY

By Joe Kay

updated 10:55 a.m. ET Aug. 8, 2006

CINCINNATI - They knew all about Chris Henry’s troubles in college — the ejection, the benching, the suspension, the coach’s admonition that he had repeatedly embarrassed himself and West Virginia’s football program.

The Cincinnati Bengals drafted him anyway.

Then, they tried to sidestep questions about the type of player they had chosen to join a team on the rise.

“Let’s not sit here and talk about all that stuff,” coach Marvin Lewis said on draft day 2005, minutes after the Bengals took Henry in the third round.

A year later, they’re still trying to dodge questions about Henry.

And Odell Thurman.

And A.J. Nicholson.

And Frostee Rucker.

Four times in the last two drafts, the Bengals used picks on players with questions about their character. All four have gotten into trouble — plus Matthias Askew, a fourth-round pick from 2004.

It demonstrates that when a team takes a gamble on a player with a checkered past, there’s a considerable price to be paid if the pick goes wrong. The misdeeds can hurt his team on the field and off.

Just look at the Bengals.

“It’s ludicrous for anybody to feel that these actions or anything taint or have any negative approach to the core, the mentality of our football team,” Lewis insisted during the team’s preseason luncheon this week. “That’s no one who’s ever signed up or played a competitive sport in their life that feels that has an effect on these guys.”

It does, of course. And the effect can be significant.

Thurman’s four-game suspension for violating the NFL’s substance abuse policy will cost the Bengals their starting middle linebacker and their top tackler for the first month of the season, forcing his team to scramble.

Knowing Thurman would be lost, the Bengals chose troubled linebacker Ahmad Brooks in the supplemental draft, costing them a third-round draft pick next year. Brooks was kicked off his team at Virginia.

Henry’s four arrests in the last seven months have left his future up in the air — he goes on trial on a gun charge during training camp — and forced the Bengals to look for another No. 3 receiver.

The costs aren’t confined to the field.

The Bengals have at least temporarily replaced the Minnesota Vikings and their bawdy boat trip as the example of a franchise gone awry. Their image and reputation have taken a big hit — although many fans don’t seem to mind.

After a decade of ridicule for the team’s ineptitude, fans are caught up in excitement over the Bengals’ breakthrough playoff appearance last season. All of their preseason and regular-season home games have sold out — a first in Paul Brown Stadium’s seven-year history.

The arrests and the suspension? Talk-show callers don’t want to talk about them.

Neither do Lewis and team owner Mike Brown, beyond acknowledging that the problems are an embarrassment. They’ve tried to minimize the impact by pointing out that the players could beat the rap when their cases go to trial.

“These players all have prime representation and will have their opportunity, their right, to state their side of the case and their side of the story,” Lewis said. “We will continue to be very supportive of our players through this time. It’s a hard time on them, and something they’ve got to endure.”

Lewis’ reputation has been hurt as well.

Since he arrived before the 2003 season, Lewis has stressed the importance of bringing in players who have good character and act responsibly. After Henry repeatedly got arrested, Lewis said he had learned from the episode and would “red-flag” players with checkered pasts in the 2006 draft.

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Then, the Bengals took Rucker and Nicholson, both of whom got arrested even before they began negotiations on their first contracts.

The decision to draft a player is ultimately up to Brown, but Lewis has more sway over the front office than any head coach since franchise founder Paul Brown was on the sideline. By all accounts, the two have forged a good working relationship.

“As for Marvin and I, we talk every day,” Mike Brown said. “And we leave the room walking in lockstep.”

They’re in step in dealing with the arrests and the suspension — minimize the allegation, support the player, change the subject.

And, of course, they have to keep tabs on court cases in six jurisdictions, on charges involving carrying a concealed weapon, speeding, drunken driving and providing alcohol to minors (Henry); spousal battery and vandalism (Rucker); burglary, grand theft and vandalism (Nicholson); and resisting arrest, obstructing official business and illegal parking (Askew).

Asked if there’s a fine line between drafting players who are role models and those who have some problems in their past, Lewis bristled and cut off the discussion.

“It’s got nothing to do with that,” he said. “We’re not talking about somebody who’s beaten the hell out of somebody in a bar. It’s different.

“All right? We’re done.”

For now.

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