Friday, March 10, 2000
Bengals and Boomer: Days late, dollars short
No room under cap now to sign high-priced QB
BY GEOFF HOBSON
The Cincinnati Enquirer
The Bengals signed a big left-handed backup quarterback Thursday. But it was Scott Mitchell and not Boomer Esiason. Which got Bengals President Mike Brown thinking, even though he hasn't spoken to Esiason recently.
“Maybe if this was a few months ago, we could have done something,” Brown said when he heard Esiason had been fired by ABC-TV. “But we can't do anything now with the salary cap to make a move like that.”
In the last three weeks, the Bengals have added $7.7 million to their 2000 salary cap, close to what Esiason had been thought to be seeking from the club when he contemplated returning.
But with the Bengals attempting to extend the contracts of running back Corey Dillon and right tackle Willie Anderson after the draft, there is no room for a quarterback who turns 39 next month.
“Hey, I'm still playing basketball and hockey,” Esiason said about his physical condition. “I think I could do it, but it would have to be the perfect spot, and I don't know where that would be.”
Esiason figures to get back into television because he doesn't think Brown will relinquish his NFL rights if another club is interested. Brown would say only, “I don't know of any team that has the cap room to make a big deal like that.”
Esiason and Brown have had some major dust-ups through the years, starting with the 1987 strike and culminating with the day two years ago when ABC made its offer and Esiason didn't think Brown tried hard enough to keep him playing.
But Brown acknowledged if both men could have foreseen the ABC deal ending after two seasons, Esiason would have stayed a Bengal.
“I truly thought it was the opportunity of a lifetime and that he should embrace it and go,” Brown said. “I feel badly this has happened to him. He was good at it and he would have gotten better.”
With ABC checking out another left-hander to replace him in Steve Young — as well as former coach Bill Parcells — Esiason chalks up his firing to the network game.
He knew it was over when his best friends in the business, producer Ken Wolfe and director Craig Janoff, also were fired.
“I think about it all the time what would have happened if I kept playing,” Esiason said. “But I'm glad I did TV. I learned. It's the most political thing I've ever been around.”
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