Sunday, November 14, 1999BENGALS INSIDER
New facilities should please free agents
BY GEOFF HOBSON
The Cincinnati EnquirerIf the Bengals can't use winning to stop the league-wide scuttlebutt ripping their organization, they'll have to out-amenity the other teams when it comes to luring free agents and bucking up morale.
It's like turning Siberia into Sunset Strip, but the club hopes the new practice facility at Paul Brown Stadium at some point stems the campaign ignited by disgruntled former Bengals decrying the way players are treated here.
“We're taking a major step forward to get these guys as nice a setup as there is in the NFL,” said Troy Blackburn, the Bengals director of stadium operations. “The only limitation we have is we don't have 80-degree weather in February.”
The new stadium features a weight room three times the size of the current one at Spinney Field, an aerobics room, a lounge with phones and TVs, and a training room with a $125,000 hydroptherapy machine. A basketball court can be converted into the cafeteria as well as the room where the team holds walk- through sessions.
“One of the criticisms we've heard is that we had to make it more attractive to be here in the offseason,” Blackburn said. “We think the basketball court, the expanded weight room, and the training amenities do that.”
And, yes, the Bengals will have their own chef. Controversy has boiled over with some comments by ex-players that their new teams have their own cooks, but the new millenium starts off medium well. The Bengals plan to have a six-person food service department serving players and coaches with food cooked down the hall from the cafeteria.
If the Bengals are stil chopped liver on the field, they'll at least be getting filet mignon off it. The same people preparing the food are those cooking for those in the luxury suites and club seats.
“I don't think we've got a problem here with the (Spinney facilities),” Blackburn said. “They're at an appropriate level. But that said, we're making sure our players are well taken care of. That's critical to our business and we have provided ourselves with almost every conceivable tool to do that.”
Plans for one of the practice fields to have a bubble over the top for inclement weather are still on hold pending plans for a light rail system.
WILLIE'S WAY: His boss thinks if the team was winning, Bengals right tackle Willie Anderson would be considered for the Pro Bowl. But in his fourth season, Anderson has resigned himself to the notion he just might never make it.
“But that's OK,” Anderson said last week. “In my first or second year, I was intent on making the Pro Bowl. Now all I'm concerned about is winning and just getting paid for the way I perform and that the coaches and general managers around the league know who I am.”
He doesn't have to worry about the Bengals GM. Mike Brown says Anderson is one of the elite tackles in the league, but you won't hear about him because the Bengals aren't winning.
Yet the way Anderson has played the last two weeks with a sprained kneee and sore foot when he could have packed in a 1-8 season and taken a few weeks off should serve some notice. It's hard to overlook someone 6-foot-6, 335 pounds, but he thinks it's been happening for awhile.
That's why he looks forward to matchups like the one today against Tennessee rookie left end Jevon Kearse. Not so much because a good day will get him noticed.
“I'd rather go against the best guys every week,” Anderson said. “The Kearses, the Michael Sinclairs. I look forward to it once the schedule comes out. I did all right against Kearse (in the opener), but that was his first game. He's playing a lot better, with more confidence.”
Anderson says matter-of-factly he hasn't allowed a sack this season. At least one where, “I got beat by a guy.” He's not surprised you didn't know that.
“My (college) coaches didn't want to give me that type of pub my junior yearso I would stay my senior year,” Anderson said. “I didn't get the pub coming out of college like (Jonathan) Ogden and (Tony) Boselli. Obviously they're great players, but we're not playing in a big market and people don't pay attention.”
It's the first principle of offensive line play. Virtually no recognition: “We're not winning, we're not scoring a lot of points, we're not leading the league in rushing. Seattle probably just found out who I was. We're not on TV getting pumped up like Boselli. (Rams left tackle) Orlando Pace is having a good year and his team is winning and that's the bottom line.”
Anderson has dropped about 10 pounds this season to 335 and is one of the players who benefitted the most from the club's offseason workouts. He had a rap for reporting overweight, but Bengals offensive line coach Paul Alexander said Anderson put that to bed when he showed up this year.
“I wish I had five like him,” Alexander said.
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