Although he wouldn't divulge which Bengals aren't playing in Friday night's pre-season opener (7:30-Cincnnati's Channel 12) against Tampa Bay at Paul Brown Stadium, head coach Marvin Lewis freely talked about his medical condition before Wednesday's practice.
He'll be on the sidelines facing his Idaho State roommate, Buccaneers head coach Dirk Koetter. In fact, he'll be on the field Wednesday after tests showed he has no complications stemming from what is believed to be a cyst in his knee.
"Luckily it wasn't as serious as things could have been," said Lewis, apparently alluding to the possibility of a blood clot. "(And) originally what I was told going on, so I'm glad for that."
Amid the breathless reporting of his absence from Tuesday's workout, Lewis quietly returned to the stadium at around 5 p.m., just about when special teams coordinator Darrin Simmons dismissed practice. Lewis got a round of applause from his players in the evening meeting, but his doctors may have held off.
Lewis fought them on returning to Christ Hospital because it would take him out of practice and told them he'd go right after they got off the field. When the doctors insisted, so did everybody else.
"I was overruled," Lewis said.
"I really didn't miss it. I left early."
He faces no restrictions. With doctors encouraging walking and running, Lewis went for his morning run Wednesday. He didn't have the knee drained, he said, and is told the more he does the faster the cyst absorbs.
"It will go away. The more I do, the better it will be," Lewis said. "I have no problem with that. It began right away at 6 o'clock this morning, so we're good."
NOTHING ON MAC: Brace yourself for another round of Andy Dalton trade rumors, the pre-season edition. They've already started and been refuted and the Bengals haven't even played a game yet.
McCarron had yet to hear of the Broncos rumor (the Bengals aren't talking to them or, it seems, anyone else yet) and he can thank his brother Corey for that.
"My brother does a really good job sending me texts every morning about having blinders on, staying in the zone, focusing," McCarron said before Wednesday's practice. "I really appreciate that. It helps me a lot mentally."
A quick roll of his phone revealed that McCarron had only one text and it had nothing to do with a rumor. Only a confirmation that his Under Armour account is now active. But there was a Tuesday text from Corey: "Keep your head down and grind."
McCarron, owner of two national title rings and married to a former Miss Alabama, is used to rumors and gossip so this stuff rolls off the No. 5. He laughed when asked what's the most absurd thing he's ever read about himself. He had to narrow it down to right now to what's being said about AJian, the restaurant that has his name on the Alabama campus restaurant that opened Tuesday night.
"Foranybody that wants to know, I'm not the only owner," McCarron said. "I did not come up with the name. I had no control in any of that."
But he heard what he called "a soft," opening went well.
"I did have people tweet me and they said they thought the sushi was awesome," he said.
But as for trades, he figures it's nothing, "until I hear from my agent … That's what I pay him for."
Cincinnati Bengals host Training Camp at Paul Brown Stadium Practice Fields 8/8/2017
