Friday, October 01, 1999Blackman needs more knee surgery
Latest setback may result in guard's release
BY GEOFF HOBSON
The Cincinnati EnquirerThe Bengals' bad season got a little worse Thursday when the team learned guard Ken Blackman needs arthroscopic surgery to find out why his knee is still sore and swollen despite two operations.
That means Blackman probably will have trouble getting back on the field this season and the man who has started 31 games for the Bengals may be released. Blackman is scheduled to come off the physically unable to perform list and start practicing Oct.18. He has three weeks from then to get active for a game, or another move must be made.
Trainer Paul Sparling said arthroscopic surgery usually sets patients back “a few weeks ... but it depends what they find.” Sparling said he knows of no other NFL lineman who has had Blackman's articular cartilage graft.
CLOSE CALL: The Bengals literally came within an arm's length of another fiasco Thursday when running back Sedrick Shaw passed his physical only upon further review.
Shaw probably wasn't going to play Sunday against the Rams, anyway, but a bruised shoulder definitely will keep him out until next week's game against Cleveland, the team that cut him.
Shaw couldn't practice Thursday while he waited for an MRI to show the shoulder injury wasn't more serious: “We weren't aware of it in advance, but we worked it up and it's not a concern,” Sparling said.
Shaw, a third-round pick of the Patriots in 1997, failed to nail down the starting job in New England when Curtis Martin defected to the Jets. Shaw was traded to the Browns for past considerations after rushing for 236 yards on 48 carries for the Pats in '98.
“He's an experienced NFL running back,” Bengals President Mike Brown said. “Once he gets healthy, he can relieve Corey (Dillon).
MILNE FALLOUT: Coach Bruce Coslet wouldn't even touch the release of fullback Brian Milne. Brown said Coslet agreed with the move, but Coslet said: “I didn't talk about it yesterday. I won't talk about it today. I won't talk about it tomorrow. I never talk about players getting waived.”
Bengals fullback Clif Groce gets his 11th start Sunday against the Rams, but he knows it will be his most scrutinized, given Milne's release. Reminded the Bengals cut him and re-signed him three days later just before the season started, Groce smiled.
“It's like a country-western song,” Groce said. “My college coach was Coach (Gary) Kubiak, and he always told me life in the NFL is full of ups and downs and you have to ride them out. Some tears, some shaking your head, and hopefully when it's all over, some laughter.”
SERIOUS RAMS: Dick Vermeil is not likely to allow his team to look past Cincinnati to the following week's game against San Francisco.
For one thing, he said, St.Louis is not good enough for that. “All we've done is won two football games,” he said. Another reason? In 1979, he brought a 6-2 Philadelphia team that had been to the playoffs the previous year to town to play a 1-7 Bengals squad.
Cincinnati won 37-13. Vermeil calls it his “worst coaching experience” in the NFL.
“They kicked our (butt),” he said. “It has bothered me ever since. I did a lousy job of coaching and preparing.”
THIS AND THAT: If the Reds make it to the seventh game of the World Series Oct.31, the Bengals have a problem. They are home against Jacksonville, but the game can't be moved to Jacksonville that Sunday because of a college game the day before. ... G Brian DeMarco (back) tolerated limited work and looks like he'll play. ... ILB Takeo Spikes had a cast and tape put on his sprained right wrist.
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