There has always been a good deal of talk among Bengals fans about our best hope being the the day that Mike steps aside and turns everything over to Katie. The idea being that Katie might be different or have a better approach than her dad. 

What is your actual confidence level that things might be different under a Katie regime? Do you think there's better chance that she'll blaze her own path and do things differently than Mike...or do you feel it's more likely that she'll just be a continuation of the same old, same old?

Of course, this is will be pure opinion because we haven't seen her in total control yet, but as far as a gut feeling on a scale of 1-10...10 being she does things vastly different and 1 being she does things exactly the same, where are you?

Optimistically, somewhere around 7.5 on the confidence scale. That is totally going off of blind faith, and hope that she has just been waiting her turn while Dad is still in charge.

It depends, really, on whether or not she has the same delusional sense of competence as her daddy. If she thinks she knows football, she'll be the GM, ans she is a woman, so there would be great appeal in being the first female GM.

If her foremost focus is rollover cap money, she'll continue in daddy's footsteps.

If she truly is passionate about winning a SB, she will have to at least make some changes, namely handing over the reins to a professional.

Every woman boss I've ever seen, and yes, in this area, I am a true chauvinist, has to put her own stamp on the operation the second she takes over. It's just what they do. She's been sitting there for years, cataloging in her mind all the ways she would be smarter, all the things she would do better.

On the other hand, there is her upbringing. No one can tell me she won't be a money grubber like her old man. Silver spoon and all that.

All in all, it would be an epic nature vs. nurture internal struggle for her and I'm betting cash money tips the scales and she operates a lot like Dad. She will change some things but she won't fork out a lot more dough to do it. I say 2 out of 10 kind of change and I have confidence level of 8 on that and confidence level of 3 on her being any better than Pops.

10 because of the lack of success the Bengals have had I think it makes her want to change some things up. One of the problems that Mike has his father was successful so in his mind why blow up a good thing.

Tough question and I would like to believe 100% but can not because of who she has learned from.

But hoping so and will be 100% behind her at beginning.

It depends on what's more important to her, winning or profits. As has been pointed out, she can't do any worse than meathead has done.

She also hasn't given any indication of how she might run things.

Hopefully she will restore her grandfathers legacy.

I'm willing to give her the benefit of the doubt but I need to see it. 5.

(01-20-2018, 02:45 PM)Bengalholic Wrote: There has always been a good deal of talk among Bengals fans about our best hope being the the day that Mike steps aside and turns everything over to Katie. The idea being that Katie might be different or have a better approach than her dad. 

What is your actual confidence level that things might be different under a Katie regime? Do you think there's better chance that she'll blaze her own path and do things differently than Mike...or do you feel it's more likely that she'll just be a continuation of the same old, same old?

Of course, this is will be pure opinion because we haven't seen her in total control yet, but as far as a gut feeling on a scale of 1-10...10 being she does things vastly different and 1 being she does things exactly the same, where are you?

This Katie stuff is a lot of nonsense.  Nobody has ever said she is taking over.  Mike Brown isn't going anywhere until he dies probably and when that happens who knows which of the Brown Family takes over.  We can only rule out the brother that just died, and don't assume it all goes to Katie. 

As for Confidence, I look at Bengals off season moves the last couple years and going on that and Mike Browns history and my Confidence in Bengals Front Office is ZERO.  Our only hope is that without a GM or scouts that somehow our coaches and players make play-offs IN SPITE of this front office.  Also the HOPE that the front office doesn't ruin free agency and the draft as they have lately. 

So I have NO CONFIDENCE in anybody in Bengals front office.  My reasons for being a Bengal Fan are because I've been a fan since 1968 but since the death of Paul Brown, being a Bengal Fan is more based on Hope in our coaches and players due to lack of Confidence in the front office. Mike Brown to put it bluntly is cheap, and there is nothing to show this will change when Mike Brown is gone. The point at this time is mute since Mike Brown has no intention of going anywhere and may out live all of us on this web site.  It is a very true old saying that when you die, you can't take your money with you. That being the case, Mike Brown as cheap as he is, has probably decided he ain't going if he can't take it with him.

I would rate .90 probability that Katie will do things better and different compared to her father. 


I will tell you why I personally believe Katie will be a better leader:  

• Simply put,  Katie seems to take the hard-line approach whereas her father takes a pathological patient approach in dealing with personnel.  It was Katie who stated the belief that the Bengals could compete against the Steelers and Ravens, not her father.  It was Katie who talked her father into hiring Marvin Lewis.  I know some if not many fans blame Marvin Lewis over the years for failing to win a playoff game let alone a championship, but give credit where credit is due.  Marvin Lewis changed the culture of the team into a competitive play-off caliber team.  
  

