History of the Cincinnati Bengals


The Cincinnati Bengals are a professional football franchise in the National Football League. Since starting off as an expansion franchise in the American Football League in 1968, they have appeared in two Super Bowls, but lost both times to the San Francisco 49ers.

Origins

On May 24, 1967, Cincinnati was granted a franchise in the American Football League. The franchise was sold to a Cincinnati-based ownership group led by Paul Brown.
As the founder and head coach of the Cleveland Browns from 1946 to 1962, Brown led his team to a.759 winning percentage and seven championships, which includes four championships earned while a member of the All-America Football Conference. The Browns were champions of that league in each of the four years it existed. When the AAFC folded after the 1949 season, the Browns, as well as the San Francisco 49ers and the first incarnation of the Baltimore Colts, were absorbed into the National Football League.
Brown became a recognized innovator for his approach to training, game planning, and the passing game. However, he was only a minority owner of the Browns and lacked the resources to buy out the rest of the ownership group. In 1961, businessman Art Modell assumed control of the team and on January 9, 1963, Modell controversially fired Brown. Many believe that Modell had tired of complaints of Brown's autocratic style; others claim it was Brown's decision to trade for Syracuse University's Heisman Trophy-winning running back Ernie Davis, who was drafted by the Washington Redskins, without Modell's knowledge. However, Davis was diagnosed with leukemia shortly afterward. Brown didn't want to play Davis; Modell insisted he could play. The relationship between Paul Brown and Art Modell, which was never warm to begin with, deteriorated further. Davis died on May 18, 1963.
By 1966, Paul Brown wanted to become involved in professional football again. James A. Rhodes, then the governor of Ohio, convinced Brown that Ohio needed a second team. Cincinnati was deemed a logical choice. Brown initially sought a franchise in the National Football League but had been rebuffed, in no small part because Cincinnati's largest football venue then in place, Nippert Stadium, was well under the minimum 50,000 capacity the league required for prospective expansion teams.
Brown named the team the Bengals in order "to give it a link with past professional football in Cincinnati." Another Bengals team existed in the city and played in a previous American Football League from 1937 to 1942. Possibly as an insult to Art Modell, Paul Brown chose the exact shade of orange used by his former team. He added black as the secondary color. Brown chose a very simple logo: the word "BENGALS" in black lettering.
A turning point came in 1966 when the American Football League agreed to a merger with its older and more established rival. Merger negotiations had been complicated by several factors, one being that members of the United States Congress were seeking guarantees that any merger would include all existing AFL teams. Under pressure from Congress, NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle had promised that professional football would be maintained in each of the twenty-three markets where it then existed. There were a total of 24 franchises in the two leagues at the time, but the powerful congressional delegation of Louisiana led by Senator Russell Long and Congressman Hale Boggs had further insisted on an NFL franchise in New Orleans in return for their support. As a result, the New Orleans Saints became the NFL's sixteenth franchise in 1967, meaning another team would be required if the merged league was to have an even number of teams.
Having just stocked the Saints' roster, the NFL's owners did not want to risk having the talent pool of their own league becoming further diluted by way of another expansion draft so they quickly agreed that the second expansion team should join the AFL. From the AFL's perspective, adding another team was highly desirable because the guarantee of an eventual place in the NFL meant the league could charge a steep expansion fee of $10 million – 400 times the $25,000 the original eight owners paid when they founded the league in 1960. The cash from the transaction provided the American Football League with the funds needed to pay the indemnities required to be paid by the AFL to the NFL, as stipulated by the merger agreement.
Prior to the merger being announced, Paul Brown had not seriously considered joining the American Football League, and was not a supporter of what he openly regarded to be an inferior competition, once famously stating that "I didn't pay ten million dollars to be in the AFL." However, with the announcement of the merger, Brown realized that the AFL expansion franchise would likely be his only realistic path back into the NFL in the short term. An additional consideration was that the AFL was willing to allow Cincinnati to play at Nippert Stadium for the team's two pre-merger seasons. Brown ultimately acquiesced to joining the AFL when after learning that the team was guaranteed to become an NFL franchise after the merger was completed in 1970, provided a larger stadium was completed by then.
Ultimately, the stadium issue was settled in no small part because the Cincinnati Reds of Major League Baseball were also in need of a facility to replace the antiquated Crosley Field, which they had used since 1912. Parking nightmares had plagued the city as far back as the 1950s, the little park lacked modern amenities, and New York City, which after 1957 had lost both their National League teams, the Dodgers and the Giants to Los Angeles and San Francisco, respectively, was actively courting Powel Crosley. However, Crosley was adamant that the Reds remain in Cincinnati and tolerated worsening problems with the Crosley Field location, which were increased with the Millcreek Expressway project that ran alongside the park.
With assistance from Ohio governor James A. Rhodes, Hamilton County and the Cincinnati city council agreed to build a single multi-purpose facility on the dilapidated riverfront section of the city. The new facility had to be ready by the opening of the 1970 NFL season and was officially named Riverfront Stadium, which was its working title.
With the completion of the merger in 1970, the Cleveland Browns were moved to the AFL-based American Football Conference. Unexpected victories for AFL teams in Super Bowls III and IV had persuaded NFL owners, starting with Art Modell, to re-consider the question of divisional alignments and ultimately led to the Browns and Bengals both being placed in the AFC Central. An instant rivalry was born, fueled initially by Paul Brown's rivalry with Modell. The Bengals played their inaugural season in 1968.

