Cut down day is never easy. For a professional athlete it may mean the end of a long sought after dream. Sometimes, it is just a bump in the road. However, it is never easy to have someone tell you you're not good enough.
Remember the days when you were trying to make the elementary, junior high or high school teams and you had to wait until the coach posted the names of those who made the team? Or maybe the coach called your house? You wanted the news, but, you didn't want to answer the phone.
Growlzone.com 2007 Best Bengals Bar/Restaurant Contest Is Back, and Better Than Ever!
Last year we took over 20,000 votes and GameDay Café just edge out Putters to win Growlzone.com’s First Annual Best Bengals Bar/Restaurant Contest. This year the contest is even bigger and the stakes are even higher. Can GameDay Café keep its title or will they be knocked out by the competition. Can Putters Tavern move up to gain the top spot?
The contest is simple. The top 3 bars from last year are automatically into the final running. We take fan nominations for 5 more bars/restaurants that they feel are the best in Greater Cincinnati. Meaning the best bar to watch a Bengals game at based on the crowd, fan support, atmosphere, food, televisions, fun etc. Form there, Bengals Fans tart voting. We will make sure each bar knows they are in the finals to win Best Cincinnati Bengals Bar! Each bar or restaurant is allowed to do whatever it wants to generate votes for the contest. Fans can vote one time each, each day. At the end of the contest, the bar with the most votes becomes the Growlzone.com Best Bengals Bar for 2007.
Bengals will look to pick up the pieces of a 2-6 start when they travel to Baltimore to face off against Ravens team they have beaten.
T.J. Houshmandzadeh figured fellow receiver Chad Johnson would be OK while riding with him in the ambulance to a Buffalo hospital. "He was just joking around," Houshmandzadeh said. "Just saying little dumb corny jokes, but just for him to say that kind of stuff at that moment, I knew he was going to be all right."
After a big hit administered by Buffalo's Donte Whitner and Coy Wire, Johnson was immobilized and carted off the field on a stretcher late in a 33-21 loss at Buffalo. CT scans came back normal. On Monday, Johnson was back in the Cincinnati Bengals locker room. "He's here working; he's fine," said Bengals head coach Marvin Lewis, who added that Johnson may be able to play at Baltimore this week despite a neck strain.
Chris Henry is officially back on the Bengals' 53-man roster. The 6-foot-4, 200-pound receiver served an eight-game NFL suspension in the wake of several legal issues. In 27 career games, Henry has 67 catches for 1,027 yards and 15 touchdowns. When all on the field, the trio of Chad Johnson, T.J. Houshmandzadeh and Henry is arguably the NFL's best. To make room for Henry, the Bengals released Skyler Green — a second-year player from LSU. Henry has been allowed to practice the last couple weeks.
Not 'that' feeling: The Bengals' 2-6 mark is reminiscent of bad starts in the 1990s and earlier this decade. "We went into games back then, just like, 'Man, I think we can win, but I don't know.' I don't think it's the case (now)," said Houshmandzadeh, a Bengal since 2001. "I feel like we can win every game and a lot of guys feel like we can win every game. We're just not winning them. "But the players and the mentality is different. We're just not getting it done. It's not the old mentality where you go into a game and you hope you can win and you get down seven, it's like you're down by 21."
The Bengals will not have to cope with a potential tragedy, and for that they're thankful. That only tempered the reality that their season is essentially beyond repair. Cincinnati sunk to 2-6 at the season's halfway point with a 33-21 loss to the Buffalo Bills yesterday in Ralph Wilson Stadium. The only consolation in another dismal day was that receiver Chad Johnson, carted off the field with a neck injury late in the game, appears to have escaped serious injury. A CT scan at a Buffalo-area hospital checked out normal, and Johnson accompanied the team on its flight home.
X-rays on Johnson's neck come back normal after being carted off field with 1:53 left in road loss to Bills. Wide receiver Chad Johnson was wheeled off the field on a stretcher, placed in an ambulance and taken to a room at Ralph Wilson Stadium for X-rays on his aching neck. Then it was off to a local hospital for a CAT scan and more tests.
With him, in the emergency room, was the Bengals' season. They fell to 2-6 after absorbing a 33-21 loss to the Buffalo Bills, who improved to 4-4 with their fourth victory in five games after an 0-3 start. Bengals head coach Marvin Lewis said Johnson never lost consciousness when he got sandwiched on a hit by Bills' safety Donte Whitner and linebacker Coy Wire at Buffalo's 37-yard line with 1:53 to play. "He has movement in his body — fingers, arms and legs," Lewis said. "He underwent an X-ray here as a precaution because he was having some pain in his neck. So they did immobilize him."
The Team 
