When you're the NFL's version of The Sopranos, you get no breaks. The Bengals, and all of us, were reminded of that again today. No the Bengals haven't 'whacked' anyone or anything, except maybe their playoff chances. But like Tony and his TV crew, they run afoul of the law, constantly. And now, it's again affecting their game prep.

Second year cornerback, Jonathan Joseph was arrested last January in Northern Kentucky and the cops found pot in his back pack (tucked neatly next to a video game system). Joseph copped a plea, did community service and the charges were eventually dropped. But in the NFL, it ain't over until the commissioner says it's over. And Commissioner Roger Goodell is gunning for guys like Joseph these days, particulary if they wear Bengal stripes.

Because of Chris Henry, Odell Thurman and a laundry list of other Bengals offenders, Joseph will pay a stiffer price for his offense. In an unusually harsh sentence for a first time offender, Joseph has been suspended for this Sunday's game against the Chiefs. He can rejoin the team for next week's game with the Jets. But Joseph will be playing for free. As part of his punishment, he'll be fined a full game check IN ADDITION to the check he'll not get this week.

Maybe this will be a wake up call for a young player with a bright future in the NFL. That's the hope. But the real hope this week lies with the Chiefs, who suddenly got more interested in passing the ball on a bad Bengals defense that got a lot worse Tuesday afternoon.

Finally....finally Carson Palmer has spoken out. I say finally because Palmer rarely says anything that close to noteworthy. He's a direct disciple of Marvin Lewis, the king of non informational comments. In this day of 'gotcha' journalism, I'm not sure I blame him. But it was refreshing to hear what Palmer said today regarding the latest Bengal to spend time behind bars, Johnathan Joseph. The rookie cornerback was arrested Monday night and charged with posession of marijuana.

Palmer said, "It has to stop. If it doesn't stop, we're not going to have any fans left." The Bengals quarterback went onto say about nine of his teammates being arrested in the past nine months, "It's ridiculous. We can't get through a month without getting a guy arrested."

The mere fact that Palmer is talking this way publicly may be the best indication that things will be getting better. For years, almost a decade, the Bengals have had no vocal leader in their locker room. Team management did a terrific job of extracting that from the equation, not wanting to be publicly embarrassed by something one of their employees said to the media. They traded that, I suppose, for being embarrassed by DUI's, drugs and resisting arrest charges.

A great way for the Bengals make the jump from pretender to contender is what Palmer finally did today: stand up and assume the responsibility of his position. Like it or not, the quarterback position is one of leadership. It goes with the turf. Look at the Indianapolis Colts, or New England Patriots, the Eagles. All have vocal leaders at quarterback. Let me ask you this: do you think for a minute any of this garbage that's been going on around the Bengals would be tolerated for a moment by Peyton Manning or Tom Brady? They may not have been able to stop it completely. But they'd be vocal enough to prevent some of it.

Palmer took a giant step today. He needs to take another. Next time something blows up on the Bengals, like their playoff hopes did this year against the Broncos and the Steelers, Palmer needs to name names. Nothing drastic mind you, just a gentle 'calling out'.

I could be wrong on this. But I think that may be as big to the general health of the Cincinnati Bengals, as any touchdown pass he'll throw.

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It’s beyond embarrassing. It was past that long ago, probably around the third or fourth arrest....or Chris Henry’s second. The Bengals now officially have more player arrests this season that wins.

When rookie cornerback, Jonathan Joseph was busted early Monday morning on a drug charge, the Bengals officially went past their win total for this season. In case you missed it, and the Florence cops didn't, Joseph was traveling with a female companion on Route 42 in Northern Kentucky very early today. The car was weaving, she was driving. When they asked Joseph to exit the vehicle, the cops say they smelled a strong scent of marijuana. Suspicion became a charge, when Joseph, according to the police, told them he had a bag of weed in a back pack he was toting. Making this story a complete mess, the back pack had a Super Bowl logo on it. Welcome to the Bengals in the new millenium. You ain’t nothing unless you got an arrest record.

Oh how I love them, let me count the ways. Chris Henry, the record holder with three arrests in four states over six months, Eric Steinbach, Deltha O’Neal, Frostee Rucker, Reggie McNeal, AJ Nicholson, the year long suspended Odell Thurman. And for a little garnishing, how about Ahmad Brooks who was bounced off the University of Virginia football team for allegedly testing positive for weed. And then, to celebrate the new year, the Bengals go out and sign a player who spent close to 300-days in jail for assault and theft while in college. And today, Jospeh and "the amazing techno-color trip through Florence".

These are our men in stripes...or orange jump suits.

There can be only one of two things going on here. Either the Bengals don’t bother to do serious back ground checks on the people they’re employing these days,or they simply don’t care about the type of people they hire.

They may assume, and sadly, rightly so, that winning trumps whatever else happens to a professional football team, off the field. It doesn’t matter what transgressions an NFL player has, all is forgiven with a timely TD catch or a game saving sack. Just listen to the cheering or look in the stands at the fans wearing the player's jersey. In Cincinnati, chances are, it’s the number of a player who’s been to lock up.

More later today, as this story developes