New season: same old 'Bungals'
Clayton Ward
Issue date: 9/17/09 Section: Sports
This week I'd like to start with an apology:
I apologize to all Eastern students, faculty or anyone else kind enough to pick up and read this publication.
I understand many of you, like myself, are Bengals fans.
With that said, let us begin our journey discussing the most disappointing franchise in the National Football League.
I am a lifelong Cincinnati Bengals supporter. For as long as I can remember, through bad times and good (mostly bad), I've been there, tried and true, yelling, "Who-dey!"
Growing up in the Dayton area, I still remember how people talked about Julius "Boomer" Esiason like he was a god.
Where I'm from, your choices growing up were to be a Bengals fan, or maybe worse, a Browns fan.
If you aren't a Cincinnati Bengals fan, you probably know one - and more than likely feel sorry for them.
Let me give you the back-story to why this has been brought to my, and now your, attention.
Having roughly six hours to travel in my car this weekend, I did what any avid sports fan would do: listened to sports talk radio.
I've found that yelling what you consider valid arguments back at the radio helps pass the time - at least until you realize the people driving beside you think you're some sort of crazy person.
Between the verbal assaults on my radio and the pointless debate to call in and give the host a piece of my mind (which I never go through with), I heard a worthwhile question: "As a Bengals fan, what's the harm in being optimistic about the season if we're starting 1-0?"
His point was to address why Bengals fans are so pessimistic every year, no matter how well the team begins.
Now, a lot of things surprise me. For instance the fact that McDonald's sweet tea is as addictive as crack cocaine, but is still only a dollar, or how ceremonies of any kind continue to invite Kanye West thinking he will act like an adult.
The Bengals losing any game, no matter how unlikely, will never surprise me.
For those of you who did not see the Bengals game on Sunday, let me give you the skinny.
The score was 7-6 Bengals. With less than 30 seconds left in the game, Broncos quarterback Kyle Orton throws a long ball deep downfield intended for wide receiver Brandon Marshall. Bengals cornerback Leon Hall has a chance at the interception, but instead tips the ball into the air directly to the hands of Broncos wide receiver Brandon Stokley, who runs more than 80 yards and scores off the tip drill.
The Bronco's win the game 12-7.
This is probably easily one of the craziest game-winning plays in the past five or 10 years.
I pulled for the Bengals every punt, third down conversion and turnover all four quarters, as a good fan does.
But after watching every play of the game and seeing my team grasp defeat from the jaws of victory, the outcome didn't even faze me; not for one second. If I knew of no other football in my life outside the Bengals organization, I'd never know that losing was supposed to cause anger and outrage.
Thankfully, I also have an affinity for college football, so I know what it's supposed to feel like when you give away the game as the Bengals did.
The lack of emotion is a direct result of being a Bengals fan. It's what the Bengals do to you. Ask anyone - as a Bengals fan you hope for the best and expect the worse. It's not pessimism: It's realism.
I compare the Bengals to a Tootsie Pop. How many times can you get a fan's hopes up and then immediately crush them before you reach their center, only to steal their inner sportsman's soul.
While you may say the Lions, Rams, or Raiders fans have it much worse than Bengals fans, two things split apart the fans from Columbus and Ohio to Lexington from those in Detroit and St. Louis.
The first is the manner in which they lose. It's just plain depressing at times. Sunday's befuddling performance to end the game is a perfect example.
The second is strictly based on expectations. No one expects the Lions to do anything every year, but year in and year out, ESPN and the rest of the national media tell us how good Cincinnati will be that year.
I think Bengals fans are the only ones who don't fall prey to this insane notion we will ever win a Super Bowl. As for teams like the Rams or Raiders, they had their time to shine, winning at least one Super Bowl each.
I don't want anyone to think I'm abandoning ship.
Never.
Call me a glutton for punishment, but I love the Bengals.
Their promise of failure is one of the only real constants in my life, and while I'd love to see a Lombardi trophy come to Cincinnati, I won't hold my breath.
