07-15-2019, 09:42 PM
(07-15-2019, 08:25 PM)jason Wrote: I lived in Columbus at the time so my access to the Bengals wasn't really up to snuff in the 1990s... How did Carl Pickens behave like Bonds? I know he was kinda salty with management as most Bengals are by the time they leave, but that's about it.
FWIW... Barry Bonds is the best baseball player I saw in my lifetime... Asshole or not.
Well it's been awhile, but IIRC besides constantly badmouthing the team and ownership (I think he was the reason the Bengals created the "loyalty clause") he would actively talk free agents out of coming here, treated local media like garbage, fired his agent immediately after signing a mega deal. Boomer Esiason views Pickens as one of the worst teammates he's ever played with, and Boomer's been around. Here's a quote from Boomer from Chip Ludwig's book: "He's everybody's cancer and he shouldn't be in your book. He created his own island. He was such a negative influence on people". Boomer also has harsh words for how Pickens treated Darnay Scott and the other WRs at the time.
He was also accused of assaulting his wife years after he was done with football which also isn't exactly a ringing endorsement of the man.
Compare Pickens to the guys that came later and challenged/beat a lot of his records - Chad Johnson and AJ Green were both incredibly personable, positive, and infinitely more like-able.
No arguing that guys like Pickens and Bonds were great players, all I'm saying is I can't exactly feel sorry for them based on how they carried themselves. I might put a few pitchers ahead of Bonds on my list of "best baseball player I saw during my lifetime", but he's clearly a Hall of Famer. I'm just not going to lose any sleep if he has to twist in the wind a bit before getting in.
