I am glad to see the Cincinnati Bengals in the Super Bowl. I remember their game against the 49ers in 1989. I was watching on a little, 5-inch, black and white television in the machine shop at Chase Bag Company in Chagrin Falls.
One question about which I am a tad riled, Cleveland people are wondering if Browns fans should be cheering for the Bengals. The answer is absolutely yes and it has nothing, or at least very little, to do with the fact that we are both Ohio teams. The math is simple.
- We (The Browns) compete to get to represent the AFC North in the AFC playoffs, the winner of those games gets to represent the AFC in the AFC championship game. Then the winner of that game gets to represent the AFC in the super bowl. This year we did not earn the right to represent the AFC, the Bengals did win that honor.
- Paul Brown, arguably the second greatest coach ever, was our coach but went on to found the Bengals after the Browns ownership chased him out of Cleveland. Without that event, the Bengals would not be there at all. Coach Brown led us to multiple national championships and that is where my loyalty resides, with Coach Brown. His second team, and second love I want to believe, made it to the show. Let’s cheer for the Bengals and hope when we get there they do the same for us.
Written in Spring 2022. The Bengals lost but what a game!