During Jon Kitna's 14-year career in the NFL, the longest time he ever spent with one team came in Cincinnati where he played five seasons with the Bengals (2001-05). During the beginning of Kitna's time with the team, the Bengals were in the midst of 14 consecutive non-winning seasons and had become the laughingstock of the NFL.
During a recent appearance on "The Ryen Russillo Podcast," Kitna was asked how bad things got in Cincinnati and that's when the former NFL quarterback shared a wild story about the time one of his teammates was drunk in the huddle.
"There were some things that were hard to believe [with the Bengals]," Kitna said, via Cincinnati.com. "There was a time that I played a game with a guy that was drunk in the huddle. There was a time that a guy showed up late to a game. In the NFL, you need to be there 2 hours, 2 hours and 15 minutes ahead of time. And he showed up under an hour before the game's start. Those are weird things, now."
Kitna was about to go on with another story, but then Russillo smartly slowed him down so that he could get more details about the guy who was DRUNK IN THE HUDDLE. Although Kitna wasn't sure if the coaching staff knew about their inebriated player, the quarterback did say that it was pretty "normal" for this teammate to show up to games drunk.
"I'm not sure if the staff knew," Kitna said. "But I think the guy was like, that was kind of his normal. I mean he was drunk and had close to 200 yards receiving now. So it was crazy."
After he told the story, Kitna said he didn't want to name names because he didn't want to throw anyone under the bus, but this is the early 2000s Bengals we're talking about here, so it's not too hard to come up with a list of candidates that fit the bill here. Only three receivers even came close to the 200-yard mark in any game during Kitna's time in Cincinnati -- Chad Johnson, T.J. Houshmandzadeh and Darnay Scott -- and Johnson doesn't drink, so there's your short list of possible culprits.
Former Bengals offensive lineman Willie Anderson, who played for the Bengals from 1996 to 2007, reacted to Kitna's story with some laughing emojis, so it's possible he also knows who the culprit was.
😂😂😂
— Willie Anderson (@BigWillie7179) March 10, 2021
During his five years with the Bengals, Kitna compiled an 18-28 record before being benched in 2004 after Cincinnati made Carson Palmer its starting quarterback.
