For years, the Cincinnati Bengals deserved their derogatory nickname. Yes, the “Bungles” had no reason to bitch about being the butt of so many football jokes. After all, this is a team that between 1991 and 2004 had zero winning seasons. They went 71-153 during that span, which was the worst record in the NFL by a huge margin.
The Bengals aren’t a mess these days. They’ve made the playoffs in four straight seasons and have posted a winning record in five of the last six. They’ve also won a very strong AFC North division three times in the last 10 years.
But offensive coordinator Hue Jackson — who first came on board in Cincy right when the franchise was beginning to turn things around in ’04 — still feels the derision.
“It’s got to mean something to you when it doesn’t go right,” Jackson said recently, per the Cincinnati Enquirer. “It’s got to cut you to the core. Last season cut me to the core. I promise you that. I think it’s cut a lot of people at the core because we are tired. I’m tired of being the brunt of jokes. I’m tired of our organization being the brunt of jokes. At the end of the day, that’s what we do this for. I don’t want to be the laughingstock of anything and neither do those players in there on the offense. You have to take a stand.”
OK, it’s clear there are other organizations that are bigger joke brunts, if you will, than the Bengals. Hell, they aren’t even the most bullied team in that division. Not with the Browns serving as low-hanging fruit.
But I’ll give Jackson this: there’s still undoubtedly a stigma. What will it take to kick that? Realistically, people become so entrenched in their stereotypical opinions of teams that it wouldn’t surprise me if Cincinnati kept taking heat until the moment they win a Super Bowl, or at least get back to the big game. That’s something they haven’t done since 1988.
But a good start would be to win a playoff game. Cincinnati has made the playoffs six times in the last 10 seasons, but the Bengals have gone 0-for-6 on wild-card weekend, losing three of those games at home. And they’ve lost five of them by a double-digit margin. It’s now been 24 years since the Bengals won a postseason game, which is the longest drought in the NFL.
Until that changes, we’ll keep hearing about the Bungles.
