Jim Lippincott, the team's director of football operations. (File photo) | ZOOM |

        GEORGETOWN, Ky. — Jim Lippincott is the grim reaper of Bengals training camp.

        The team's director of football operations, Lippincott is the person who has to deliver the news that a player has been cut from the squad. But he performs the duty as humanely as possible.

        “I do it between 5:15 and 5:30 in the morning, which gets them off the campus by 6:30,” he said. “They're out of here before their teammates are up. It saves them the embarrassment.”

        But he is direct.

        “I simply tell them they are being put on waivers, which means they didn't make the team,” Lippincott said. “If he has been in the league less than four years, he is allowed to be claimed in a 24-hour period off waivers. If (more than) four years, they are a free agent immediately.”

        He explains to the player how he will get home and gives him an airline ticket. He explains that personal equipment will be packaged and shipped to his home.

        Then Lippincott collects the room key, the Bengals playbook and any meeting notes the player had taken during classroom work.

        The player might be gone, but is usually not forgotten. Other players at the departed player's position — linebacker, wide receiver — wear their jerseys inside-out in his honor that day at practice.

At training camp, competition and camaraderie forge a team Bengals training camp by the numbers Farmer returns, hamstring and all Grass-roots effort working well at Paul Brown Stadium He's the one who brings bad news Chargers 31, Rams 10 Rams fullback fractures left foot in preseason game

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