(01-28-2019, 11:16 AM)michaelsean Wrote: And when we were 28 years younger. 

(01-28-2019, 11:57 AM)I_C_DeadPeople Wrote: Working with her dad has aged her. But Katie was never a looker by any means. 

(01-28-2019, 12:19 PM)SunsetBengal Wrote: I know that I sure looked a heck of a lot better, 28 years ago..

Well... my joke fell flat.

(01-28-2019, 01:40 PM)Earendil Wrote: Well... my joke fell flat.

Well now I feel bad.

(01-28-2019, 11:59 AM)Wyche Wrote: Think again. :andy: 


https://www.nytimes.com/1997/09/25/sports/on-pro-football-when-paul-brown-smashed-the-color-barrier.html

I admit i did not know this and i even googled it lol... if you google "first black professional sports player" the guys paul brown hired do not come up.

I bet if you ask 100 people outside of Cincinnati 100 people would say Jackie robinson.  

Maybe someone from the bengals board should edit the wikipedia??

(01-28-2019, 01:45 PM)michaelsean Wrote: Well now I feel bad.

Nah, don't feel bad.  I've been sick, so some of my jokes are bound to be stinkers.

(01-28-2019, 12:19 PM)SunsetBengal Wrote: I know that I sure looked a heck of a lot better, 28 years ago..

No doubt! Funny I was tying my shoes yesterday and I had to let out groan and hold my breath to do it.....

(01-28-2019, 02:05 PM)sandwedge Wrote: No doubt! Funny I was tying my shoes yesterday and I had to let out groan and hold my breath to do it.....

Lol, I feel ya!  28 years ago, not only did I have all my hair, but I wore a size 33 jeans, could run a 40 in just under 4.7, and weighed over 50# less than I do now.  Ah, the good 'ole days, back when it seemed like just a short matter of time before the Bengals would win one of those Superbowls..

(01-28-2019, 11:54 AM)Wyche Wrote: http://thebengalsboard.com/Thread-After-years-of-speculation-seems-us-dumb-message-board-fans-were-on-to-something


:andy:

After some google searching i have noticed NOBODY gives brown credit. Even BET says nothing about the guys brown hired. The only person they site is the rb for the rams of the same year. 



Either way, its still a bad comparison.  Brown hired those guys not because they were black, but because they were the best guys to help the team win. Katie is not the best to help this team win, she is an owners kid. Her only qualification.

(01-28-2019, 11:23 AM)RunKijanaRun Wrote: Being a great leader/executive has nothing to do with having all the answers.

It's knowing where to find them and having the humility to ask.

She probably doesn't know (expletive) about football, but if she knows to surround herself with good people who do, she will be successful and so too, in turn, will be the Bengals.

It’s literally impossible that she knows nothing about football. She was raised around the game since birth.

(01-27-2019, 11:07 PM)t3r3e3 Wrote: Not a fan of Jerrah, but his case full of Lombardi trophies wins any argument between his and Mike’s managerial prowess.  Even if those Lombardi’s are 20+ years old.

One could argue that once the well of talented coaches that were his teammates from 1964 (Johnson,Switzer) ran dry, so did his success. Otoh he does have the experience winning a championship with the Razorbacks as well as fielding them... . 

(01-28-2019, 11:23 AM)RunKijanaRun Wrote: Being a great leader/executive has nothing to do with having all the answers.

It's knowing where to find them and having the humility to ask.

She probably doesn't know (expletive) about football, but if she knows to surround herself with good people who do, she will be successful and so too, in turn, will be the Bengals.

But the maybe his experience is getting in the way now, as he may think he has the answers and doesn't need to ask for help. Or maybe he counted his former teammates as trusted equals, and now doesn't have anyone around that he holds in high regard to confide in? In any event here is hoping that as RKR said, Katie is smart enough to surround herself with even smarter people!

(01-28-2019, 02:39 PM)Nicomo Cosca Wrote: It’s literally impossible that she knows nothing about football. She was raised around the game since birth.

You took my post way too literally. Literally.

Of course she knows at least a little bit about it.

But you needed a W so badly, you decided to kick down this straw man.

