Doc: 'The Cincinnati Bengals belong to you, the fans'

[kevin]

(12-28-2018, 06:53 PM)Bengalholic Wrote: Paul Daugherty: The Cincinnati Bengals belong to you, the fans

It’s your team. Let’s start with that.

Technically and financially, it’s Mike Brown’s team. He owns the Cincinnati Bengals. His money runs them, he can decide to move them if he feels the business isn’t doing well enough.

Emotionally, you deserve your cut. Your passion is your equity. It needs to be recognized.

The Nippert seasons, Greg Cook, the Freezer Bowl, the strike season, ya don’t live in Cleveland. The Lost Decade, 2005, 2015 and every moment before and after.

Anthony and Kenny and Boomer and Sam. Dave. Marvin, Chad, Nine and 14. Adriel Jeremiah Green. Whit.

All yours.

We are a small place by pro sports standards. If you like the NFL but not the Bengals, you can’t defect to the team across town. Our size limits our choices, and our points of civic pride. No one in New York is sweating the annual nightmare that is the Jets.

San Francisco could lose every pro sports franchise it had, and it’d still be San Francisco.

Because we are small, pro sports are a bigger part of who we are. We take them personally. Who that was born here doesn’t feel something down deep for the Reds? A hundred years from now, the Big Red Machine will still have meaning. Relatives of the 500,000 or so fans who claimed to have been at the Freezer Bowl will still be able to summon that memory.

You’ve given the Brown family the gifts of your loyalty, trust and passion. And oh yeah, your money. Where’s your return on investment?

No team owner gets rich and famous listening to fans and sportswriters. Business-by-emotions is a bad idea. Knee-jerking to appease people who know less about your business than you do is a good way to lose your business.

That’s not what we’re talking about here.

Sometime next week, sooner than later, the BrownTrust will decide what it wants its team to be. Time waits for no one. It can be suggested, fairly, that time has once again passed the Bengals by. The Family’s patience is legendary, its loyalty to its workers can never be questioned.

To what end?

The Bengals legacy as postseason failures is cemented. As the blow-hardy Stephen A. Smith noted recently on ESPN, “SIXTEEN YEARS!" The Family’s loyalty and stubbornness, er, steadfastness, is regarded favorably inside the family gates. Everywhere else, it’s seen as excessive and detrimental.

Mike Brown says he has a “comfortable" relationship with Marvin Lewis. Comfort is not a word normally associated with successful NFL teams. Brown inhabits a space where excuses are reasons and hope is a plan. Hope is not a plan.

The Factory of Sameness down by the river reliably churns out mediocrity mixed with the occasional January heartbreak, yet those responsible aren’t accountable. Does anyone else see the irony in Lewis imploring his workers to Do Your Job?

Because he is Original School, Mike Brown is feeling the attendance blues being sung at Practically Barren Stadium. NFL teams don’t really need butts-in-seats to make money. (Butts in suites is another matter. That’s revenue that isn’t shared.) But NFL owners with egos don’t want acres of empty seats loitering on TV screens, either.

I’m not good at making apocalyptic, hit-seeking statements. Life is gray. So I won’t say the Bengals franchise is at a crossroads. I will say in 31 years here, I’ve never seen a fan base more poised to jump ship. Once it does, try getting it back.

The BrownTrust makes a case that, eventually, the Bengals will return to the financial situation they faced before we built them PBS. Even with revenue sharing and a salary cap, they won’t have the income to stay profitable. Cynics and conspiracy theorists will contend that is the Family’s aim: Run the franchise into the ground, cry poverty, bolt town.

I don’t believe that. I can’t blame those that do.

Now would be a good time for the Family to realize its team belongs to you, in an intangible, yet vital way. And to act accordingly. It’s not too late for that revelation to dawn, but it’s getting there.

Next week, the Family has a chance to inspire hope in a forgiving fan base. It can acknowledge its obligation to this region, a duty that involves more than simply fielding a team and opening the gates.

It’s time the Brown family does right by you. Before it stops mattering.

