Some of you know that I’m from Ohio. I do not apologize for that. But it may help explain why I follow the Cincinnati Bengals.
I don’t love the Bengals. I actually grew up a Giants fan (my family moved to Ohio from the Northeast). I started to follow them after I moved away for work. You’ve got to be pretty homesick to feel good about the Bengals.
Anyway, it was shortly after I moved to Oregon that the Bengals made the playoffs for the first time since they appeared in the Super Bowl about 15 years earlier. Having a team that wins more than twice a season was helpful, too.
Now, here we are: the Bengals were in the playoffs and their quarterback is a TCU grad. What could go wrong?! It’s not like Andy Dalton could get hurt and miss the opening round!
I started texting some friends back home during the game. I felt quite confident for a while, then I had less confidence as the game went on:
“This Bengals game is epic! Can you believe this comeback?!” I wrote to an associate with 1:50 left in the game.
“Those are the Bengals I know,” I then wrote as everyone on the team was called for personal fouls, giving the Steelers so much yardage, they wound up behind the goal post for that last field goal. If you could italicize words in text messages, I would have italicized “those.” I really wanted to hit the word, “those.” Let’s work on that, Apple.
There’s always next year. Or, since the Bengals haven’t won a playoff game since 1991, there’s always 25 years from now.