The Cincinnati Bengals are a terrible, horrible, no-good organization. Anyone who follows football knows this. Anyone who lives in Cincinnati and follows football knows this to a painful degree.
Since Paul Brown died and his incompetent, profit-seeking, too-loyal, probably-a-nice-guy-but son Mike Brown took over, the Bengals have consistently ranked among the worst organizations in all of professional sports. A 2011 ESPN Magazine ranking comprised of numerous categorical considerations such as affordability, success, fan relations, and more put the Bengals as dead last out of every single NFL, NBA, MLB, and NHL franchise. 122 out of 122.
They treat their fans like garbage, they struck a stadium deal with the city that has been widely panned as bad for Hamilton County residents, they fail to seemingly ever spend money on free agents in an attempt to benefit the team, and they lose. They lose a lot.
Though recent years have seen some positive change (albeit only in the regular season), for virtually all of the '90s and much of the 2000's, the Bengals were the laughingstock of the league. Think the Cleveland Browns but no one cared about them. Meanwhile, they have not won a playoff game in 27 years.
The last time they were victorious in the postseason, it was January 1991 and they beat a now nonexistent Houston Oilers team. This means that the last time the Cincinnati Bengals won even one playoff game, the Soviet Union had yet to collapse. The President was George W. Bush. The first one. There was no Google, Facebook, Yahoo, or Amazon. The World Wide Web had yet to expand outside its internal servers. Beyonce was nine years old.
And yet, this isn't even the worst of it. The worst of it occurred this past week, when the Bengals inexplicably and unexpectedly retained head coach Marvin Lewis for a two year extension. This for a man who had reportedly said as recently as a month ago that he would be resigning at the end of the season.
This for a man who has not won a single playoff game in his fifteen seasons as the Bengals head coach. He has gone 0-7 in playoff games, the worst mark in the history of the league for a coach in the playoffs. Over the last two years, his teams have gone a combined 13-18-1 with a litany of disciplinary problems. Fans are understandably outraged.
Mike Brown and the entire Bengals organization should be ashamed of themselves. They have continuously and unflinchingly showed no respect for their fans and it would not surprise me if loyal fans continue leaving the team in droves, as attendance has plummeted.
For shame, Cincinnati. For shame.
