No one to blame but ourselves.

[Burma]

I am pissed we lost both Whit and Zeitler.  But I am actually mad at myself because I set myself up to feel this. I believed the Bengals would reassess their stance on not locking down Whit and Zeitler in light the poor development of the recent drafted olinemen.  Nope.  They were true to their word.  They told us their plans long in advance. I ignored that and made my own expectations, which were not met.  My bad.  My fault.  I wasn't mislead.

Hobson told us clearly last June we weren't going to effort to retain Zeitler.  The guy may be nothing more than a laughable proaganda mouth piece, but he says what management is telling him.

Quote:Zeitler is a fine young player, but how many second contracts can you dole out? Plus, guard is a position (safety is another) where they don’t traditionally drop top-of-the-market contracts and as a former first-rounder who has had a solid career Zeitler figures to be looking at a leading number. Still, they love the guy and want to find a way to keep him.

http://www.bengals.com/news/article-1/Hobsons-Choice-backers-and-bounces/e718ef97-1483-4f28-a625-06e18911bba0

The sad part is the upset fans have no one to blame but themselves. The Bengals always give their version of "don't get your hopes up". Couched in just enough non committal, vague assurances of striving for success to make it genericly positive.  We then key in on the vague, non commital promises of moderate glory and run with it, getting mad when our baseless expectations aren't meant.

We would be much better off, as fans of the Bengals, to not look at the front office as football minds planning football success.  Instead think of them as your companies HR. Making sure the company runs smoothly and profitably while handing out free popcorn, false enthusiasm,  stress balls, and promises to "lift your 'very real' concerns, which we sincerely value, up to management" during employee appreciation season ticket renewal week.