GEORGETOWN, Ky. — Twice in the offseason, the Bengals talked to agent David Dunn about trading for quarterback Drew Bledsoe. And twice, they were told that Bledsoe didn't want to play for the Bengals, a story first reported by the Enquirer.

        Bledsoe instead was traded to Buffalo on draft weekend, in exchange for the Bills' first-round pick in 2003.

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        The Bengals, who will open the preseason Friday night at Buffalo, aren't seeking revenge on the former New England Patriots quarterback.

        “I'm not going to make an issue of that,” Bengals president Mike Brown said Monday. “This is a preseason game.”

        But Brown sang a different tune in an interview posted last month on the Bengals' Web site. He was asked if the Bledsoe snub gave him incentive to beat the Bills.

        “It would be in my mind,” Brown said in the July interview. “I don't know if the players will think much one way or the other, but I don't know if I'll have forgotten.”

        Brown also had said that the Bengals' 11 consecutive non-winning seasons probably played a part in Bledsoe's decision.

        “When you're a good team, players are attracted,” he told the Web site. “When you have not had a period of success, it's something that puts off players. That's the way it works.”

        On Monday, Brown spoke of the offseason and Bledsoe in general terms.

        “It's a free-agency system. You compete for players, and sometimes they come and sometimes they don't,” Brown said. “Sometimes, when they do, you're real happy. Sometimes it's like your old girlfriend, maybe. You're real happy they didn't.

        “That's the way it went in that case. We went a different way and we're happy with (Gus) Frerotte. He looks real good.”

        The Bengals signed Frerotte, a backup in Denver the past two seasons, to a one-year, free-agent contract on May 1.

        Besides opening the preseason in Buffalo, the Bengals will close the regular season there on Dec. 29. A playoff appearance might hinge on the outcome of that game.

        Last season, after quarterback Elvis Grbac turned down more money from the Bengals to sign with the Baltimore Ravens, Cincinnati linebacker Takeo Spikes said he took Grbac's decision personally.

        “He snubbed us,” Spikes said in advance of the Sept. 23 game, a 21-10 Bengals win over the Ravens. “He pretty much put it in real terms, not dress it up that they're a bunch of losers regardless of how much money.”

        On Monday morning, with the 2002 preseason opener four days away, Spikes would not comment on Bledsoe.

        “I ain't giving them no bulletin board,” he said.

        Offensive captain and right tackle Willie Anderson was asked if the Buffalo games meant more to him and his teammates because of Bledsoe's offseason comments.

        “How about when guys said it back in '96, '97, '98, '99, 2000, 2001, since I've been here?” Anderson said. “You could get mad every week. Just because he's a quarterback and says it, whoop de doop, man.”

        Anderson also said he expects his defensive teammates to go after Bledsoe or any other Bills player because it's their job.

        “Justin (Smith), Reinard (Wilson), Takeo, Brian (Simmons), those guys want to kill him regardless, the same way those guys want to kill our quarterbacks,” Anderson said.

        “The game's going to be played whether we love him or hate him. It was not about Elvis Grbac. It's not going to be about Drew Bledsoe. I'm not going to touch Drew Bledsoe. So I could give a damn. My job is to go out and keep (Jon) Kitna and Frerotte safe and give Corey (Dillon) some room to run.”

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