Bengals Invite Criticism by Bringing Back Henry

There are many reasons the Cincinnati Bengals have long been viewed as one of the league's biggest laughingstocks. A lack of success on the field. Inept ownership and personnel evaluators. And a habit of overlooking character issues in their players. On Tuesday, they handed their critics even more ammunition when they announced the return of wide receiver Chris Henry.

You remember Henry, right? The guy who was released in April following the latest in a long series of arrests?

And do you remember what head coach Marvin Lewis and owner Mike Brown said about the situation over the summer? Let me refresh your memory.

“There is a responsibility to be a NFL player,” Lewis told reporters when asked about a possible return by Henry. “It’s a privilege, not a right.”

President Mike Brown echoed those sentiments by adding, “We don’t want that kind of behavior.”

It seemed at the time as if the organization actually had developed some principles and that maybe they were tired of the franchise being dragged through the mud because of the antics of a handful of their players.

In all fairness to Henry, charges were dropped after his latest trial ended in a hung jury (let's not confuse that with an actual acquittal, however). But that's beside the point. The Bengals cut Henry as a matter of principle and now they are unwilling to stick to their decision either out of fear that he will find success with another team, because Chad Johnson's injury is worse than has been reported, or their understaffed scouting department just isn't capable of finding someone else to fill the No. 3 role. Perhaps it's a combination of all three, I don't know. Either way, they now look even more foolish than before.

In all fairness to Lewis as well, it doesn't seem like the coach is on board with the reunion. About a month ago, Lewis proclaimed that bringing back Henry wasn’t “productive" for the team.

On Tuesday, he told the media, “I obviously know at the end of the day the owner has the final say-so on whether he wants to give a guy an opportunity or not.

So it sounds like Lewis was overruled on the matter. It also seems to me like the Bengals have an owner and coach who are no longer on the same page, which means Lewis could find himself coaching somewhere else in 2008 and the Bengals could be searching for a new head coach next offseason.

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