The worst thing a team can do to a player who is not living up to expectations is baby him. That is where the Vikings went wrong with Brett Favre, they treated him like he was above the team and it ended up biting them in the back.
Your quarterback is the leader, but you can’t force that on a team. Also when other players see excuses being made for the quarterback, it sets a bad example, that he is above criticisms.
This is the Bengals, so maybe I shouldn’t be surprised.
Carson Palmer’s dissatisfaction with the Bengals is a one way street. In fact, the team is taking Palmer off the hook for performing below expectations in 2010. People at Paul Brown Stadium tell me they believe the team didn’t give Palmer the best chance to succeed last year because of what they surrounded Palmer with. If they keep Palmer—and they want to pacify him and make it work—they will try to rectify the situation by making sure the locker room understands that Palmer is the only leader.
This is like when a woman cheats on a man and when he finds out the woman says:
“I cheated only because you weren’t giving me enough love.”
Palmer has been average at best and putting the blame on Chad OchoCinco (or is it Johnson now), T.O., Cedric Benson, O-Line, Offensive Coordinator and etc is wrong.
Palmer was the one who lobbied for Terrell Owens by the way.
We will see once all of those players are gone who really was the problem in Cincy.