Cincinnati Bengals: Meaning (information, definition, explanation, facts)

The Cincinnati Bengals are a National Football League team based in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Founded: 1966, as an American Football League expansion franchise. Played 1st game in 1968. Joined the NFL in 1970.

Home stadium: Paul Brown Stadium

Uniform colors: Black, orange and white

Helmet design: Orange background with black tiger stripes

Mascot: Who Dey

League Championships won: none

Conference Championships won:1981, 1988

Super Bowl appearances: XVI (lost), XXIII (lost)

Franchise history

In 1968 the Bengals played their first games as an expansion team. The first coach and majority owner, was Paul Brown. Paul Brown was instrumental in bringing professional football to Cincinnati although some view his desire to create another Ohio-based football team was out of spite.

Paul Brown was considered to be the greatest coach of the Cleveland Browns, having lead them to many championship titles using innovative approaches to training, game plans, and other revolutionary approaches that earned him his enshrinement in the Football Hall of Fame. The Cleveland team's owner, Art Modell, and Paul Brown had some interpersonal conflicts.

After the falling out Brown pushed to have an expansion team brought to Ohio with Cincinnati being a suitable location. The similarities between the clubs were suspicious. Cleveland's team colors are orange, brown, and white, and their helmets were a solid orange with a white dorsal stripe over the crest. The Bengal's team colors were orange, black, and white, and their helmets were the same shade of orange with a similar stripe, with the only variation being the word "Bengals" in block letters on either side of the helmet. The uniforms were changed to the tiger-striped helmets in 1981.

This sparked a bitter intrastate rivalry between the two pitting Brown versus Modell. The teams were in the same conference and so they played each other at least two times a year, sometimes up to four times when they met in the preseason and also playoffs.

Games of Note

1981 Season, AFC championship game versus the San Diego Chargers. This game is the coldest temperature (after wind-chill is factored) ever recorded for an NFL game. The ambient temperature with the wind combined for almost -50 degrees fahrenheit. The Bengals won 27-7 to proceed to Super Bowl XVI. The Bengal's offensive linemen were on the field with the standard sleeveless jerseys in an effort to intimidate the Charger team more accustomed to the warmer California weather.

1982 Super Bowl XVI versus the San Fransisco 49ers. Despite being one of the closest contested games versus the 49er dynasty, it was still a loss 26-21.

1989 Super Bowl XXIII versus the San Fransisco 49ers. The Bengals had the #1 offense in the 1988 season and were an amazing turnaround story after having a 4-12 record the year before. However, the San Fransisco dynasty rolled on, barely squeaking out a victory 20-16 leaving 34 seconds on the clock after Joe Montana orchestrated an impressive drive.

2003 Regular season game versus the Kansas City Chiefs. The Chiefs were the only remaining undefeated team at 9-0. The Bengals were historically the losingest football team between 1990 and 2002 and currently had a record of only 4-5 under a rookie head coach. Chad Johnson, their 2nd-year wide receiver, made a pre-game guarantee that the Bengals would win. This created a media buzz but also engendered general disdain from the Chiefs. They went on to beat the Chiefs 24-19 and then proceeded to even out their season ending at 8-8 with a last week bid to enter the playoffs.

During the 13 year span that San Fransisco dominated the NFL, in their 5 different Super Bowl appearances, only the Bengals provided noteworthy competition during the title game with an average loss of only 4.5 points, where as most other teams facing the 49ers lost by an average of 30 points.

The most commonly recognized contribution comes from the "Ickey Shuffle". A celebratory dance created by Bengal's running back Ickey Woods in his rookie season of 1988 during the Bengal's Super Bowl run. It has been suggested that this dance, done after Woods would score a touchdown, was the catalyst for the NFL instituting penalties against excessive celebratory performances and before the 1989 season was over, it was relegated to the sidelines.

A No-Huddle Offense was commonly used by all teams when time in the game was running low. However, Sam Wyche, the current head coach of the Bengals in 1988, made the high-paced offense the standard modality for the ball club regardless of time remaining. By quickly setting up for the next play (often within 5-10 seconds after the last play dispite being afforded 45 seconds) this hindered the other teams' defense from substituting situational players, regrouping for tactics, and, some suggest, increased the defenses' rate of fatigue (This is attributed to the belief that the offense dictates when a play starts so they tend to be more mentally relaxed and prepared for the start of a play where the defense must remain on a different level of alert before the play starts). In response to this tactic the NFL instituted several rules related to this tactic:

* Allowing the defense ample time for substitutions

* If a player's injury causes the play-clock to stop, the player must sit out at least one play

* Charging a time-out to a team when a player is injured within a certain time periods of the game

The tactic was used by the franchise from the late 80's while Sam Wyche was the coach. The main rivals for AFC supremacy were the Buffalo Bills, coached by Marv Levy. Most of the high-profile games (the various games for AFC Conference titles and regular season games) between the two lead to these changes in NFL rules.

Players of note

Pro Football Hall of Famers:

• Anthony Munoz, Mutliple Pro-Bowl offensive lineman (tackle)
• Paul Brown, Innovative head coach and owner. Mostly enshrined due to career with the Cleveland Browns.

Current stars:

• Chad Johnson Wide Receiver, gained notoriety for guaranteeing a win over the previously undefeated Kansas City Chiefs in the 2003 season.
• Rudi Johnson Featured running back, took over position from long-time featured back, Corey Dillon
• Jon Kitna Quarterback, relegated to backup position after inspirational 2003 performance in favor of Carson Palmer
• Carson Palmer Quarterback, relagated to in-training status during 2003 year but was given the starting position
• Peter Warrick Wide Receiver, punt returner and posession receiver
• Marvn Lewis First black head coach for Cincinnati

Retired numbers:

• 54 Bob Johnson Offensive lineman, 1st ever draft pick of the Bengals.

Not to be forgotten:

• Ken Anderson Quarterback, particularly noted for his high-effeciency in passing holding a handful of NFL records
• Greg Cook Quarterback
• Boomer Esiason Quarterback, noted for his play-action abilities, being left-handed, and charisma.
• Sherrill Headrick
• Bobby Hunt
• Paul Robinson Running back, Rookie of the year, 1968 (expansion year)
• John Stofa
• Bob Trumpy
• Ernie Wright
• Dave Shula Head coach from 1992 - midseason of 1996, went 19-71 in 4½ seasons with the worst winning percentage of 26.7% and is the long tenured coach during the 14 year span of the Bengals being out of playoff contention in the last game of the year.