Commissioner to Bengals: Chill off-field behavior

MIAMI – One day after NFL Players Association leaders voiced their concern about off-field player misconduct, commissioner Roger Goodell said this afternoon he would step up league efforts to curb the kind of outbreak that has taken place in Cincinnati.

Goodell, the first-year NFL boss, said he has spoken to Bengals president Mike Brown about the problem. Nine Bengals players have been arrested in the past 13 months.

“From my standpoint, we have talked to Mike on several occasions,” Goodell said during his state-of-the-league news conference. “We have offered services, and he has taken those services.”

The Bengals now offer a 24-hour hotline for players to call if they have been drinking alcohol and are in danger of getting a DUI.

Goodell and players union executive director Gene Upshaw will speak later this month at the annual scouting combine in Indianapolis and plan to speak to NFL players to try to understand why players are getting into trouble.

“We want to understand what is happening in these particular markets. Why is it happening in one market and not the other? Goodell said. “Why is it players need in support or what they need in education? We will do that very aggressively in the next several months.”

In addition to nine player arrests, the Bengals have been stung by four arrests alone of wide receiver Chris Henry. Henry (two games) and linebacker Odell Thurman (first four and then an entire season) were suspended by Goodell in the past year for repeated violations of the league’s substance abuse policy. Henry could be subject to a four-game suspension if the commissioner decides Henry's guilty plea in an under-aged drinking case is a second strike against the substance abuse policy.

But why Cincinnati (nine player arrests) and San Diego (seven)?

“I don’t know the answer to that,” he said. “But we want to find out and we’re going to find out.”

The Enquirer is seeking comment from Bengals officials about the commissioner’s statements.