Cincinnati Bengals
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| Cincinnati Bengals | |||||
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| Established 1968 Play in and headquartered in Paul Brown Stadium Cincinnati, Ohio | |||||
| League / conference affiliations | |||||
American Football League (1968-1969)
National Football League (1970–present)
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| Uniforms | |||||
| Team colors | Black, orange, white | ||||
| Mascot | Who Dey | ||||
| Personnel | |||||
| Owner(s) | Mike Brown | ||||
| General manager | Mike Brown | ||||
| Head coach | Marvin Lewis | ||||
| Team history | |||||
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| Championships | |||||
| League championships (0) | |||||
Conference championships (2)
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Division championships (6)
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| Playoff appearances (8) | |||||
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| Home fields | |||||
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The Cincinnati Bengals are a professional football team based in Cincinnati, Ohio. They are currently members of the North Division of the American Football Conference (AFC) in the National Football League (NFL). Their first two seasons, 1968 and 1969, were as an American Football League franchise. They joined the NFL as part of the 1970 AFL-NFL Merger, which had actually been agreed to in 1966.
The Bengals currently conduct summer training camp at Georgetown College in Georgetown, Kentucky and play home games at Paul Brown Stadium in Downtown Cincinnati.
Franchise history
In 1966, Paul Brown wanted to become involved in professional football again. James A. Rhodes, then the governor of Ohio, convinced Brown that Ohio needed a second team. Cincinnati was deemed the logical choice, in essence, splitting the state.
Brown named the team the Bengals in order "to give it a link with past professional football in Cincinnati." [1] Another Bengals team had existed in the city and played in three previous American Football Leagues[2] from 1937 to 1942. The city's world-renowned zoo was also home to a rare white Bengal Tiger. However, possibly as an insult to Art Modell, Paul Brown chose the exact shade of orange used by his former team. He added black as the secondary color. Brown chose a very simple logo: the word "BENGALS" in black lettering. Ironically, one of the potential helmet designs Brown rejected was a striped motif that was similar to the helmets adopted by the team in 1981 and which is still in use to this day; however, that design featured orange stripes on a black helmet which were more uniform in width.
Brown was not a supporter of the rival American Football League, stating that "I didn't pay ten million dollars to be in the AFL." [3]. He only acquiesced to joining the AFL when he was guaranteed that the team would become an NFL franchise after the impending merger of the two leagues.
There was also a complication: Major League Baseball's Cincinnati Reds were in need of a facility to replace the antiquated, obsolete Crosley Field, which they had used since 1912. Parking nightmares had plagued the city as far back as the 1950s, the little park lacked modern amenities, and New York City, which in 1957 had lost both its National League teams (the Dodgers and the Giants) to Los Angeles and San Francisco, respectively, was actively courting Reds owner Powel Crosley. However, Crosley was adamant that the Reds remain in Cincinnati and tolerated worsening problems with the Crosley Field location, which were exacerbated by the Millcreek Expressway (I-75) project that ran alongside the park.
With assistance from Ohio governor James A. Rhodes, Hamilton County and the Cincinnati city council agreed to build a single multi-purpose facility on the dilapidated riverfront section of the city. The new facility had to be ready by the opening of the 1970 NFL season and was officially named Riverfront Stadium, which was its working title.
With the completion of the merger in 1970, the Cleveland Browns were moved to the AFL-based American Football Conference and placed in the AFC Central, the same division as the Bengals. An instant rivalry was born, fueled initially by Paul Brown's rivalry with Art Modell.
For their inaugural season, the Bengals played at Nippert Stadium which is the current home of the University of Cincinnati Bearcats. The team finished its first season with a 3–11 record, although one bright spot was running back Paul Robinson. Robinson rushed for 1,023 yards and was named the AFL Rookie of the Year.
Founder Paul Brown coached the team for its first eight seasons. One of Brown’s college draft strategies was to draft players with above-average intelligence. Punter/wide receiver Pat McInally attended Harvard University and linebacker Reggie Williams attended Dartmouth College and served on Cincinnati city council while on the Bengals’ roster. Because of this policy, many former players were highly articulate and went on to have successful careers in commentary and broadcasting as well as the arts. In addition, Brown had a knack for locating and recognizing pro football talent in unusual places.
