"No. 81 was out on the field for the first Bengals Thursday morning practice at Georgetown College, and for the most part didn't look as dire as some might have suspected.

At least for one session, No. 81 was Antonio Bryant.

Bryant said that he has agreed to give Terrell Owens the number in return for a donation to one of his youth programs in Miami. Owens arrived from Los Angeles Thursday afternoon and was on the field for the evening session.

"I talked to him. To be honest with you I'm a realist. Like I told him, I said I was not going to make no spectacle out of it," said Bryant of the number switch. "You've got a bigger legacy with the number than I do. I've changed my number several times while you've had the same number."

Bryant has worn 81 (Cleveland, San Francisco), 88 (Dallas) and 89 (Tampa Bay). Whatever the number is, it won't be 88 or 89 since they are spoken for.

To Bryant though it doesn't matter. When asked what his new number would be, the eight-year veteran said: "I really don't care. You know my name, right?"

Even though Bryant practiced, all did not go smoothly. He slipped on some routes, as did some of the other receivers, and dropped a couple of passes. He also wasn't running at full speed as he tries to recover from the left knee that he injured twice last year.

"He's back to playing football," coach Marvin Lewis said. "He's been away working with the trainer, and we're going to have to keep working with him to keep the strength around the knee. He's going to have to continue practicing ... to keep the stress off his knee and joints."

On days when the team practices twice, he will sit out one of the sessions.

"How do you tell a person not to be hurt? I don't know how to not be hurt. It's something you have to be able to play with," Bryant said. "There are a lot of guys around there playing with these injuries but for the position that I play it's a lot more difficult because of the movement."

It's gradual process, but frustrating.

"It's just a matter of being able to go. If you feel like you can't go and doing everything with the right leg it's just an uncomfortable situation. Then you start compensating," Bryant said. "At the end of the day I'm probably the most vulnerable receiver on the field because I'm dealing with something that's nagging me but everyone is dealing with something.""