As to football, we fans own nothing. If all the teams move from San Francisco, the San Francisco Fans have no teams. If Sacramento in NBA wins, that is not Cincinnati Royals.  If Colts win, it is not Baltimore Colts. OK, the old fans of moving teams have their memories, and that's all they have. Yes, Mike Brown owns the Bengals technically, financially and every other way. If he wants to move the franchise he can, and it's just gone. 100 years from now there will be no memories and nobody will care. 

I like the changes Reds are making. How they pan out is up in the air. I thought I liked changes Bengals made in off season, but they didn't work out very well.  We can question owners loyalty. We should also question Fans loyalty. Fans are Fickle. They like the newest player on the team and then want him traded a month later. I've seen people move and go to being fans of whatever team they move near. I heard at Reds games Fans make remarks about Johnny Bench marriage, boo Joe Morgan, boo an injured Jim Maloney. I've seen fans show total lack of class as they boo players that brought too much winning here and deserved better. For the price of a ticket a fan can drink a beer, eat a hot dog and completely show their rear ends, and often they do.  The 2015 Steelers at Bengals Play-Off game was not the Fans finest moment. 

I still believe all owners want fans in the stands despite many posts lately to the contrary.  I don't think you will find one owner that will say they don't want sellout attendance. I've seen posts using Forbes Magazine and such, but show me one owner that says they don't want sellout crowds, because you are not going to find any. So Fans are important.  Fans are customers. Customers are sales. Sales is Money and all of Pro Sports is about the Money, and a lot of College sports and even some high school depend on Money.  

So Fans can hope owners do this or that.  In the end, Fans have to have a life beyond these teams.  There is no more Canton Bulldogs. Brooklyn Dodgers, Kentucky Colonels, Tampa Bay Bandits. No more ABA or USFL. Teams fold and move. Leagues shut down. Fans of the semi pro hockey Dayton Gems of decades ago have only vague memories in their old age. Sports is nice, I like sports, but it's not everything. There is more to life than sports. The Bengals had a lousy season but it really doesn't change our lives that much. It really won't change your school grades or jobs or families one bit. I disagree that 100 years from now the 2018 season will matter, and I agree with deceased elders who said 100 years from now nobody will care.  I hope for better days ahead for Bengals, Reds, but in the end it really doesn't change our lives that much one way or the other. 

Again, I heard Fans boo players that brought the most winning ever to Cincinnati in the 1970's Reds. Things yelled out about Johnny Bench wife and marriage was just shameful. To actually boo Joe Morgan who was MVP in both World Series years.  Bengals Fans cheered Ken Anderson lying on the ground injured as Turk came into game. Ken Anderson went on to be MVP and lead Bengals to Super Bowl that same season, so the Fans were wrong.  The Bengals went 6-0 against AFC North in 2009, and yet Fans were not happy.  Maybe Paul Brown and Hank Strahm had the right idea of just kicking the field goal or running the ball backed up against your own end zone on 3rd and long, and when the Fans Boo you just say the heck with the Fans. It's almost impossible to please the Fans, which is short for fanatic. 

Still, I also want Bengals and Reds to be better than Last Place. In the end, it is up to ownership, coaches and players. If they don't care, why should I ? The moves by Reds mean I will watch Reds for first time in years.

The Bengals need huge changes also. The Defense is too slow and can't cover. The new NFL forces Bengals to change because QB's, RB's, TE's are eating them alive on non covered passes. Maybe Bengals need to get safeties the size of linebackers, or linebackers that play like safeties, but they need speed. Speed is what they need. Linebackers and DB's that can cover the pass routes and still tackle. Tony Dungy Speed Defense Football. The Bengals are way too slow and uncoordinated on defense pass coverage. That means many need to go, because you can't teach speed. The O Line still isn't that good yet either. This team needs a whole new direction because the NFL has changed and Bengals haven't changed with it. The Bengals are just too slow on D leaving large chunks of gridiron uncovered. For the most part, this is a very slow team that can't cover, can't tackle, can't block. The Bengals have not kept up with the changes in NFL, and they are being left behind. The Bengals D needs to float like a butterfly, sting like a bee. Right now they float like a slug or a sloth, just too slow. Bengals Ownership & Coaching is fighting the new rules that open up more passes in middle of field to RB's and TE's. Bengals Ownership and Coaches must change with the times or get left behind as in last few years.