Shaun Alexander grew up in nearby Kentucky and would be interested in joining the Cincinnati Bengals. "Making calls to teams. Bengals are on our list!" Jim Steiner, Alexander's agent, told The Enquirer in an e-mail Wednesday morning.

Marvin Lewis has compared Chad Johnson to a certain NBA player who desperately tried to get traded this season and is now very happy he stayed put. "The things he has said about winning playoff games and winning, those are our goals. If you take the money issues out of it, I think you have to own up to it and do it. Hopefully, he'll do what Kobe Bryant did this year and come back and be very competitive and have an accomplished season."

Bengals head coach Marvin Lewis announced Tuesday that LB David Pollack will retire, according to a Yahoo.com report. The club?s first pick in the 2005 draft, Pollack suffered a broken neck in September 2006 in the second game of the season trying to tackle Browns RB Reuben Droughns. Lewis said Pollack told him last week that he wasn?t comfortable with the neck medically, despite being cleared to play.

After a two-year suspension the NFL has reinstated Cincinnati linebacker Odell Thurman, according to ESPN.com's John Clayton. He missed the entire 2006 and 2007 seasons after violations to the NFL's substance abuse problem. "Odell has met the NFL's conditions for reinstatement and has been added to our offseason roster," Bengals' Head Coach Marvin Lewis said. "It is now up to Odell to continue to meet all NFL guidelines and to maintain a standard of personal responsibility that will allow him the chance to compete for a spot on our team."

T.J. Houshmandzadeh thinks that the Bengals are going to have big problems if they don't trade fellow receiver Chad Johnson in the near future, according to ESPN.com. "If he's not traded it's going to be a problem." Houshmandzadeh told ESPN's Bob Holtzman. T.J. claims that he has spoken with both Johnson and quarterback Carson Palmer since Chad officially demanded a trade earlier this week. "If we keep him and don't win, he'll tell everyone 'I told you so,' " Houshmandzadeh added.

According to a report by ESPN.com on Wednesday, Bengals WR Chad Johnson has demanded a trade. Already skipping the team?s offseason workouts, Johnson said he wants out of Cincinnati as fast as possible, and he doesn?t plan on reporting to any future team function, according to the report.

The Cincinnati Bengals on Tuesday signed free agent wide receiver Doug Gabriel to a one-year contract, as reported by Yahoo.com. Financial terms were not disclosed.

On Monday running back Quincy Wilson was waived by the Bengals, as reported by the Associated Press. It is the second time in the past five days the Bengals have released a player who had been arrested. The second-year running back from West Virginia was arrested last June 17 in Huntington, W.Va., and charged with disorderly conduct for failing to disperse after a weekend wedding party.

Bengals wide receiver Chad Johnson told ESPN Radio on Wednesday that he will not sit out the entire 2008 season, according to the Cincinnati Enquirer. Johnson was reacting to comments made by Bengals coach Marvin Lewis on Tuesday that the team would move on without him and that it's unfortunate that he had to "put himself in this situation". "The player is not gonna change. Chad has to do what's right for Chad... That's why (Lewis) made the comment. He thinks I'm worried about people liking me. Those days are over. I'm not worried about them anymore, because I have to do what's right for me," Johnson said. "Don't take any bullets for me. Don't take one bullet," Johnson said Wednesday. "Do I get in trouble? Do I do anything wrong off the field? Do I? What bullets? I'm not a player that comes with bullets. I'm no threat. I'm not a problem. OK, I celebrate. Whoop-de-do. You know what you get when I touch the field every Sunday."

The Bengals decided they?ve had enough of Chris Henry?s legal problems and cut the wide receiver, according to an Associated Press report. Henry was in the Hamilton County jail pending a court appearance Thursday after being accused of punching an 18-year-old man in the face and breaking his car window with a beer bottle. Police said Henry surrendered after a warrant was issued for his arrest on charges of misdemeanor assault and criminal damaging. Bengals' President Mike Brown said Thursday in a statement that Henry had forfeited his career with the club. ?His conduct can no longer be tolerated,? Brown said.