Things Bengals Fans have been conditioned to believe by following the team for years

[Fan_in_Kettering]

We've been conditioned, all right, to accept mediocrity as a weak substitute for success. Everyone in Bengaldom knows merely winning a playoff game will not be enough because Cincinnati has been a city of winners from the Super Bowl Bengals to the Big Red Machine. Now, paraphrasing our president-elect, we don't win at anything anymore. We don't win at baseball. We don't win at football. The rest of the league has zero respect for Cincinnati teams because they know neither the Bengals nor the Reds can close a deal when it counts.

We've become like an underachieving student who could get top grades but earns a string of B and C grades and our enabling parents just say, "As long as it's your best, honey." The underachieving student responds by meek acceptance and one who could have been at the top of the class finishes in the middle. The parents smile thinking how much worse it could be.

The Cincinnati Bengals will never win in the playoffs until this cycle of mediocrity is broken. Inside every fan are doubts:

"It's the Steelers. We can't beat them."

"Bill Belichick and Tom Brady! Let's curl up and die. Maybe they won't hurt us."

"If we beat the Cowboys, America will hate us."

"No one wants to play here."