I have a real question for Bengals fans.
My father is in his sixties, and I’m in my forties. I’ve been a Cincinnati Bengals fan for as long as I can remember, but that fandom entered into feaverish territory as I entered my ‘20s, and it has remained that way over the last 20-some years. My dad has been a Bengals fan for longer than I’ve been alive.
If you look at the way we cheer for our favorite team, or digest news during the offseason, though, we’re completely different. Where he was as intense of a fan as I when he was a younger man, it’s mellowed now. Don’t get me wrong, he still wants them to win, and we talk on the phone after almost every game, sharing ideas on what they did right (or wrong, as has been the case over the last two seasons).
However, I will move Heaven and Earth to make sure I watch every game, and if that means I watch on my phone that’s what it means. I’ve missed one game over the last several years, and that was because I was on an airplane. My dad isn’t that way anymore. He misses a few games a year and doesn’t seem to feel as though he’s missed out. It was strange to me at first, but now I understand.
He’s at an age where there are things more important to him. Things like his grandkids, golf and spending time at Lake Cumberland with my mom. The last 10 years of my life have flown by with a terrifying speed. Every year is shorter than the last, and if that trend continues, then it wouldn’t be wrong to say that, at 41 years old, my life, even if I live into my ‘80s, is more than halfway over, based on the way time is perceived. Football simply isn’t as important to him as it was when he was my age.
This revelation is not going to change the way I root for the Bengals. I’m going to yell and scream, and my family will understand that Sundays, Thursday nights and Monday nights from September to February are for football. I think the Bengals are on the precipice of a Super Bowl victory, and I truly believe we’ll all enjoy a parade past Fountain Square in the next few years.
But, after another 20 years, will I still be the same way? If they don’t win a Super Bowl in 20 more years, will I still be around? Ten years ago, I would have been offended at the question. Now? I’m not sure.
So that’s my question for you, Bengals fans. What would it take for you to walk away, or at least not invest so much of yourself? Could you? Are you already beginning to waiver? Will it just be the passage of time that forces you to change what you spend so much of your energy and time on? Could the team lose you in some way?
We’re not going to attack each other in the comment section. We’re all here because we love the Bengals, and if you get offended about how someone wants to spend their time on this planet, then you can keep your comments to yourself.
I’m just curious, in a relationship as one-sided as the one between Bengals fans and the franchise, what would it take for you to decide against those season tickets for the first time in a long time? What would it take for you to decide your Sundays/Thursdays/Mondays were better spent somewhere other than in front of your TV? What would it take for you to turn your stripes in for the colors of another team?
Now then.
Did you watch the Pro Bowl? What did you think? I missed both the skills competitions on Thursday and the game on Sunday, but I was able to catch the relevant highlights. I also think it’s wild that, in a league as large and powerful as the NFL, the Senior Bowl is more important than their version of the All-Star game.
I know we’re here to talk about football and the Bengals, BUT that Luka trade would be like the Chargers shipping Justin Herbert to another team in exchange for a third-round pick and a starting linebacker. Absolutely insane.
I hope you’ll join me in a prayer to the football gods, while playing Thunderstruck in the background, as is necessary when trying to commune with them, that the Eagles and Chiefs somehow both lose the Super Bowl. I don’t want Patrick Mahomes to be lifted up any higher than he has, and I just think Philadelphia Eagles fans are the worst. Someone has to win, though, so I’ll be rooting for Saquon Barkley. Who are you rooting for?
And you run, and you run
Ta catch up with the sun, but it’s sinking.
And racing around
To come up behind you again.
The sun is the same in a relative way
But you’re older.
Shorter of breath
And one day closer to death.
