FF Q&A

After the team starting lineup had been announced, Vote for Pedro's star tailback Corey Dillon revealed that he would not be playing. Will you be taking any disciplinary action?

Corey’s situation was really something we should have had a better handle on as a staff. He was injured but had been ready to go as far as I knew on Sunday morning. In the pregame warm-ups, he, along with the team doctor and training staff made the last minute decision to hold out of the game. I’m not going to lie and say that it didn’t piss me off. It did. Corey himself won’t be punished, but as a Head Coach, I can say that I’m going to make (expletive) sure that I’m monitoring each injury first hand and making sure that we don’t put ourselves in this kind of a situation again. And we’ve had to let some people go on the medical staff. From now on, I’m only going to have the kind of people who are going to be upfront and honest with me on my staff.

Are you concerned with some of the last minute injury developments on gameday? Is this an issue with your training staff, or conditioning, or...?

Yes, (expletive) yes, I am. Like I said, I’m going to do my best to make sure something like this doesn’t happen again. Quite frankly, it screwed us. It screwed our whole team.

Can you address the Chris Brown / Corey Dillon situation from this weekend?

Address it? Yes, had Chris started in Corey’s place, we would have won. Won by 1 point. There it is, plain and simple. Does this make me mad? (Expletive) yes, it does. Had I had all the information, I would have made that decision easily. Hopefully something like this won’t happen again. I mean, I’m trying my best here, a little help from my players and staff would be nice, that’s for sure.

Any thoughts on having 3 Bengals in your starting lineup, whereas in years past often you wouldn't see any Cincinnati players?

Wow, I guess you’re right, we do have 3 Bengals. In years past, there’s no way you would have seen that on a fantasy team. We had Shayne (Graham) as our kicker last year and he was great, so we’re happy to have him back again. Chris (Henry) is a guy we gave a look to after Houshmanzadeh went out with injuries and Fat Rudi (Johnson) was a draft pick this year. I guess you have to give credit to those guys for working hard and playing well. They’re 5-1 right now! Who’d have thought? We’re happy with the guys we have, but we’re not going off the deep end…don’t expect me to be starting Tony Stewart any time soon!

Ben's status for this upcoming weekend vs. a solid Bengals team? Mark Brunell completed 25-of-41 passes for 331 yards with three touchdowns and no interceptions for you this weekend - any temptation to start him again next week at home vs. a very shaky 49ers defense?

Ben’s been moved up to Questionable for the game. I’m not going to name a starter until later in the week. Ben wants to play, he’s promising me he’s ready, but with the Dillon situation last week, I don’t want something like that to come back to haunt me. Mark did a great job last week, and, you’re right, he has the easier match-up on paper. I’m going to keep an eye on them in practice and name our starter as we get closer to game time.

You are facing your sister this weekend - what's that like for you? At this point, are there any game secrets considering you live in the same apartment?

I’m looking forward to the game this weekend with More Cowbell. They’re on a 3 game winning streak, so that’s challenging. Playing my sister is always extra competitive so that’s definitely going to add something to the weekend. You’re right, we live together, but this week, I’ll go out of my way to keep our game plan secret. I’m lucky enough to have a day job that’s boring as hell, so I can pretty much work on game strategy all day here.