Columnist Dean Juipe: Free speech on hiatus in Cincinnati

Dean Juipe

Wednesday, Aug. 2, 2000 | 1:09 a.m.

Dean Juipe's column appears Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. His boxing notebook appears Thursday. Reach him at juipe@lasvegassun.com or 259-4084.

Free speech has been an inalienable and protected right in America since 1776 and outspokenness has been in vogue for at least the past few decades.

The ability to say what you think may be the country's finest quality.

Restrictions and repercussions tend to be minimal. And logical.

Such is the case at the ongoing Republican convention in Philadelphia, where protesters have been isolated some four blocks outside the arena in an area that has come to be known as the "free speech zone." The protesters aren't happy about it -- "This is weak as hell" one said -- yet they still get to speak their piece and make their assorted points.

Too bad the Cincinnati Bengals of the National Football League don't enjoy the same freedoms.

The Bengals, arguably the worst franchise in the league and without a winning season since 1990, have put the clamps on their players. In a decidedly uncivil decision, Cincinnati general manager Mike Brown has implemented a "no criticism" rule that financially penalizes players for speaking out in a negative manner against the team, its players or its coaches.

It's a landmark policy.

And one that should be eliminated ASAP.

The National Football League Players Association will attempt to do just that when it voices its displeasure at an appeal before an independent arbitrator sometime in the next 30 days.

"I've been a lawyer with the NFLPA for 28 years," attorney Richard Berthelsen told the Associated Press. "We've never had such a thing before. There's been no case in which an arbitrator upheld any attempt by any club to discipline a player for what he says to the media."

Leave it to the least successful team in football to have this problem.

In some respects it has already cost the Bengals their best player, as explosive wide receiver Carl Pickens -- whose public criticism of head coach Bruce Coslet led to the ban on free speech in Cincinnati -- sought and obtained his release earlier this summer rather than toil under such dictatorial conditions.

He has since signed a rich contract with the Tennessee Titans.

Undeterred, the Bengals inserted a clause into each of their rookie's contracts this season that stipulates the player would forfeit his signing bonus if he makes any derogatory comments about the team.

Reluctantly, the under-leveraged rookies signed and reported to camp.

In response, the NFLPA's official protest was filed earlier this week.

Brown attempts to disguise the issue and paint a happy face on it by calling it a "loyalty clause," but the NFLPA sees it as a violation of the collective bargaining agreement. While players can be contractually suspended up to four games for "conduct detrimental to the team," those violations tend to be criminal acts and not missives or verbal complaints directed toward other members of the team.

The Bengals are way out of line here.

Fining employees for their critical remarks is certain to undercut morale, something the Bengals -- or any employer -- would be ill advised to do.

More to the point, it's un-American. Has been for some time.