Who are dey? A brief history of the Cincinnati Bengals
Jeff SuessThe Cincinnati Bengals aren’t often in the national spotlight. Until this season, it had been 31 years since the Bengals had won a playoff game, and 33 years since the team’s last appearance in the Super Bowl.
That has changed as quarterback Joe Burrow and the Bengals are set to face the Los Angeles Rams in Super Bowl 56.
Now that the team is back in the limelight, here’s a brief rundown on Bengals history.
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Founded by Paul Brown
The Bengals franchise was added as an expansion team to the American Football League in 1968 with the promise of joining the NFL when the leagues merged in 1970. The team was co-founded by legendary Hall of Fame coach Paul Brown, who led the Cleveland Browns to seven championships in the pre-Super Bowl era.
Brown chose the name Bengals as a link to a local pro team called the Cincinnati Bengals that had played from 1937 to 1941. The original Bengals had been named by founder Hal Pennington after the Bengal stove in his mother’s kitchen.
The new Bengals played at the University of Cincinnati’s Nippert Stadium until Riverfront Stadium, shared with the Cincinnati Reds, opened in 1970.
The team drafted Greg Cook, a promising young quarterback from UC in 1969, but after his career was cut short by injury, assistant coach Bill Walsh developed a system of short, high-percentage passes that became an influential offensive scheme.
When Brown stepped down as head coach after the 1975 season, he skipped over Walsh and chose Bill “Tiger” Johnson as his successor. Walsh went on to install his system – later known as the West Coast offense – with the San Francisco 49ers, who were the Bengals’ opponents in two Super Bowls.
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The ‘Freezer Bowl’
Quarterback Ken Anderson had an MVP season in 1981, leading the Bengals – in new striped helmets – to a 12-4 record and the franchise’s first playoff victories. Fans began to chant, “Who dey! Who dey! Who dey think gonna beat dem Bengals? Nooo-body!”
The Bengals defeated the San Diego Chargers 27-7 in the AFC Championship Game known as “the Freezer Bowl” because it was played in subzero temperatures – nine below with a wind-chill factor calculated at the time as minus 59. Bengals linemen wore no sleeves, their arms slathered in Vaseline against the cold, to psyche out the Chargers.
In Super Bowl 16, the Bengals faced Walsh’s 49ers, a dynasty in the making with quarterback Joe Montana, and lost 26-21.
‘Welcome to the Jungle’
The Bengals again took the football world by storm in 1988, backed by Guns N’ Roses singing “Welcome to the Jungle.” The team was flashy, making stars of MVP quarterback Boomer Esiason and running back Ickey Woods and his famous “Ickey Shuffle.” Under coach Sam Wyche’s no-huddle offense, the 12-4 Bengals crashed through the playoffs for a rematch against the 49ers in Super Bowl 23.
The night before the big game, Bengals running back Stanley Wilson had a drug relapse and was suspended. Early in the first quarter, top defensive lineman Tim Krumrie broke his leg. Still, the Bengals led until Montana directed a late drive and hit John Taylor for a touchdown with 34 seconds left, sealing a 20-16 Niners win.
‘Lost Decade’
In 1991, Paul Brown died and a DJ for WEBN stayed up on a billboard for nine weeks until the Bengals finally won a game. That was the beginning of the “Lost Decade,” when the Bengals became the butt of jokes as “the Bungles.”
Running back Ki-Jana Carter, the 1995 No. 1 overall pick, tore a ligament in his knee in his first preseason game and never fully recovered. The team whiffed on draft picks and coaches. They didn’t have a winning season until 2005.
Despite that, when the Browns left Cleveland to become the Baltimore Ravens in 1996, Hamilton County voters passed a lopsided deal to build a new stadium and keep the Bengals in Cincinnati. Paul Brown Stadium opened in 2000. Taxpayers have been seething about the deal since.
Corey Dillon provided a highlight in 2000, breaking the single-game rushing record at the time with 278 yards against the Denver Broncos. In 1998, left tackle Anthony Muñoz became the Bengals’ only player voted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Marvin Lewis era
Fortunes finally changed with the hiring of Marvin Lewis as head coach in 2003. The team finally returned to the postseason in 2005, but cheer was short-lived when quarterback Carson Palmer suffered a severe knee injury on his first throw in the playoff game against the Pittsburgh Steelers.
The team spiraled again. Several players struggled through injuries and off-field legal troubles. Pro Bowl wide receiver Chad Johnson became the flamboyant Ochocinco. Wide receiver Chris Henry tragically fell out of a moving pickup truck and died in 2009.
Lewis led the Bengals back to the playoffs five times in six years (2009, 2011-2015), but lost in the first round each year. The final straw was the meltdown in the 2016 playoff game against the Steelers when the Bengals led 16-15 in the final two minutes when a fumble and back-to-back 15-yard unsportsmanlike conduct penalties gave their rivals a chip-shot field goal, denying the Bengals their first playoff win in a quarter-century.
Burrow brings winning swagger
The 2019 season, Zac Taylor’s first as coach, was rough, and the Bengals had the NFL’s worst record at 2-14, which set them up for the No. 1 pick in the 2020 NFL draft where they selected quarterback Joe Burrow, who had led LSU to a national championship and won the Heisman Trophy. Burrow, with his keen fashion sense and victory cigars, brought a bit of swagger back to Cincinnati.
But Burrow’s first season, in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, was cut short with a torn ACL and MCL in his left knee suffered in Week 11. He recovered in time for the start of the 2021 season when the Bengals had added his LSU teammate, wide receiver Ja’Marr Chase.
The Bengals shocked the reigning AFC champion Kansas City Chiefs in Week 17 with a 34-31 win in which Chase set a rookie record with 266 yards plus three touchdowns to help the Bengals win the AFC North.
The Bengals defeated the Las Vegas Raiders and top-seeded Tennessee Titans for the team’s first playoff wins since 1991. That set up a rematch with Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs in the AFC title game. After falling behind 21-3 in the second quarter, the Bengals returned for a historic comeback. With the teams tied 24-24 in overtime, the Bengals defense forced an interception, setting the stage for rookie kicker Evan McPherson kicked the Bengals back to the Super Bowl.
