Kitna pulls off one more comeback for Bengals

CINCINNATI -- Jon Kitna's whole career has been about comebacks.

Written off in college, he made it to the NFL as an undrafted free agent. He led Seattle to the playoffs, only to lose his job. He came to Cincinnati as a starter and lost his job again.

Now, he has pulled off the most unexpected comeback of all.

With a Heisman Trophy winner waiting to take his job, Kitna led the Bengals to a long-awaited resurgence, keeping Cincinnati in contention until the final game.

On Friday, he was honored as The Associated Press NFL Comeback Player of the Year.

"My whole life, I never had anything handed to me," Kitna said. "Nobody thought I was 'the guy.' I was always a pretty good athlete, but I was never one that people clamored about or anything like that."

Kitna got them talking during the Bengals' turnaround season. He eliminated his propensity for mistakes and led the Bengals out of their 12-year run as the league's woeful team.

"Finally people started to see our team as something serious," Kitna said.

Kitna received eight votes to seven for Dallas quarterback Quincy Carter and six for Baltimore tackle Orlando Brown.

When the season started, No. 1 draft pick Carson Palmer was waiting to take the job that Kitna had lost at the outset of the 2002 season, then reclaimed by default after Gus Frerotte and Akili Smith failed.

The Bengals, under first-year coach Marvin Lewis, lost their first three games and entered their bye week at 1-4. That's when Lewis promoted Palmer from the No. 3 quarterback to the backup. Kitna's time as an NFL starter was quickly running out.

With his job at stake, Kitna played so well Palmer never got into a game. Kitna was the only NFL quarterback to take every snap this season. He finished second in the AFC with 26 touchdown passes -- three shy of the franchise record -- and had only 15 interceptions, a major break from his mistake-prone past.

"Think about all of the doubts that people had in Kitna," said receiver Chad Johnson, one of Kitna's most ardent boosters. "Just to see him playing the way he's playing, I'm just loving every last minute of it."

Much of it had to do with getting over a deep hurt. Seattle signed him in 1996 as an undrafted free agent out of Central Washington of the NAIA. He surprised everyone by winning the starting job and taking the Seahawks to the playoffs in 1999.

The next year, coach Mike Holmgren wanted a different style of quarterback. Kitna would soon be gone, but the sting would remain.

From that point, Kitna felt as though his career depended upon every pass. He tried to impress on every snap, leading to mistakes and poor decisions. Early this season, he changed.

"Every year for three or four years, I was hoping I'd do something positive enough to stay in the league for another year, rather than having fun and being positive."

The fun returned. So did the Bengals, who fed off his newfound confidence.