Levi Jones Wants to Know What's Going On

by Eric Horowitz, ShakedownSports

It's understandable that Levi Jones his upset. The Bengals left tackle signed a 6 year, $40 million contract extension before last season, but he missed the final ten games with a knee injury. Now the Bengals aren't giving him snaps in practice, they're playing him like a backup in pre-season games, and they won't tell him whether or not he's the starter at left tackle. After last week's game against Atlanta Jones finally lashed out.

"I have been ready for a few weeks now ... I've been ready to play for two weeks but haven't got a lot of snaps in practice," Jones said. "I get minimal snaps in practice. I've been thrown into games without much preparation."

It was then Marvin Lewis' turn to lash out---this time at Jones for voicing his frustration to the media.

"It concerns me because it's not about Levi, it's about the team, and he realizes that. I don't want the guys to vent their frustrations to you and I'm not going to change, I'm not going to vent mine to you either."

No good media relations director lets a player get criticized by a coach without apologizing, and so Jones soon had to tell everyone he was sorry.

"A lot was said. Tempers flared," Jones said. "I want to apologize for any distraction I may have caused to the team. That definitely wasn't the intent nor what I was trying to do."

I wouldn't have thought so, but it's kind of sad to see a 6"5, 300 lb, $40 million athlete being jerked around like a benchwarmer on a middle school basketball team. It seems to me like Jones has a right to complain and it will be interesting to see how this plays out if he isn't named the stater. Regardless of what happens, Jones should make an effort to learn a thing or two from Carlos Zambrano about giving apologies. That guy is like one big remorseful teddy bear.