02-12-2017, 09:03 PM
(02-12-2017, 06:13 PM)SHRacerX Wrote: To be fair, a lot of what you discuss here is ancient history....a league that had no rookie wage scale. A team drafts consensus #1 picks and they are a litany of busts (Ki-Jana, Klingler, Wilkinson, Reinard Wilson, and so on and so on) that financially cripple your team for years. You are stuck with that ridiculous contract and you have to keep trying to find a way to make them work. Ironically, now a team drafts a dud in the first round (Ponder, Locker, Gabbert) were all first rounders that should have killed their teams, but they can move on MUCH faster now....and right when the Bengals seemingly went on a pretty good run of drafting.
A lot of what has transpired in the Marvin Lewis Era has been positive...you can quote playoff record and prime time games, etc. but this team has matured in to a legitimate contender that has been (IMHO) very close a few times. That is such a dramatic improvement from the 90s that the owner wanted to stick with what got him there.
I mean, if Palmer doesn't get Kimo'd in 2005? If Dalton doesn't break his thumb in 2015? He assembled those teams. He helped assemble a great coaching staff. He has helped expand the scouting department and Tobin was a great hire.
If the Bengals had won even one Super Bowl in that time, no one would be saying a thing. But they haven't...and it all gets dumped on him as a failure. It should fall on his shoulders, but how many teams that win say it is because of the owner? Isn't it usually a function of the coaches and players? Why is it the owner only when they don't win?
You made the claim that "Mike Brown wants to win as much as we do, if not more".
Sorry brother, but I still haven't seen any examples that would demonstrate this great desire to win. In fact, the 'ancient history' you refer to, especially from '91-'02, indicates a man who was more concerned with doing things his own way - in spite of continuous failures - than a man who had a passionate drive to be a winner.
As pre-Bengals employee Geoff Hobson pointed out in an article back then - "Look at the successful teams of the 1990s. They either have an omnipotent GM/Coach the owners lets run rampant like Jimmy Johnson or Bill Parcells, or a strong GM with no family or financial ties to the organization, such as Green Bay's Ron Wolf or Pittsburgh's Tom Donahoe."
Mike refused to get out of the way then, despite being the worst GM in football. That doesn't strike me a 'wanting to win more than anyone'. That strikes as me stubborn foolishness that damaged the franchise.
Mike has been dragged into the modern age of football, at least to a greater degree that where he was, although he's still pretty stubborn and reluctant when it comes to certain things.
Again, I'm not saying he doesn't want to win...I'm just stating that nothing that I've seen or heard from him over the last 26 years would indicate that winning is the #1 priority.
