If we could turn back time....(Hiring Marvin Lewis)

[Essex Johnson]

(01-02-2019, 12:52 AM)34inXXIII Wrote: Understandably, there has been a lot of talk about Marvin Lewis' legacy on here this week. It's obviously stained by general mediocrity and horrendous playoff losses. Of course, there are those who give him a lot of credit for changing the direction of the league's worst franchise throughout the 90s. I started thinking about whether I would change history back in 2003, if I had the power to do so. Would I be willing to risk the possibility that their futility would continue well into the new millennium without any end in sight to ensure that Marvin would never be hired as the Bengals head coach? Maybe the team would have hired Coughlin and had a chance to make the kind of run that he had with the Giants. Of course, maybe they hire Mike Mularkey, Dennis Green, or Romeo Crennel (or, eventually, each of them).

I don't think I'm alone in saying that I would take my chances with someone else. I'm accustomed to the wretched results across all my sports teams. I'd put the meager success the Bengals had under Marvin on the line for a shot at something better....and maybe that relates to where we are right now. I love Mike Zimmer, but as I tell the local Vikings fans around here, if you pick fruit from the Marvin Lewis coaching tree, don't be surprised when it is rotten. Sticking with the familiar - Hue, Vance, Simmons, etc. - appears unlikely to be any different than signing Marvin all those years ago. That's bound to be attractive to Mike Brown, but it doesn't satisfy the need to once again move in a new direction.

Sadly, we don't have time machines. Depending upon whom the organization hires as its new head coach, though, it may feel like we're headed back to the future.

Looking back Lewis did an amazing job to turn the bengals and culture of players around, hats off to him on that.