Though Marvin Lewis has already apologized for his remarks yesterday on ESPN Radio’s Dan Patrick Show in which the Bengals coach claimed his oft-busted bunch were the targets of racial profiling (“We’re (Cincinnati) a small place – our guys stand out, and they know that, and you’ve got to do things the right way. But when you are arrested for, or you are pulled over for, not putting on your turn signal, there’s something wrong there. Many people make right turns without putting on their turn signals and it’s unfortunate that we’ve had a guy that’s pulled over for not putting on his turn signal.”), “NFL Live” co-dope Sean Salisbury was quick to dismiss Marv’s less than outrageous suggestion.
“A lot of times most of us say stuff in certain situations where we’ve been under a lot of pressure like there has been on Marvin Lewis the last two years that we don’t mean based on emotion…I don’t believe by any stretch Marvin meant the Cincinnati Police Department was targeting his players. I think what happens is when you’re under the focus, under the limelight like they are for the last couple of months, it’s one of those things you’ve got to warn your players it has. I don’t think it’s a problem, I know Marvin Lewis respects the Cincinnati Police Department, as he should.”
My apologies if the above doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. I’ve listened to Salisbury’s remarks no fewer than a half dozen times, and despite all of his helpful talking with his hands, I still cannot determine where his sentences end nor begin.
Though Lewis has disavowed his earlier remarks, I’m willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. After all, Marv has to drive to work everyday. But how much time has Salisbury spent in that town and on what grounds does he insist that Lewis — or anyone else —- should automatically respect the Cincinnati police?