Palmer Looks Strangely Fine And Normal

We're not sure what we were expecting out of Bengals quarterback Carson Palmer last night, but, all told, we would have been less surprised to see his leg fall off than what he actually did. Anytime we had seen Palmer talk, he appeared hesistant and nervous about stepping back on a field after his knee injury in the playoffs last year, and who could blame him? His rehab back was about twice as fast as it should have been and twice as grueling, as evidenced by the Sports Illustrated that showed him lifting a weight of about five pounds.

But boy, he didn't look scared last night, throwing three touchdowns and generally looking like he was never hurt in the Bengals' preseason win over the Packers. We'll confess: Because of the Bengals' doomed history, we imagined a truly tragic story of the star savior quarterback hurting himself in a playoff game and never playing again, a forever tortured figure on the city landscape. But here he is, seven months later, and he looks just fine. Storylines suck anyway. And they just don't make crippling knee injuries the way they used to.

Oh, and Brett Favre played last night. Yeah. Brett. Uh ... you know, we should probably just not say anything, except that he owes Joe Theismann a series of deep tissue massages.

No Need To Fret About No. 9 [Cincinnati Enquirer]