Bengals owner Mike Brown looked back on the trade of quarterback Carson Palmer to the Raiders in 2011 this week and said he regretted the way that things came to an end for Palmer in Cincinnati.
Palmer’s with the Cardinals now, of course, and he’ll be playing the Bengals on Sunday night, which meant that Wednesday was Palmer’s turn to meet the media and field questions about meeting his former team. During the interview, Brown also said that he never believed Palmer was sincere about retiring and Palmer said Wednesday, via Craig Morgan of AZSports.com, that he is “not going to get into a ‘he-said, she-said’ situation” with Brown.
Palmer indicated he’d be willing to discuss the end of his time with the Bengals at another time, but said only that his time with Brown “ended with a very colorful, heated argument.” Those feelings might not be up for a long discussion this week, but Palmer was willing to admit that they are on his mind heading into the game.
“It’s not just another game,” Palmer said, via Paul Dehner of the Cincinnati Enquirer. “I’m not going to bore you with that. There is definitely a lot on this one for me in particular.”
As mentioned when discussing Brown’s comments, the trade wound up working out well for both the Bengals and Palmer. That won’t be the case on Sunday night and, thanks to his honesty about what the game means to him, we know Palmer will either be getting one last dose of satisfaction or a painful loss four years after his relationship with Brown imploded.