• It seems like Katie places the importance of winning over personal feelings.  Mike Brown places tact & compassion over winning.  Mike Brown is a sociologist willing to use the organization as a social agent of change.  Katie, on the other hand, seems to be all business and somewhat detached and objective.  
  

• I think Katie will spend money on a big name FA or two.  I also believe if a player gets out of line, Katie will have no qualms on letting that player go.  Mike Brown ignores public opinion and is willing to allow the team take collateral political damage to save a player or coach from personal bad decisions.  
  

• Finally, I think Katie's relatively youthful age (in comparison to her father) lends her to be in touch with the Bengal fans & Cincinnati community.  I think she will build freaking practice dome.  I think she will hire a GM.  I sincerely believe, albeit there is limited evidence, that Katie will improve the Cincinnati Bengals.  At the very least, anything is better than Mike Brown.  
  

From shirtsleves to shirtsleeves ..My confidence level is zilch as I've seen nothing yet to indicate that anyone in the Brown and Blackburn clan have ever had to experience anything remotely close to tough times on a personal level. They've all lived their entire lives in the relative comfort afforded by an NFL franchise and I just don't see anything that might change the trajectory .

(01-20-2018, 03:35 PM)psychdoctor Wrote: I would rate .90 probability that Katie will do things better and different compared to her father. 


I will tell you why I personally believe Katie will be a better leader:  

• Simply put,  Katie seems to take the hard-line approach whereas her father takes a pathological patient approach in dealing with personnel.  It was Katie who stated the belief that the Bengals could compete against the Steelers and Ravens, not her father.  It was Katie who talked her father into hiring Marvin Lewis.  I know some if not many fans blame Marvin Lewis over the years for failing to win a playoff game let alone a championship, but give credit where credit is due.  Marvin Lewis changed the culture of the team into a competitive play-off caliber team.  
  

• It seems like Katie places the importance of winning over personal feelings.  Mike Brown places tact & compassion over winning.  Mike Brown is a sociologist willing to use the organization as a social agent of change.  Katie, on the other hand, seems to be all business and somewhat detached and objective.  
  

• I think Katie will spend money on a big name FA or two.  I also believe if a player gets out of line, Katie will have no qualms on letting that player go.  Mike Brown ignores public opinion and is willing to allow the team take collateral political damage to save a player or coach from personal bad decisions.  
  

• Finally, I think Katie's relatively youthful age (in comparison to her father) lends her to be in touch with the Bengal fans & Cincinnati community.  I think she will build freaking practice dome.  I think she will hire a GM.  I sincerely believe, albeit there is limited evidence, that Katie will improve the Cincinnati Bengals.  At the very least, anything is better than Mike Brown.  
  

Perfectly said and I couldn't agree more.

Mike has some of the worst qualities an owner of a pro sports franchise could have: stinginess, stubbornness, delusional thinking, entitlement and, of course, blind loyalty to coaches, family and players.  

From what I've seen and read about Katie over the years, she seems very little like her father. Yes, she has his stubbornness (we saw how she handled Andre Smiths agent in hard knocks) but she seems to have more of a desire to win (Mike may also have a desire to win but he clearly has no idea how). She's tried a few times to persuade her father on certain subjects, namely hiring Marvin. So she may just "get it" better than Mike.

We can only hope Katie has learned what not to do after learning under her daddy all these years. 

(01-20-2018, 04:21 PM)grampahol Wrote: From shirtsleves to shirtsleeves ..My confidence level is zilch as I've seen nothing yet to indicate that anyone in the Brown and Blackburn clan have ever had to experience anything remotely close to tough times on a personal level. They've all lived their entire lives in the relative comfort afforded by an NFL franchise and I just don't see anything that might change the trajectory .

I’ve always been at a 0 with her too. I have some hope just because it’ll be a change, but no confidence considering who she’s learning from 

Given our luck as Bengal fans, what are the odds that she'll be driven to win and surround herself with knowledgeable football people to run the team and eschew profits for championships, versus pocketing a GM paycheck for herself, husband or some idiot relative while taking advantage of fans' nostalgia for the teams' winning years to line the family coffers, winning be damned?

Guess you can say I have a healthy skepticism at this point.

(01-20-2018, 03:31 PM)BenZoo2 Wrote: It depends on what's more important to her, winning or profits.  As has been pointed out, she can't do any worse than meathead has done.

She also hasn't given any indication of how she might run things.

Hopefully she will restore her grandfathers legacy.

I'm willing to give her the benefit of the doubt but I need to see it.  5.

She is the ONLY hope to which we have to cling. From the MB interviews we cannot expect any real changes while he is in charge. His "I am in charge" approach is still apparent.

I am disappointed that she continues to keep her head down and not offer fans any glimmer of her attitude towards the Bengals future well-being. 