The first three seasons

For their first two seasons, they played at Nippert Stadium which is the current home of the University of Cincinnati Bearcats. The team finished its first season with a 3–11 record, although one bright spot was running back Paul Robinson. Robinson rushed for 1,023 yards and was named the AFL Rookie of the Year. In 1970, the Bengals made their first playoff appearance, having finished with the best record in the newly-formed AFC Central division, but lost to the Baltimore Colts.
Founder Paul Brown coached the team for its first three seasons, accumulating 15 wins and 27 losses and one tie. One of Brown's college draft strategies was to draft players with above average intelligence. Punter/wide receiver Pat McInally attended Harvard, and linebacker Reggie Williams attended Dartmouth College and served on Cincinnati city council while on the Bengals’ roster. Because of this policy, many former players were highly articulate and went on to have successful careers in commentary and broadcasting as well as the arts. In addition, Brown had a knack for locating and recognizing pro football talent in unusual places.

The 1970s: Growing pains

In 1970, coinciding with the completion of the AFL-NFL merger, the Bengals moved to play at Riverfront Stadium, a home they shared with the Cincinnati Reds until the team moved to Paul Brown Stadium in 2000. Brown, Bill "Tiger" Johnson, Homer Rice, and Forrest Gregg coached the Bengals during the '70s.

Memorable players from the 1970s

The Bengals were a successful team, reaching the Super Bowl twice, but overall, the 1980s was a decade of missed opportunities for the team. The team was coached by Gregg and Sam Wyche during the '80s.

Memorable players from the 1980s

Paul Brown, legendary NFL personality and innovator, died in 1991. He had already transferred control to his son, Mike Brown, but was reported to still influence the daily operations of the team. Shortly after his death, the Bengals' fortunes changed for the worse for a long time. During the decade, the team was nicknamed the "Bungles" by detractors, as the team began a lengthy playoff drought that lasted until 2005. Wyche, David Shula, Bruce Coslet, and Dick LeBeau coached the Bengals in the '90s.

Memorable players from the 1990s

Intensification of rivalry with Pittsburgh Steelers

The Bengals have played the Steelers more than any other team in the NFL. LeBeua and Marvin Lewis coached the Bengals in the 2000s.

Memorable players in the 2000s

AFC Wild-Card Round
The Bengals began to emerge from more than a decade of being the worst-performing team of that era into a new era of increased consistency under Marvin Lewis, after the team finished with its worst record in history in 2002 with a 2–14 record. Carson Palmer, the future star quarterback, was drafted in 2003 but did not play a snap that whole season, as Jon Kitna had a comeback year. Despite Kitna's success, Carson was promoted to starting quarterback the following season and Kitna, apparently happily, took the position of backup quarterback and embraced the role of mentor for the young quarterback.
Paul Brown Stadium was built for the 2000 season using private and public money. In tribute to his father, Mike Brown refused corporate offers to have the stadium renamed for their company which became a trend in the NFL and other sports team around that time.
During the 2005 season, the Bengals became known for their players' off-field and non-football related violations of league substance policies and legal troubles.

2006–2008

After making the playoffs for the first time since 1990, the Bengals regressed to 8–8 in 2006. They continued to slide the next two years, finishing with a 7–9 record in 2007 and 4–11–1 in 2008. In all three years, numerous Bengals players aside from Henry and Thurman were involved with legal issues. In 2008, Carson Palmer suffered a season-ending injury, leading to backup Ryan Fitzpatrick playing for most of the season.

