If I told you once, I told you twice...

[THE PISTONS]

(05-08-2019, 12:54 PM)NKURyan Wrote: The thing is, I'm not sure that's true. If you're inept enough for long enough I think eventually people start to rally around you as the "lovable losers" everyone finally wants to get over the hump. I'd think there would be a lot of average NFL fans (outside of Pittsburgh and Cleveland) who would actively root for the Bengals to finally win a playoff game simply because it's been so long.

Look at the Chicago Cubs, or the Boston Red Sox in baseball. Both teams had long postseason droughts and I remember droves of people rooting for them (up to the point that finally succeeded and the fanbases became insufferable). Hell, look at the Cleveland Browns right now, a team so incapable over the last decade plus that they're probably getting as much national coverage as anybody just because they *might* be good.

We've never seen that kind of attention towards the Bengals even in 2015 when they were really good. It has struck me as odd at times. I'd imagine most of ESPN's primary audience wasn't even alive the last time the Bengals won a playoff game, and I'm surprised people don't root for them solely because of that.

It is an interesting case and I don't know there is just 1 simple answer. Some thoughts:

MB frequently shows up on lists of worst owners in sports too. Kind of like the Clippers...except they are in a much bigger market. That may be some of it.

Going the whole route of drafting and signing guys with red flags/suspensions/arrests hurt our perception and actually made us get labelled dirty. (When you and I both know the Steelers players are just as dirty.)

It is weird to some extent. We generally have good players at skill positions from Pickens to Dillon to Chad Johnson to AJ Green to Joe Mixon. Those guys should be super marketable.

I do think the Steelers overshadow us.

I've read that the Browns are very popular around America now. Puzzling. They won 0 games a couple years ago. Their uniforms and helmet are generic. I don't get it.