Considering that Mike Brown has been the worst professional sports owner covering decades it's hard to imagine someone else being worst or as bad.

What throttles my hopes for improvement is that Katie is learned from Mike and she really could not have had a worst teacher.

When Mike Brown grows enough balls to take a chance on something he always seems f it up with desperation rather than common sense.

I have the confidence that Katie will run the team the way it's supposed to be ran until the Bengals win a Super Bowl.

After that, she will run the Bengals like Mike a make money hand over fist with promises of "This is the year" for 10 or 15 years then run it again until they win another and say, "See, I told ya" and make money hand over fist with a new stadium deal.

Well, I have little confidence that KB will be some amazing owner that completely changes the entire philosophy of the organization. I have 100% confidence she isn’t MB and what better can we hope for at this point. Any change that replaces MB is a step in the right direction.

She could be great, but we won’t know until she gets a chance. I mean, we’ve seen how far the apple can fall from the tree already in this family.

Katie is like our Andre Smith.

She sure isn't our first or even second choice, and she's probably crap... but the person she's replacing (Mike Brown is our Ogbuehi in this metaphor) is so absolutely GD awful that in comparison, simply being bad is a MASSIVE upgrade that we celebrate.

(01-20-2018, 03:35 PM)psychdoctor Wrote: I would rate .90 probability that Katie will do things better and different compared to her father. 


I will tell you why I personally believe Katie will be a better leader:  

• Simply put,  Katie seems to take the hard-line approach whereas her father takes a pathological patient approach in dealing with personnel.  It was Katie who stated the belief that the Bengals could compete against the Steelers and Ravens, not her father.  It was Katie who talked her father into hiring Marvin Lewis.  I know some if not many fans blame Marvin Lewis over the years for failing to win a playoff game let alone a championship, but give credit where credit is due.  Marvin Lewis changed the culture of the team into a competitive play-off caliber team.  
  

• It seems like Katie places the importance of winning over personal feelings.  Mike Brown places tact & compassion over winning.  Mike Brown is a sociologist willing to use the organization as a social agent of change.  Katie, on the other hand, seems to be all business and somewhat detached and objective.  
  

• I think Katie will spend money on a big name FA or two.  I also believe if a player gets out of line, Katie will have no qualms on letting that player go.  Mike Brown ignores public opinion and is willing to allow the team take collateral political damage to save a player or coach from personal bad decisions.  
  

• Finally, I think Katie's relatively youthful age (in comparison to her father) lends her to be in touch with the Bengal fans & Cincinnati community.  I think she will build freaking practice dome.  I think she will hire a GM.  I sincerely believe, albeit there is limited evidence, that Katie will improve the Cincinnati Bengals.  At the very least, anything is better than Mike Brown.  
  

I like a lot of your post.   I have no idea what she is really like, but I have liked her handling of the cap and contracts. 

I have always thought that Mike wants to win much more than the fan base gives him credit for.   I also believe he knows much more about football than people give him credit for.   He was a college QB and has been around football his whole life.   He is loyal, thoughtful, articulate and intelligent.

He does seem to have some fatal flaws:   He appears to be a rigid thinker who strongly follows the old scripts of his father's franchise - e.g. you don't pay guards, safeties and you don't take a chance giving a contract to aging players.

And I just want to say, there were many on these boards and "experts" in the media who agreed with him

I think that Katie has a very good chance of embracing Mike's very good qualities and overcoming some of his fatal flaws.

But she'll have her own.   We all do...

(01-20-2018, 02:45 PM)Bengalholic Wrote: There has always been a good deal of talk among Bengals fans about our best hope being the the day that Mike steps aside and turns everything over to Katie. The idea being that Katie might be different or have a better approach than her dad. 

What is your actual confidence level that things might be different under a Katie regime? Do you think there's better chance that she'll blaze her own path and do things differently than Mike...or do you feel it's more likely that she'll just be a continuation of the same old, same old?

Of course, this is will be pure opinion because we haven't seen her in total control yet, but as far as a gut feeling on a scale of 1-10...10 being she does things vastly different and 1 being she does things exactly the same, where are you?

3. The longer she learns at the feet of the master, the less likely it is she will enact significant changes. The current management structure maximizes family profits, and its her family members working in the front office, ticket sales, marketing, etc. Family profits will continue to come before fielding a legitimate Super Bowl threat.

Closer to 1 than 10 to be honest as I would be surprised if she did things much different. Sure there may be be minor changes made, small upgrades to the scouting staff like getting YouTube subscription to avoid ads as they try to find college prospect vids. But when the Bengals is the only business of the family, without anything major to fall back on, making as much profit as possible is more important than investing more money into the hopes of winning.