When it comes to their starting quarterback’s throwing wrist, the Bengals are getting a little cheeky.
According to Paul Dehner Jr. of TheAthletic.com, Cincinnati’s preliminary injury report for Monday night’s game at Jacksonville contains the reveal that quarterback Jake Browning completely participated in practice despite a “right wrist” ailment.
It’s either a coincidence that Browning had the identical injury as Joe Burrow did two weeks ago tonight (if not earlier), or the Bengals are trying to be cute in the aftermath of the Burrow injury.
(Remember when the Patriots listed Tom Brady as “probable” with a right shoulder ailment every week? This stems from Brady icing his shoulder after games and media speculating whether he had a concealed injury. So the Patriots just labeled him with a right shoulder injury and iced him every week.)
Yes, the league is looking into the Bengals’ failure to disclose Burrow’s injury. Yes, the league-owned media conglomerate has already predicted the likely “nothing to see here” result, because it is not in the NFL’s best interests to accuse the Bengals of lying about the health of their most important player.
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Let’s see how devoted the Bengals are to the bit if they’re just being snarky about Browning’s injury. Let’s see if they ultimately upload — and then delete — a video of Browning driving to Florida with a wrap stretching beyond and over his thumb.
Regardless of the fan backlash against the investigation into whether Burrow had an existing injury that the team concealed (and common sense alone suggests that he did, wrist or otherwise), in an age of legalized gambling, it’s critical that teams don’t conceal such information and that, if/when they do, the league takes serious action. NFL teams have played fast and loose with the injury on many occasions this year.
It’s a non-issue without legalized gambling, from which the NFL and its franchises generate millions of money. With gambling commercials everywhere and the league stuffing its pockets with cash faster than Costanza cramming his face with shrimp, a reckoning is unavoidable – unless the NFL wreaks havoc on every club that tries to keep injuries hidden.
