The NFL made middle linebacker Odell Thurman’s one-year suspension official Wednesday, saying he can apply for reinstatement before next season, and Bengals head coach Marvin Lewis offered no clues on his future with the club.

The Bengals have the right to cut Thurman during his suspension if it is based on a football-only decision, but "I can't comment on that. He's been suspended from the league," Lewis said.

The suspension is apparently retroactive to his original suspension of July 11. He can apply to the commissioner for early reinstatement in a bid to participate in the spring camps. According to NFL policy, Thurman can only be on the Bengals' premises if he's visiting his treatment clinician, but apparently that won't happen.

"We've told him he's not to be around here," Lewis said.

Thurman had been scheduled to return from a four-game suspension for violating the league’s substance abuse policy next week, but Monday morning’s DUI arrest put him into the next stage because it was a failure “to cooperate with testing, treatment, evaluation or other requirements imposed on him by this policy or fails to comply with this treatment plan.”

Lewis said wide receiver Chris Henry, in the car when Thurman was arrested, left practice early to get treatment. He wouldn't say if he plans to make him inactive Sunday for disciplinary reasons.

"I don't tell anybody who is going to play Sunday," Lewis said. "It's not to my advantage to tell anybody who's doing what, is it?"

Bengals.com
http://www.bengals.com/news/news.asp?story_id=5535