She left you.  You were hurt.  You found someone else.  She made you happier than the girl who left you did.  Your life is a little better now, and you're excited about the possibilities.

So why still be mad at the girl who dumped you in the first place?

Carson Palmer did what all of us have done at some point.  He assessed a relationship and decided to end it.  Who reading this hasn't taken a good hard look at some sort of relationship they were in - with a spouse, a girlfriend, drinking buddy, employer, call-girl, sports team - and decided that they wanted out? 

Relationships end all the time, often very poorly, and there are usually bad feelings that linger for a while and there's almost always some collateral damage.  That could be friends, it could be coworkers, it could be children.

This happened with the former Bengals quarterback and his ex-employer.  Almost two years ago, Carson did what thousands of fans were doing at almost the exact same time, he took a look at his relationship with the Bengals and decided he wanted it to end.  Then he resorted to the only way he could end it.

"BUT MO, CARSON HAD A CONTRACT!"

So what?  Pro sports teams have contracts with athletes all the time.  They break them.  And vice versa.  Pro sports teams have implied contracts with communities all the time.  They break them too. 

We're a nation of broken contracts. The divorce rate in the US is at 50%, and many that stay married maintain a slampiece on the side. People hopscotch jobs and blow off commitments to employers on a regular basis.  And sports fans are as fickle as ever, understandably so, bailing from teams at the first sign of failure, then jumping back on-board at the first sign of hope.

Why do we hold an underachieving quarterback to a different standard?

If you're reading this, there's a really good chance that at some point, you've examined your relationship with the Cincinnati Bengals and asked if you were getting out of it what you put into it.  Maybe you gave up season tickets.  Perhaps you picked a new team to root for.  Maybe you just decided you weren't going to be as emotionally invested.  Or there's a chance you just found something else better to do.

You're almost exactly like Carson Palmer.

Or there's a chance that at some point in your professional life, you've looked at your working conditions and decided you wanted out.  Maybe you simply didn't like how your company treated its employees so you quit.  Perhaps you found a better opportunity or a chance to make more dough and used whatever leverage you had to get what you wanted.

Again, you're almost exactly like Carson Palmer.

And maybe you had a long-running relationship that started to run its course and after awhile both of you started to think about life without the other.  And maybe it took the other person to initiate the breakup, and maybe there were some really hard feelings along the way, with some finger-pointing and name-calling.  There was hurt.  There was anger.  And there was uncertainty over the future.

But maybe the breakup ended up being for the best.  Maybe you found someone else who made you excited about the next step all the while your overall quality of life took a turn for the better.  You can look back at the good times you spent with the ex with fondness but your new focus is on what you have now and the things that you can do in your new relationship.  You realize that despite the hurt, that you were done a favor when she decided to leave you.

Then you're almost exactly like the Cincinnati Bengals.

It's time to get over Carson Palmer.