In the '70s the Bengals moved to play at Riverfront Stadium, a home they shared with the Cincinnati Reds until the team moved to Paul Brown Stadium in 2000. The team would reach the playoffs three times during that decade, but could not win any of those postseason games. In 1975, the team posted an 11–3 record, giving them what is to this day the highest winning percentage (.786) in franchise history. But it only earned them a Wild Card spot in the playoffs, behind the 12–2 Pittsburgh Steelers, who went on to win the Super Bowl, and Bengals lost to the Oakland Raiders 31–28 in the divisional playoffs.
The Bengals would reach the Super Bowl twice during the 1980s, but lost both times to the San Francisco 49ers. Then, after appearing in the playoffs in 1990, Paul Brown died. He had already transferred control to his son, Mike Brown, but was reported to still influence the daily operations of the team. The Bengals' fortunes changed for the worse as the team would post 14 consecutive non-winning seasons. The Bengals began to emerge from that dismal period into a new era of increased consistency after hiring Marvin Lewis as head coach in 2003. Carson Palmer, the future star quarterback, was drafted in 2003 but did not play a snap that whole season, as Jon Kitna had a comeback year (voted NFL Comeback Player of the Year). Despite Kitna's success, Carson was promoted to starting quarterback the following season. Under Carson, the team advanced to the playoffs for the first time since 1990 in the 2005 season, which marked the first time the team had a winning percentage above .500 since 1990.
Meanwhile, Paul Brown Stadium was built for the 2000 season using private and public money. In tribute to his father, Mike Brown refused corporate offers to have the stadium renamed for their company which became a trend in the NFL and other sports teams around that time.
Under the ownership of Mike Brown, the Bengals remain one of five NFL teams without a General Manager – the other four being the Dallas Cowboys (with owner Jerry Jones legally serving as his own GM), the New England Patriots, the Oakland Raiders (with owner Al Davis in a similar capacity to Jones) and the Washington Redskins (with Daniel Snyder in a similar role to Mike Brown and serving as the de facto GM without the title).
Logos and uniforms
When the team debuted in 1968, the Bengals' uniforms were modeled after the Cleveland Browns. When Paul Brown was fired by Art Modell, Brown still had ownership of the equipment used by Cleveland. So after the firing, Paul Brown packed up all his equipment, which he then used for his new team in Cincinnati. The Cleveland Browns' team colors were orange, brown and white, and their helmets were solid orange with a white dorsal stripe over the crest.
The Bengals' team colors were orange, black and white, and their helmets were a similar shade of orange, with the only variations being the word "Bengals" in block letters on either side of the helmet and no stripe on the helmet. The Cincinnati Bengals were unique in the NFL as they did not have uniform numbers on the players sleeves until the 1980 season.
The team did not discard their Cleveland-like uniforms until 1981. During that year, a then-unique uniform design was introduced. Although the team kept black jerseys, white jerseys, and white pants, they were now trimmed with orange and black tiger stripes. The team also introduced orange helmets with black tiger stripes.
In 1997, the Bengals designed an alternate logo consisting of a leaping tiger, and it was added to the uniform sleeves. They also designed an alternate logo consisting of a Bengal's head facing to the left. However, the orange helmet with black tiger stripes continued to be the team's primary trademark.
In 2004, a new tiger stripe pattern and more accents were added to the uniforms. The black jerseys now featured orange sleeves, while the white jerseys began to use black sleeves and orange shoulders. A new logo consisting of an orange "B" covered with black tiger stripes was introduced. The team also started rotating black pants and debuted an alternate orange jersey.
The Bengals have primarily worn their black uniforms at home throughout their history, except during the 1970 and 1971 seasons, when the Bengals wore white at home for the entire season. In 2001 and 2002 the Bengals wore white at home for preseason games as well as September home games due to the heat. Since 2005, the Bengals only wear white during early September home games.
