Carl Pickens Sheds Light on 1990s Bengals and What Contract Negotiations Were Like in the Past

The Bengals have made unprecedented moves over the years. From signing Joe Burrow to the richest contract in NFL history to making Ja’Marr Chase the highest-paid non-quarterback ever and keeping Tee Higgins in the process.

These contracts were a long time coming, and as we saw last year, sometimes these negotiations can have a bigger impact on a player than one might realize. Like Chase in 2024, former Bengals receiver Carl Pickens sat out of training camp during negotiations 25 years ago.

“It was hard because it was free agency at that time, and you’re watching the news and seeing other guys get signed,” Pickens told BengalsTalk.com’s Elise Jesse. “On the one hand, you know you’re going to get signed, but on the other hand, you’re like, ‘alright, if I don’t (get signed), are they going to release me? Am I going to be a free agent? Are they going to tag me?’ I didn’t want to get mixed up in that.”

That year Pickens was Cincinnati’s career receiving leader. The Bengals decided to place the franchise tag on the 29-year old, he decided to skip training camp, saying he would never play for the Bengals again.

“You’re an athlete, you want to know, this is my livelihood here, what’s going to happen? And again, you see the news Herman Moore signs, Tim Brown signs, Michael Irvin signs, so it's like, ‘man, what is going on here? What is the deal?" Pickens said. "For some reason, and I don’t know this with any other teams, but it always takes a while to get it done with the Browns for whatever reason. It’s not as quick, there’s a lot of back and forth, and you really have to be patient when you’re dealing with management. Some teams are faster."

Three days before the 1999 season opener, and two days after Pickens vowed never to play for the Bengals again, the two sides agreed on a five-year deal worth $23.25 million making him one of the highest paid receivers at that time.

Pickens spent eight frustrating years playing for Cincinnati’s franchise during the decade of Bengals history when the NFL was wandering through the land of obscurity.

“To lose 10 games in a row, it's hard to go to work,” Pickens said.

The players during the 90’s tried everything, they couldn’t take losing any longer. They thought if they made little superstitious changes ahead of games, it could give them a chance.

“We switched sides of the field,” Pickens said. “Instead of staying in the hotel the night before a game, we got to go home, and that didn’t work. We tried a lot, unannounced to the public. We tried to wear the road uniforms at home, but that didn’t work. We walked through the kickoff coverage, but that didn’t work. We tried everything; I don’t know if it was karma or bad timing, but we could never… and we had good players. I look back on it now; you can have good players, but you need playmakers. We just didn’t have enough playmakers.”

Pickens, Darnay Scott, and David Dunn were the ring leaders behind boosting the moral during the brutal stretch in the 90’s under Coslet, Shula, and Sam Wyche. Cincinnati went 52-107 over that decade, seeing the most losses ever by an NFL team during that era of football.

At one time the team believed that if they lost the coin toss, it meant they’d lose the game.

“If we didn’t win the coin toss, that was it. You would see at the games, we would cheer if we won, and if we lost, we were like, ‘Oh shit, lost the coin toss.”

Picken’s own parents eventually stopped coming to the games and soon, the rest of the fan base would follow suit.

“You couldn’t give the tickets away; it was just a bad time,” Pickens said. “They don’t want to watch the product and they have a right not to because they’re paying and they want to see a good product on the field and four or five years into it, it sent a message.”

When games wouldn’t sell out, the game would be blacked out on local television in Cincinnati, something fans from the 90s remember well.

When Dave Shula's record reached 19-52 after four seasons Bruce Coslet was given the reigns. The new voice wouldn’t bring a change to the perpetual losing the team had been experiencing.

The Bengals would go 21-35 under Coslet. The 1999 season would see the Bengals win just four games, and when Mike Brown announced that Coslet would return, Pickens decided he couldn’t take it anymore.

Known as a player who wasn’t keen on being in front of the media fielding questions, he finally voiced his frustration. "I don't understand it," Pickens said after the announcement in January at the conclusion of the 1999 season. "We're trying to win; we're trying to turn this thing around out there. And they bring him back," Pickens said. "What can you do? Obviously, the players don't call the shots around here."

Pickens would be called up to Brown’s office that day after practice, the details of that conversation staying behind closed doors. Later, the Bengals released a statement attributed to Pickens.

And a piece by Geoff Hobson in 2000 shed light on how Bruce Coslet felt about the situation.

“I wanted to suspend Carl Pickens for what he did to the team,” Coslet told Hobson 25 years ago.

“Mike made him sign an apology. Does that show where a lack of autonomy hurts you with the players? Did you lose face after that?” Hobson asked.

“No. Mike did not not support me. Pickens was the guy who lost face in my mind.”

From Pickens perspective, he was simply fed up with losing year after year, never experiencing a winning season in his 8-year career in the Queen City.

“I’m doing my thing and then I’m like, ‘you know what, this losing sucks, man. I can’t deal with it, I can’t tolerate this.’ Having to be quiet about that, that’s what bothered me the most. You can’t tell Jordan to shut up and just play if you’re a natural-born leader, a competitor, and I just felt like, yeah we’re losing but we can’t say anything or do anything about it. What are we supposed to do? Just go with the status quo? I can’t.”

The next season, Pickens would wear a Tennessee Titans jersey.

“When I left I could breathe, and I was glad I did it.” Pickens said. “We won our four preseason games and I thought that was cool,” Pickens said. “We won the coin toss and I thought, ‘damn that’s cool we won the coin toss’, they have lunch, and you have an assigned parking spot. A lot of things were different.”

Back then, Pickens was the highest-paid player on the team in addition to being the team’s captain, he felt the onus was on him to speak up when things weren’t going right.

“That comes with responsibility, that gives you another notch in your belt as far as the team leader. Joe Burrow is the leader, but you’ve got more guys who have more responsibility now. They’re being asked to do more because they’re being paid more.”

Would Tee Higgins and Ja’Marr Chase deals have gotten done this year if not for Joe Burrow speaking up about what he needs? The answer from Pickens was no.

“Joe, he’s a smart guy, he’s a leader on and off the field. He’s signaling to management, ‘Hey, I need these guys back’,” Pickens said. “They Paid them, it's never been done before, and hopefully it works out. That had to get done because Joe Burrow wanted it done.”

As Trey Hendrickson awaits a new deal, he is likely hearing the same words from his agent that Carl Pickens heard from Steve Zucker 1999, “Just be patient.”