Bengals Lewis suggests his players are being targeted by police!

[skinsfan_nn]

POSTED 9:31 p.m. EDT; LAST UPDATED 10:40 p.m. EDT, May 24, 2007

MARVIN APOLOGIZES FOR "PROFILING" REMARKS

Bengals coach Marvin Lewis has apologized (via a statement released by the team) for comments from Wednesday suggesting that police in the Cincinnati area are profiling Bengals players.

"Yesterday, I gave a radio interview and made some comments that did not illustrate the high regard I have for the Cincinnati Police Department," Lewis said. "I apologize that what I said did not reflect my true feelings."

Our guess? Marvin realized that accusing the cops of profiling Bengals players was the most effective way to ensure that they will.

Marvin also realized, we believe, that he was stoking racial tensions in a city that has a history of fragile relations in this regard. Of course, he's now trying to say that he wasn't.

"At no point did I say or mean to imply that these issues had anything to do with race," Lewis said. "Broadcast comments to the contrary are simply not true. When I spoke of our players being perhaps more subject to scrutiny than others, I was referring to their standing as public figures."

Bull, we say. The word "profiling" implies that decision are made based on superficial characteristics. In a city that is far bigger than the "small place" that Lewis makes it out to be, players from the local professional football team can be "profiled" only if (as a reader pointed out this afternoon) they are wearing their helmets (or, in the case of Chris Henry, their jerseys) while driving around town.

Besides, "profiling" is one of those code words that imply racially-based motives, regardless of whether the word "racial" is plopped down in front of it.

So if Lewis is now falling all over himself to say that he didn't mean what he said, why did he say it? Does he say other things that he doesn't mean? Isn't the ability to control of the connection between his brain and his tongue part of the gig?

We think that Lewis meant what he said, and that we wouldn't have heard a peep about it if someone in the organization hadn't been reminded that a team that plays for free in a stadium fully funded by the public should not be criticizing the public servants who get paid far less to put their lives and limbs in jeopardy every day.

The end result? We think that Marvin is now officially on the hot seat, and he could be the former coach of the Bengals by January of 2008.