Contributions to NFL culture
No Huddle Offense
A No-Huddle Offense was commonly used by all teams when time in the game was running low. However, Sam Wyche, the head coach of the Bengals in 1988, along with offensive coordinator Bruce Coslet, made the high-paced offense the standard modality for the ball club regardless of time remaining. By quickly setting up for the next play (often within 5-10 seconds after the last play despite being afforded 45 seconds) this hindered the other teams' defense from substituting situational players, regrouping for tactics, and, some suggest, increased the defenses' rate of fatigue (This is attributed to the belief that the offense dictates when a play starts so they tend to be more mentally relaxed and prepared for the start of a play where the defense must remain on a different level of alert before the play starts). In response, the NFL instituted several rules related to this tactic:
- Allowing the defense ample time for substitutions (if offensive substitutions are made)
- If a player's injury causes the play-clock to stop, the player must sit out at least one play
- Charging a time-out to a team when a player is injured within a certain time period of the game
The tactic was used by the franchise from the late 80s while Sam Wyche was the coach. The main rivals for AFC supremacy were the Buffalo Bills, coached by Marv Levy. Most of the high-profile games (the various games for AFC Conference titles and regular season games) between the two led to these changes in NFL rules.
Wyche recalled that before the '88 AFC title game the Buffalo Bills had seemingly convinced league officials to penalize the Bengals for running a no-huddle offense. In a statement made to the Bengals' press in 2005, he relayed "The NFL was nice enough to come to us an hour and 55 minutes before the game and tell us we would be given a 15-yard penalty every time we used it. Of course we had practiced it all week. We told them if they wanted to answer to the public for changing the competitive balance of the AFC championship game, that was up to them, but we were using it. They never dropped a flag."
West Coast Offense/Paul Brown's Offense
The West Coast Offense, which is commonly employed by many teams (most notably, it was used by San Francisco during their dynasty, and the Buffalo Bills during their domination of the AFC) is the popular name for the high-percentage passing scheme designed by former Bengals assistant Bill Walsh. This play scheme was used by Ken Anderson during the Bengals' initial Super Bowl run.
Paul Brown Stadium
Mike Brown, the current owner of the Bengals, named the new stadium after his Pro Football Hall of Famer father, Paul Brown, resisting offers to sell the naming rights for the stadium.
Season-by-season records
Players of note
Current roster
Pro Football Hall of Famers
- Anthony Muñoz, OL
- Charlie Joiner, WR†
- Paul Brown, Head coach and owner.†
† Performance with Bengals incidental to induction.
Retired numbers
- 54 Bob Johnson, OL
NFL Most Valuable Player
- Ken Anderson, 1981
- Boomer Esiason, 1988
AFL/NFL Rookie of the Year
- Paul Robinson, 1968
- Greg Cook, 1969
- Eddie Brown, 1985
- Carl Pickens, 1992
Coach of the Year
- Paul Brown, 1969, 1970
- Forrest Gregg, 1981
Coaches of note
Head coaches
- Paul Brown (1968–1975)
- Bill "Tiger" Johnson (1976–1978)
- Homer Rice (1978–1979)
- Forrest Gregg (1980–1983)
- Sam Wyche (1984–1991)
- Dave Shula (1992–1996)
- Bruce Coslet (1996–2000)
- Dick LeBeau (2000–2002)
- Marvin Lewis (2003–present)
Current staff
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Radio and television
As of 2008[update], the Bengals flagship radio stations are WCKY, "1530 The Homer" and WEBN-FM, with WLW AM 700 joining in following the end of the Reds' season. Brad Johansen and former Bengals offensive lineman Dave Lapham, who started in 1985, form the announcing team. Most preseason and regular season games, are telecast on WKRC-TV, channel 12, the CBS affiliate. Paul Keels and Anthony Munoz are the TV announcers for the preseason games. Games that feature an NFC opponent playing at Paul Brown Stadium will be televised on WXIX, channel 19, the local FOX affiliate.
Phil Samp was the Bengals original play-by-play announcer from 1968-1990. Ken Broo (1991-1995), Paul Keels (1996) and Pete Arbogast (1997-2000) have also done radio play-by-play for the Bengals.
Notes and references
- ^ History - Cincinnati Bengals
- ^ AFL II 1937, AFL/APFA 1939, AFL III 1940-1941
- ^ Paul Brown
External links
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