Reach Clay at clayton_ward29@eku.edu.
I apologize to all Eastern students, faculty or anyone else kind enough to pick up and read this publication.
I understand many of you, like myself, are Bengals fans.
With that said, let us begin our journey discussing the most disappointing franchise in the National Football League.
I am a lifelong Cincinnati Bengals supporter. For as long as I can remember, through bad times and good (mostly bad), I've been there, tried and true, yelling, "Who-dey!"
Growing up in the Dayton area, I still remember how people talked about Julius "Boomer" Esiason like he was a god.
Where I'm from, your choices growing up were to be a Bengals fan, or maybe worse, a Browns fan.
If you aren't a Cincinnati Bengals fan, you probably know one - and more than likely feel sorry for them.
Let me give you the back-story to why this has been brought to my, and now your, attention.
Having roughly six hours to travel in my car this weekend, I did what any avid sports fan would do: listened to sports talk radio.
I've found that yelling what you consider valid arguments back at the radio helps pass the time - at least until you realize the people driving beside you think you're some sort of crazy person.
Between the verbal assaults on my radio and the pointless debate to call in and give the host a piece of my mind (which I never go through with), I heard a worthwhile question: "As a Bengals fan, what's the harm in being optimistic about the season if we're starting 1-0?"
His point was to address why Bengals fans are so pessimistic every year, no matter how well the team begins.
Now, a lot of things surprise me. For instance the fact that McDonald's sweet tea is as addictive as crack cocaine, but is still only a dollar, or how ceremonies of any kind continue to invite Kanye West thinking he will act like an adult.
The Bengals losing any game, no matter how unlikely, will never surprise me.
For those of you who did not see the Bengals game on Sunday, let me give you the skinny.
The score was 7-6 Bengals. With less than 30 seconds left in the game, Broncos quarterback Kyle Orton throws a long ball deep downfield intended for wide receiver Brandon Marshall. Bengals cornerback Leon Hall has a chance at the interception, but instead tips the ball into the air directly to the hands of Broncos wide receiver Brandon Stokley, who runs more than 80 yards and scores off the tip drill.
The Bronco's win the game 12-7.
This is probably easily one of the craziest game-winning plays in the past five or 10 years.
I pulled for the Bengals every punt, third down conversion and turnover all four quarters, as a good fan does.
But after watching every play of the game and seeing my team grasp defeat from the jaws of victory, the outcome didn't even faze me; not for one second. If I knew of no other football in my life outside the Bengals organization, I'd never know that losing was supposed to cause anger and outrage.
Thankfully, I also have an affinity for college football, so I know what it's supposed to feel like when you give away the game as the Bengals did.
The lack of emotion is a direct result of being a Bengals fan. It's what the Bengals do to you. Ask anyone - as a Bengals fan you hope for the best and expect the worse. It's not pessimism: It's realism.
I compare the Bengals to a Tootsie Pop. How many times can you get a fan's hopes up and then immediately crush them before you reach their center, only to steal their inner sportsman's soul.
While you may say the Lions, Rams, or Raiders fans have it much worse than Bengals fans, two things split apart the fans from Columbus and Ohio to Lexington from those in Detroit and St. Louis.
The first is the manner in which they lose. It's just plain depressing at times. Sunday's befuddling performance to end the game is a perfect example.
The second is strictly based on expectations. No one expects the Lions to do anything every year, but year in and year out, ESPN and the rest of the national media tell us how good Cincinnati will be that year.
I think Bengals fans are the only ones who don't fall prey to this insane notion we will ever win a Super Bowl. As for teams like the Rams or Raiders, they had their time to shine, winning at least one Super Bowl each.
I don't want anyone to think I'm abandoning ship.
Never.
Call me a glutton for punishment, but I love the Bengals.
Their promise of failure is one of the only real constants in my life, and while I'd love to see a Lombardi trophy come to Cincinnati, I won't hold my breath.
Reach Clay at clayton_ward29@eku.edu.
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