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Instead, it's about how Chris Henry turned up at Bengals campwith yet one more second chance and a new two-year deal just fourmonths after he was released by the team and suspended indefinitelyby the league.

It isn't about owner Mike Brown's change of heart, either. Therelevant body parts in the decision to bring Henry back were thesprained left shoulder and injured hamstring suffered by CincinnatiPro Bowl receivers Chad Johnson and T.J. Houshmandzadeh,respectively and that empty portion of Brown's brain where memoryused to reside.

Earlier this year, the owner said he was shutting down the NFL'sversion of ''Boys Town'' and getting out of the rehabilitationbusiness. Ten Bengals players had been arrested over the previous14 months, a few of whom Brown drafted even though their rap sheetswere longer than their transcripts, and he'd decided enough wasenough.

Henry had just established a personal best with his fifth arrest charges that he punched a college student and broke his carwindow with a beer bottle were subsequently dropped after amistrial when Brown insisted he was through trying to save histhird-round pick from the 2005 draft.

''His conduct can no longer be tolerated,'' the owner said atthe time, and just to prove he was serious, a month later Brown cutOdell Thurman, the team's second pick from that same 2005 draft.After being suspended the previous two seasons for skipping a drugtest and a drunken driving arrest, Thurman kept his record intactby failing to show for a series of voluntary workouts and washanded his walking papers. Which can only mean his phone will startringing any day now.

The Bengals have been a joke on the field nearly every day sinceBrown took the helm from his father, the late Paul Brown, in 1991 they've posted exactly one winning season since and even sorrieroutside the lines. The younger Brown thinks so highly of his owncounsel that he hasn't bothered to hire a general manager. Two ofthe players he tagged as ''franchise players'' fled town before theink had a chance to dry; so many others he signed to deals rippedthe club that Brown tried and failed to get loyalty clauseswritten into contracts for new players.

And if it wasn't clear before, that little power-sharingexperiment that began with the hiring of coach Marvin Lewis ahalf-dozen years ago is officially over. Lewis was able early inhis stay to dislodge a few of Brown's cronies from the front officeand he did get the tightfisted owner to spring for a new weightroom.

But as far as changing the team's culture, that was about it.Lewis wasn't about to pretend otherwise.

''Mike makes decisions with my input and so forth all thetime,'' he said Tuesday. ''But every decision made in this buildingis ultimately his decision.

A local judge called Henry a ''one-man crime wave,'' but withthe charges dropped, the league's indefinite suspension was cut tofour games. The Bengals believe Henry will be barred from practicewhen the regular season begins, but will be allowed to participatein meetings and conditioning. Their fans, including whoever paidfor a billboard along Interstate 75 that reads, ''Chris Henryagain?'' might not be as quick to forgive and forget.

No, he doesn't actually and neither does Brown. This isn't aboutsaving souls as much as it is about an owner desperately trying tosave his own skin. Henry admitted his phone hadn't rung with anoffer until Brown called. Generally, offenders are advised to avoidthe people and places where they last found trouble.

Henry, though, couldn't wait to get back in the fold.

Jim Litke is a national sports columnist for The AssociatedPress. Write to him at jlitke@ap.org.

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