Really Unbelievable and Funny Superbowl Story (Paul Brown Related)

[*SHRacerX*]

(01-08-2021, 05:03 PM)Wes Mantooth Wrote: This story was just covered on 700WLW.  I hadn't heard this one before, and I feel like it's a doosie so I thought I'd share it.  Fwiw, I'm going to be parapharsing it the best I can.

When the Bengals played in the Superbowl in 1989 the Bengals initially refused to send their cheerleaders to the game.  I guess since it wasn't a home game the Brown family didn't want to incur the extra cost of the travel for the cheerleaders to another site.

Anways, I guess there was so much of a stink raised about them not having cheerleaders for the biggest game of the year  they finally relented.  They ended sending their cheerleading squad from Cincinnati to the Pontiac SuperDome on a bus.

I just thought this was too good of a story to pass up sharing.  I can't believe I hadn't heard before, and Im assuming others haven't as well.

For those that always think Mike Brown is some shell of his father, just remember that a lot of these old school, cheap things he does are things he got from the old man.

For anyone that remembers the old drug PSA they used run back in the day where the dad finds the kid's drug stash and asks him "where did you learn how to do this?"  and the kid replies "I learned it by watching you, alright?!", this is what a story like this reminds of.  No wonder Mike Brown is the way that he is.

I think it is funny, and thought I had heard something about this before.  As far as the cheap things he does, while I agree that frugality is clearly a Brown family value, this was at a time when the league wasn't worth what it is now.  His father was able to start the team with $20,000, if memory serves.  He had lots of investors to answer to as far as running a profitable franchise.  Today's NFL has so much more TV revenue (that is shared) and many other significant sources of income...even with the increased salaries, every NFL majority owner is probably a billionaire or close to it.  

In addition, the Brown family throws away (essentially) millions of dollars in naming rights to the stadium every year to continue with Paul Brown Stadium.  So, it isn't always about the money.