Bengals execs visit Carlos Dunlap's Cincinnati-area restaurant
Coming fresh off winning a Super Bowl with the Kansas City Chiefs, former Cincinnati Bengals defensive end Carlos Dunlap is back in Cincinnati to open a new location for his restaurant, Honey Uninhibited, which opened its doors in Covington this week. Making an appearance at the grand opening was none other than Bengals executive vice […]
Coming fresh off winning a Super Bowl with the Kansas City Chiefs, former Cincinnati Bengals defensive end Carlos Dunlap is back in Cincinnati to open a new location for his restaurant, Honey Uninhibited, which opened its doors in Covington this week.
Making an appearance at the grand opening was none other than Bengals executive vice president Katie Blackburn and director of player personnel Duke Tobin, both of whom had major parts in making and keeping Dunlap a Bengal for nearly 11 years.
But this isn't just a former player coming back to the city he used to live in for a large part of his life. Dunlap is one of the greatest Bengals players in team history, and the way he left the franchise was anything but conventional.
The regime change from Marvin Lewis to Zac Taylor impacted the vast majority of the Bengals' roster from 2019 to 2020. Many long-time veterans from the Lewis era ended up on the outside looking in, and some took a little bit longer to realize they weren't in the plans anymore.
No one seemed to take this reality harder than Dunlap, the franchise's all-time leading sack artist and two-time Pro Bowl defensive end.
In the midst of the 2020 season, Dunlap wasn't happy with the way he was being used in Lou Anarumo's defense. Anarumo wanted the long-time 4-3 end to play more of a 3-4 outside linebacker type role, a pretty significant change for a long-time veteran to make. The former second-round pick didn't take long to air out his grievances.
Dunlap went on to post a picture of the defensive end depth chart on his Instagram leading up to a divisional game against the Cleveland Browns. At the end of that game, in which the Bengals lost in the final minute, Dunlap got into a heated argument with Anarumo. It would be the straw that broke the camel's back.
Not long after the game's conclusion, Dunlap also made it public that he wanted out of Cincinnati. He even posted that his Northern Kentucky house was going up for sale. The Bengals had little choice but to give in and remove him from the team. He was traded to the Seattle Seahawks for backup center B.J. Finney and a seventh-round pick.
The Bengals don't trade any player they don't want to trade unless feeling forced to do so. Dunlap became a Carson Palmer-like example, and his spectacular Bengals career ended in a disturbing halt.
But time has passed, and any beef between both sides seems to have subsided. Dunlap got what he wanted, as he experienced success with the Seahawks and Chiefs in the twilight of his career, while the Bengals got an early start on rebuilding their defensive line and instilling the culture that's helped them win 27 games since the start of the 2021 season.
Dunlap opened Honey Uninhibited's first location in Miami, FL in 2019.
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Featured image via © Aaron Doster-USA TODAY Sports