2009

The season opener against Denver was a 12–7 defeat, but afterward the Bengals won four in a row against the Packers, Steelers, Browns, and Ravens. The team lost at home to the Texans, then beat the Bears, Ravens, and Steelers. In Week 11 however, Cincinnati fell into a trap game when it lost to the 3–7 Raiders. After another defeat of Cleveland, the Bengals had won all six of their divisional matches for the year. Following the next game, Chad Ochocinco was fined $20,000 by the NFL for donning a poncho and sombrero after scoring a touchdown. Week 14 saw the Bengals travel to Minnesota, where the Vikings routed them 30–10. During the week after that game, tragedy struck when Chris Henry fell out of a pickup truck during a domestic dispute and died from his injuries. The team's previously lighthearted mood turned to one of mourning, and they lost the next match against San Diego. After a victory over the Chiefs, the Bengals secured the AFC North title for only their second playoff berth since 1990. They traveled to the Meadowlands for a match with the New York Jets, but still shaken from Chris Henry's death, they were shut out 37–0. The Bengals and Jets had to face each other again in the wild-card round of the playoffs, but now in Cincinnati. Their season, which looked so promising a few weeks earlier, ended with a whimper as the Jets won a second time, the score being 24–14.

2010s: the Andy Dalton era

Lewis and Zac Taylor have coached the Bengals in the 2010s.

Players of note

During the offseason, the Bengals signed wide receiver Terrell Owens to a one-year deal, giving the team two dominant but aging receivers with Owens and Chad Ochocinco. Nonetheless, the team collapsed after a 2–1 start, losing 10 games in a row on the way to finishing with a 4–12 record, the worst finish for Marvin Lewis as head coach.

2011

With the 4th pick in the 2011 draft, the Bengals took WR A. J. Green from Georgia. Most of the off-season was marred by a league lockout and Carson Palmer's sudden demand to be traded to another team. Mike Brown flatly refused to either release or trade him, and Palmer instead announced his plans to retire from the NFL. Another familiar face departed when Chad Ochocinco was traded to New England in August. With this, the Bengals decided to name unproven rookie QB Andy Dalton as their starter. On October 17, Palmer, who had been holding out since Brown announced he refused to trade him, was traded to the Oakland Raiders for 2 first round picks in 2012 and 2013. The Bengals finished with a record of 9-7 and qualified for the playoffs as the 6th seed in the AFC. They lost 31–10 to the Houston Texans in the Wild Card round.

2012

This was the first non-strike year that the Bengals qualified for the playoffs in back-to-back seasons. The Bengals finished 10–6, improving on their record from the previous year and securing the #5 seed in the AFC, but lost again to the Houston Texans.

2013

The Bengals came into the 2013 season as division favorites and as a dark horse for the Super Bowl. The Bengals attained an 11–5 record, winning the AFC North division title. However, their season came to an end in the Wild Card round when the San Diego Chargers beat the heavily favored Bengals.

2014

Head coach Marvin Lewis was given authority over many day-to-day football operations by owner Mike Brown prior to the season. The Bengals finished 10–5–1 and once again made the playoffs, but were knocked out by the Indianapolis Colts.

2015: fifth straight playoff appearance

The 2015 season saw the Bengals attain an 8–0 start, thanks to strong play from Andy Dalton. However, Dalton broke his thumb in week 14 against the Pittsburgh Steelers. Backup AJ McCarron was serviceable, leading the team to finish at 12–4 and clinched the AFC North title for the second time in three seasons. The Bengals were set to win their first playoff game since the 1980s against the Steelers in the Wild Card round, but linebacker Vontaze Burfict inflicted a helmet-to-helmet hit on Steelers receiver Antonio Brown in the waning seconds of the game, drawing a personal foul penalty. An additional personal foul by CB Adam "Pacman" Jones set the Steelers up in Bengals territory and allowed them to kick the game-winning field goal. With the 18–16 loss, the Bengals lost in the Wild Card round for the fifth straight season and were knocked out of the playoffs once again.

2016–17

For the first time in Andy Dalton's career, the Bengals missed the playoffs in 2016 when they finished with a disappointing 6–9–1 record. The following season, the Bengals finished with another losing record and missed the playoffs again, the first time in Marvin Lewis' tenure as head coach that the team finished with consecutive losing seasons. Lewis and the Bengals agreed on a two-year contract extension following the season after much speculation otherwise.

2018: final year of the Marvin Lewis era

The Bengals started with a 4–1 record, but stumbled the rest of the season to a 6–10 record, once again missing the postseason. Andy Dalton suffered another season-ending injury, forcing the team to play Jeff Driskel in his stead. Following the season, the Bengals and Marvin Lewis mutually decided to part ways following three consecutive non-playoff years and an 0–7 record in the postseason.

2019: Zac Taylor takes over

To replace Marvin Lewis, Cincinnati hired Zac Taylor, who had previously served as the quarterbacks coach for the Los Angeles Rams. The Bengals started the season off poorly at 0–9. Andy Dalton started the first eight games at quarterback before being benched for rookie Ryan Finley. After falling to 0–11 for the first time in franchise history, Dalton was made the starter again. The Bengals got their first win of the season in week 13 with a 22–6 victory against the New York Jets. After a 38–35 overtime loss to the Miami Dolphins in week 16, the Bengals finished the season 2–14 and clinched the first overall pick in the 2020 NFL Draft.