massraider
Footballguy
http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/art...110394/1062/SPT
Word could come as early as today from the NFL on whether linebacker Odell Thurman will be reinstated after his year-long league suspension.
People in Thurman's camp are optimistic.
"He has done everything he was supposed to," Safarrah Lawson, Thurman's Atlanta-based agent, told The Enquirer on Tuesday.
Thurman's arrest Sept. 25 for DUI was his third violation of the NFL's substance abuse policy, mandating a one-year suspension.
The linebacker completed a four-month alcohol rehabilitation stay in April in South Carolina and a subsequent one-month out-patient program.
Bengals coach Marvin Lewis did not return a message left Tuesday on his cell phone, but in a May interview on WLW-AM, he opened the door for Thurman's return should the NFL reinstate the player.
Lewis also said he had been in contact with Thurman.
During his rookie season in 2005, Thurman started 15 games and played in 16 at middle linebacker for the Bengals, leading the defense with 148 tackles.
Thurman's future with the Bengals probably is as an outside linebacker, primarily on the weak side where his speed and play-making ability would be utilized. The Bengals took Ahmad Brooks in the supplemental draft a year ago; he had an impressive offseason and staked claim to the starting job in the middle.
Thurman has returned to Greater Cincinnati from his native Monticello, Ga., where he had been living with his girlfriend and his son and working construction. On Monday, his 24th birthday, Thurman welcomed his second child.
On June 1, Thurman avoided jail time when Hamilton County Municipal Judge John Burlew reduced a 90-day sentence to a six-day in-treatment program.
Word could come as early as today from the NFL on whether linebacker Odell Thurman will be reinstated after his year-long league suspension.
People in Thurman's camp are optimistic.
"He has done everything he was supposed to," Safarrah Lawson, Thurman's Atlanta-based agent, told The Enquirer on Tuesday.
Thurman's arrest Sept. 25 for DUI was his third violation of the NFL's substance abuse policy, mandating a one-year suspension.
The linebacker completed a four-month alcohol rehabilitation stay in April in South Carolina and a subsequent one-month out-patient program.
Bengals coach Marvin Lewis did not return a message left Tuesday on his cell phone, but in a May interview on WLW-AM, he opened the door for Thurman's return should the NFL reinstate the player.
Lewis also said he had been in contact with Thurman.
During his rookie season in 2005, Thurman started 15 games and played in 16 at middle linebacker for the Bengals, leading the defense with 148 tackles.
Thurman's future with the Bengals probably is as an outside linebacker, primarily on the weak side where his speed and play-making ability would be utilized. The Bengals took Ahmad Brooks in the supplemental draft a year ago; he had an impressive offseason and staked claim to the starting job in the middle.
Thurman has returned to Greater Cincinnati from his native Monticello, Ga., where he had been living with his girlfriend and his son and working construction. On Monday, his 24th birthday, Thurman welcomed his second child.
On June 1, Thurman avoided jail time when Hamilton County Municipal Judge John Burlew reduced a 90-day sentence to a six-day in-treatment program.
