A day after apologizing to Browns quarterback Johnny Manziel, the Browns, and their fans, Bengals head coach Marvin Lewis reached out to other groups Tuesday when he issued another apology.
On Monday night during the club's radio show, Lewis referred to the 6-0 Manziel as "a midget."
"I'm aware that my comment on local radio last night was offensive to people of short stature and to their families and friends," Lewis said in a news release from the Bengals public relations department. "It was thoughtless on my part to use the word I did, and not excusable, and I greatly regret it. I since have read about this issue on the Little People of America website.
"I understand it better, and as I have apologized to Johnny Manziel and the Cleveland Browns community, I offer the same to all others who I offended, and I pledge that I will learn from this. I hope that my mistake and the resultant publicity may serve at least to help others not make similar insensitive comments in the future."
Lewis made his statement in the same afternoon news broke that Manziel makes his first NFL start Sunday (1 p.m.-Cincinnati's Channel 19) against the Bengals in Cleveland, the fifth time in the Lewis Era the Bengals have played a quarterback making his first start in the league and the fourth time on the road. They have split the games with the last one a win over the Panthers' Jimmy Clausen in Carolina on Sept. 26, 2010 in a 20-7 victory.
They also beat the Rams' Brock Berlin on Dec. 9, 2007 at Paul Brown Stadium, 19-10. Then six days later in San Francisco they lost to Shaun Hill, 20-13. The Bengals also lost to the Ravens' Joe Flacco in his first start, 17-10, in the 2008 regular-season opener in Baltimore.