You did it!

The best thing she can do is bring in outside football people (which she's doing with the coaching staff) and allow them to have a lot of weighted input. If she does that, then this can work.

Now, if she makes most of the decisions without input, this could fail.

Executives in large companies don't know every aspect of a business. Many times they are the public figurehead of the company. They need talented managers and employees below them to succeed. That's the model that the Bengals need to adopt.

I strongly believe that they do need to hire more scouts though. You just can't get enough feel for a player watching them on TV. Plus, it's a big ask to have coaches scouting AND gameplanning as college football is during the NFL season.

I do feel that this 'younger' coaching staff will be more in tune with the college football scene which should help with drafting.

(01-28-2019, 01:46 PM)TheUberHuber Wrote: I admit i did not know this and i even googled it lol... if you google "first black professional sports player" the guys paul brown hired do not come up.

I bet if you ask 100 people outside of Cincinnati 100 people would say Jackie robinson.  

Maybe someone from the bengals board should edit the wikipedia??

Don't feel bad, I didn't know it until the Football Life on Paul Brown came out. I have no idea why it continues to be overlooked.  I guess it's kind of like the history that wasn't taught in our schools.  MLB was MUCH bigger than professional football in those days too.

(01-29-2019, 12:36 PM)THE PISTONS Wrote: The best thing she can do is bring in outside football people (which she's doing with the coaching staff) and allow them to have a lot of weighted input. If she does that, then this can work.

Now, if she makes most of the decisions without input, this could fail.

Executives in large companies don't know every aspect of a business. Many times they are the public figurehead of the company. They need talented managers and employees below them to succeed. That's the model that the Bengals need to adopt.

I strongly believe that they do need to hire more scouts though. You just can't get enough feel for a player watching them on TV. Plus, it's a big ask to have coaches scouting AND gameplanning as college football is during the NFL season.

I do feel that this 'younger' coaching staff will be more in tune with the college football scene which should help with drafting.

I think it's rather safe to say that she, her husband, and brother are beginning to put their stamp on the way to run things.  The Bengals are doing things we've never seen them do.  We'll have to wait and see just how differently things ultimately play out.  The gutting of the staff is a huge step toward relinquishing control to those outside of the family, IMO.

(01-29-2019, 12:59 PM)Wyche Wrote: I think it's rather safe to say that she, her husband, and brother are beginning to put their stamp on the way to run things.  The Bengals are doing things we've never seen them do.  We'll have to wait and see just how differently things ultimately play out.  The gutting of the staff is a huge step toward relinquishing control to those outside of the family, IMO.

Agreed. And I remember speculation after we started making the playoffs a few years in a row that there was a change.

I think it was pretty obvious that the Bengals needed to do a drastic coaching change and hire from outside. That said, in years past they didn't do this. So even though it was obviously needed, the fact that it happened is a big thing.

I just wonder why a guy like Pollack leaves like he did? He wasn't fired. Supposedly he wanted out.

IF we draft well this year and sign 2-3 quality free agents, we could be a playoff team.

(01-28-2019, 02:26 PM)TheUberHuber Wrote: After some google searching i have noticed NOBODY gives brown credit. Even BET says nothing about the guys brown hired. The only person they site is the rb for the rams of the same year. 



Either way, its still a bad comparison.  Brown hired those guys not because they were black, but because they were the best guys to help the team win. Katie is not the best to help this team win, she is an owners kid. Her only qualification.

Well, that's an ignorant and condescending comment..... she may have gotten her position with the team because she was an "owner's kid", but she has been working the front office for decades.....

Katherine "Katie" Blackburn (born September 25, 1965) is Executive Vice President of the Cincinnati Bengals,[1] an American football team in the National Football League. She went to law school and worked for a Cincinnati law firm before beginning to work for the Bengals in October 1991. She worked in the Bengals' front office, where she was the only woman in the entire league who was involved in negotiating players contracts. She preferred working behind the scenes and would often handle the club's radio and television networks. She is an expert on the NFL's complicated salary-cap structure and has helped connect the Bengals to the surrounding community, by using the appeal of the players' to help the different organizations around Cincinnati. Blackburn has over 20 years of experience in professional football and she was the first woman to be a chief contract negotiator in the NFL.

