Kegerator Nation

Jon “Mr. Turnover” Kitna will retire from the NFL after 16-seasons including a stop in Cincinnati where he won Come Back Player of the Year in 2003.

The QB who was just crazy and cheap enough to lead the Bungals out of the darkness and briefly was kinda OK is retiring from the league after a long career…

A career that stretched from being an un-drafted free-agent signee and starter in Seattle, to award winner in Cincinnati, to QB of an (0-16) team and finally as the back-up in Big D has come to an end…

Meanwhile, with the Raiders firing Head Coach Hue Jackson, it’s possible that Carson Palmer might quit on his latest team out in Oakland…

One guy was a scrapper, un-drafted and never seemed to give up, the other was a first overall pick and a quitter…go figure.

by Mike Zimmer, Falcons fan

Did Jon Kitna ever have the talents of Carson Palmer?  No.  Well, not on paper or in function of thier skill set.  However, one guy was a scrapper who wouldn’t quit while the other turns out is just a quitter.  Jon Kitna was an average QB, a decent back-up QB and a guy who was good in a locker room.  Carson Palmer is an average QB, not much of a leader and apparently not all that important to a locker room.  One thing they both had in common was the Cincinnati Bungals and the fact that they were both turnover machines.

Jon Kitna is retiring after 16-seasons (http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2012/01/12/so-long-jon-kitna/).  After winding down his career in Dallas as the back-up to Tony Romo, Kitna is ready to end a long career where he started out as an un-drafted free agent from a Division I-AA school in Washington.  The Seattle Seabags wound up starting the plucky, highly religious QB who was from dirt poor upbringing and landed a gig in the NFL.  After a few seasons there and never able to have a break out season that helped the Seabags get to the play-offs Kitna was signed off the scrap heap to compete for a job with the lowly Cincinnati Bungals who were desperate for a cheap talent infusion at QB after the failed Akili Smith experiment.

Kitna struggled at times, the guy was a turnover machine at times, fumbles, interceptions, very “Jon Kitna-like” plays were common during his time in Cincinnati.  However, he was a great locker room guy and in 2003 after a disastrous 2002 where the team went (2-14) and drafted his eventual replacement (Carson Palmer) he turned in a remarkable performance for the club and had them on the cusp on the play-offs in a break out season.  He helped bridge the gap between the dark and the Carson Palmer era where the Bungals offense awoke and was a power house.

Meanwhile, Palmer peaked in 2005 with a break out third season in which he had the Bungals offense one of the if not the top groups in the league and on the verge of greatness.  However, one throw into the Play-0ffs for a special team, the cheap-shot Pittspuke Stillers wrecked his knee.  Palmer was never the same afterward and the club never got any better and Palmer seemed to get worse.  Kitna wasn’t either, he moved on to Detroit to start for a few years of futility and then eventually signed with Dallas as back-up to Tony Romo.  Palmer’s tale became one of this off-season’s biggest stories.

Carson Palmer getting ready to throw an INT.

Palmer threatened to retire and quit on the Bungals locker room as everyone knows.  Yet, the team pulled off a big trade to ship him to Oakland for a 1st and 2nd round draft pick in the next 2-years, mostly at the behest of Raiders coach and former Bungals WR coach Hue Jackson.  Palmer was a train wreck this season and a complete turnover machine.  Jackson paid for the mistakes of Palmer with his job and now, Palmer might just stiff another team and choose not to play for the Raiders (http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2012/01/12/could-carson-palmer-decide-to-quit-again/).

Ahhhhh, the tangles web athletes lives are all interwoven into.  Funny too, I mostly hated Kitna during his time in Cincinnati while I mostly loved Palmer.  In the end though, I find that the plucky Kitna gets so much more of my respect and Palmer is in my mind a weenie, a quitter and a fraud.  Congrats Jonny Kit, well done on over-achieving in your career.  As for Palmer?  Have fun getting your ass handed to you until you want to quit again on your latest team you fraud.

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