Seth's 50 Centers

The first day of free agency.

For fans of teams like the New York Jets, Buffalo Bills and San Francisco 49ers, this day has been a bright one the past few years.

For my Cincinnati Bengals, it’s as dark a day as you’ll find, and that’s saying something from a Bengals fan.

It actually started a few days ago. I began wondering why my team never seemed to make any moves on this Christmas morning of the NFL. It’s the day the great players get big contracts from new teams.

Part of me reasoned that it could be smart not to get involved with ex-Super Bowl players or other standouts who’re obviously asking for a bit more money than they’re worth. Maybe it’s smart to stay out of the race for an offensive guard who ends up signing for $32 million (former Steeler Alan Faneca, who signed with the Jets).

But at the end of the day I longed for the excitement of landing that one guy that’d help my team!

So, when I opened a web page Friday afternoon and learned that my team had pulled off a trade — no, it’s not a free agent deal but it did involve a new contract — for Detroit Lions defensive tackle Shaun Rogers, I was ecstatic, but wary.

As I dialed my phone to call a friend of mine who roots for the Lions, I had a moment of hesitation. “What if this turns out like that day we almost signed Warren Sapp? What if it’s announced as a done deal like that day when Sapp was in Paul Brown Stadium only to be whisked away to Oakland?”

Nah, couldn’t happen twice in three years, could it? My friend told me he thought Rogers was still a solid player, although he had a rough season last year with allegations of taking plays off — still had 77 tackles as an interior lineman, almost unheard of.

So I go about my business, calling fellow Bengals fans, giving the business to a Steelers fan at a game I was covering, you know, enjoying myself as a Bengals fan for the first time in a year or so.

Then I get home.

Not only did the trade not go through — insert your joke about the Bengals missing a tackle, the Brown family not being able to figure out the intricacies of the NFL salary cap, or whatever else you might come up with, here — but the hated Browns had swooped in and obtained Rogers before the Bengals could do anything about it!

This signing would’ve single-handedly tipped the scales — literally at over 350 pounds — toward gaining some respectability on the defensive side of the ball. My friend Ben and I reasoned that the last stud defensive lineman we had was Tim Krumrie, and he played on the 1988 Super Bowl team!

It’s really hard to be a fan of a team when they not only bungle things up on game day, but can’t get anything right in free agency, in trades or on draft day!

I hear Pac Man Jones is available, and the commissioner might lift his suspension in time for his 40th birthday, maybe we should go after him!

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