Brooks Says He Will Miss Raider Game : Bengals: Munoz and Reimers also might be sidelined, but Wyche doesn’t rule any of them out.

Saddled with an injury that sticks out like, well, a sore thumb, Bengal running back James Brooks chose logic over valor Wednesday and said he would not play in Sunday’s AFC playoff game against the Raiders at the Coliseum.

Brooks, one of several hobbled Cincinnati offensive players, suffered a dislocation of his left thumb in last Sunday’s first-round victory over the Houston Oilers but had hoped to be able to play against the Raiders with the help of a soft cast.

Wednesday, Brooks said he was shown the hard, inflexible cast that he would wear Sunday. That cast isolates his thumb from his hand, exposing it to more potential damage and making it extremely difficult to hold the ball.

“I’m not going to play,” Brooks said. “I don’t want to be the one that drops the ball and hurts the team. That’s it.”

But is it? Bengal Coach Sam Wyche said after practice that although he didn’t expect Brooks, starting left tackle Anthony Munoz (rotator cuff tear) or starting left guard Bruce Reimers (severely sprained ankle) to play, he wouldn’t rule them completely out.

“I’m not optimistic about (Brooks) playing,” Wyche said, “but when you get down to this point in the season, you play if it’s at all possible. The problem with it is holding onto the football. If you have one of your appendages not working right, that’s a problem.”

But you don’t have to be Al Davis to see the possibility that the Bengals and Brooks might be thumbing their noses a bit at the NFL injury disclosure policy simply to confuse the Raiders.

While acknowledging that Brooks’ reaction was real, Wyche said, “Surprises can happen.” Another possible clue to the puzzle: Brooks took a football home with him Wednesday.

“Teams always wonder about your injury report, but this is no phony deal,” Wyche said. “Those guys are down.”

Even if Brooks, who gained 1,004 yards this season, can play, it seems clear that his effectiveness will be severely limited. Wearing any kind of cast, Brooks’ ability to hold onto the ball is questionable, and it’s unlikely he would be able to catch a pass.

“I can carry it, but they’re going to grab this here,” Brooks said, pointing to the cast that keeps his thumb extended from his left hand, “and pull it. They’re going to rip it apart.

“I don’t think the Raiders are going to take it easy on me. I could hold the ball, but if I take a good lick, the ball’s going to be flying all types of ways. It’s not worth taking a chance to hurt the team that way. Too important a game.”

Rookie Harold Green would normally start in Brooks’ place, but Green didn’t practice Wednesday because of a sore knee. “I’m sure the Raiders think they have an edge over us by a big margin without J.B.,” said Green, who expects to play. “But as far as we’re concerned, we’re just going to go into it with the right frame of mind, with our offensive plan, and to execute the way we should.”

Quarterback Boomer Esiason has his own choice for the bulk of the carries with Brooks hurting--almost-forgotten fullback Ickey Woods.

Woods, a 1,000-yard rusher in 1988 when the Bengals made it the Super Bowl, injured his knee in 1989 and hasn’t totally regained his big-time form. Woods, the Bengals’ starting fullback, carried the ball only 64 times this season.

“A lot of us are expecting a big game from Ickey Woods,” Esiason said. “It’s about time. We want to see him get back to the form he showed us a couple of years ago. No question, we’ve brought him along slowly, and it’s about time we got him heavily involved in the offense.”

If Munoz and Reimers can’t play, rookie free-agent Kirk Scrafford will play left tackle, starting right guard Ken Moyer will move to left guard and veteran backup Paul Jetton will be at right guard.

“It’s not as dismal as it sounds, but obviously we’d like to have our All-Pro tackle Munoz,” Wyche said. “You take Anthony Munoz, Bruce Reimers and James Brooks out of your lineup, you can’t say everything’s all right. But maybe it’ll be good enough.

“It is too bad that we couldn’t play this game with them totally healthy and us totally healthy and find out who was the best team.”

Wednesday, Munoz said that unless the pain in his shoulder subsides markedly in the next few days, he doesn’t expect to play. Munoz first suffered the injury against the Raiders last month and has been playing hurt ever since. He aggravated the injury against the Oilers Sunday.

“At this point of the week, it doesn’t look real good,” Munoz said. “I don’t want to go out there and not be able to do what I have to do because of the shoulder.”

How would Munoz decide whether he can play?

“I would have to be able to put on my shirt without the tremendous pain I feel now,” Munoz said. “It’s difficult. But that’s where Kirk Scrafford comes in. We have a lot of confidence in him. If I can’t do it, he’s going to step right in there and do it.”

The Bengals’ state is similar to their condition the last time they played the Raiders, a 24-7 loss at the Coliseum on Dec. 16. In that game, Esiason played with a sore groin.

“We had some weird circumstances last time we went down there, and we lost,” Moyer said. “This time, we’re just going to take care of business and forget about all the weird circumstances.”

Said Scrafford: “A lot of people are counting on me. I’ll try not to let them down.”

And how does he figure he’s going to stand up against the Raiders’ big defensive line? “Just do my best and pray that’s good enough, I guess.”

Bengal Notes

Bengal Coach Sam Wyche began the motivational gamesmanship Wednesday. He seemed rather pleased that a comment by Raider defensive end Greg Townsend, suggesting that the Bengals shouldn’t even bother playing the game and should just go to Disneyland, popped up on a local newscast.

“To have some of them invite us to go on some Disney tours and things hasn’t hurt at all,” Wyche said. “I can see that, I think that’s probably reasonable for them to feel like they ought to win this ballgame. They probably feel like they ought to walk all over us.

“I know the L.A. media gave me that impression on the media-conference call today. One question was, ‘Well, you’ve had a great season--even though you come in here hurt, it’s been a good year for you.’ As if it’s all over now: Come on out here and have a good time in the sunshine.

“But we’ll see. We’ve got passes to King’s Island (a local amusement park) if things go our way.”