Look throughout the NFL, there are a lot of coaches and executives who got their start because there were related to someone already in the NFL. No relative in the NFL and they may have never got jobs. Then there is the 'friends' network.

Zac Taylor is related to Mike Sherman.

When looking at longevity for Bengals front office personnel...take it with a huge grain of salt as most teams fire GM's after 3-4-5 years of no playoff wins. You don't get 28 years in other cities. The circumstances here are definitely 'different'.

(01-29-2019, 01:57 PM)THE PISTONS Wrote: Agreed. And I remember speculation after we started making the playoffs a few years in a row that there was a change.

I think it was pretty obvious that the Bengals needed to do a drastic coaching change and hire from outside. That said, in years past they didn't do this. So even though it was obviously needed, the fact that it happened is a big thing.

I just wonder why a guy like Pollack leaves like he did? He wasn't fired. Supposedly he wanted out.

IF we draft well this year and sign 2-3 quality free agents, we could be a playoff team.

Yes sir.  Even when they hired Marvin, they stuck him with the cockroach OL coach, and several others.  This time, it was as close to a complete house cleaning as you'll usually see for any team, let alone this one.

The Pollack deal is a bit of a head scratcher.  Maybe he felt like he would be undermined here, somehow, or just didn't want to coach under such a young HC.  I dunno, did he have any relationship to Adam Gase previously?  

The 2-3 quality FAs will be key, will they do it is the next big question we'll have to wait and see be answered.

(01-29-2019, 02:08 PM)Sled21 Wrote: Well, that's an ignorant and condescending comment..... she may have gotten her position with the team because she was an "owner's kid", but she has been working the front office for decades.....

Katherine "Katie" Blackburn (born September 25, 1965) is Executive Vice President of the Cincinnati Bengals,[1] an American football team in the National Football League. She went to law school and worked for a Cincinnati law firm before beginning to work for the Bengals in October 1991. She worked in the Bengals' front office, where she was the only woman in the entire league who was involved in negotiating players contracts. She preferred working behind the scenes and would often handle the club's radio and television networks. She is an expert on the NFL's complicated salary-cap structure and has helped connect the Bengals to the surrounding community, by using the appeal of the players' to help the different organizations around Cincinnati. Blackburn has over 20 years of experience in professional football and she was the first woman to be a chief contract negotiator in the NFL.

She's also head of the NFL's diversity program and the Super Bowl advisory committee.  

My hope, and I actually believe this is what she'll do, is that she sticks to what she is best at.....managing the cap and contracts.....and seeks advice from, or gives outright control to someone steeped in knowledge on personnel decisions.  It sure seems like she is moving in this direction, based on what we know about the coaching staff.

(01-29-2019, 03:28 PM)Wyche Wrote: She's also head of the NFL's diversity program and the Super Bowl advisory committee.  

My hope, and I actually believe this is what she'll do, is that she sticks to what she is best at.....managing the cap and contracts.....and seeks advice from, or gives outright control to someone steeped in knowledge on personnel decisions.  It sure seems like she is moving in this direction, based on what we know about the coaching staff.

Well, Personnel decisions are mostly Duke Tobin's deal, are they not? Katie will stay in the Front Office doing what she does best, and let the coaches coach. For someone with no qualifications other than "coaches kid", I'm pretty happy with how she's doing so far in this regime change....

(01-29-2019, 05:38 PM)Sled21 Wrote: Well, Personnel decisions are mostly Duke Tobin's deal, are they not? Katie will stay in the Front Office doing what she does best, and let the coaches coach. For someone with no qualifications other than "coaches kid", I'm pretty happy with how she's doing so far in this regime change....

That's just it...people said she took over 6-7 years ago. No one really knows how the Bengals work from a management perspective.

When they win or do something that a normal NFL Team would do...people assume Katie is in charge.

When they lose or stick with said losing coach...people assume MB is in charge.

It's hard to say. How many other organizations hide who's in control from the public?