A Letter to Cincinnati Bengals Owner Mike Brown
As the free agency period in the NFL continues, it appears that the Bengals are once again going to let the fanbase down with their lazy approach.
Dear Mike Brown,
Enough is enough. I’ve been a resident of the Cincinnati area since I was born over 19 years ago. In that same time frame, I have been a witness to some of the most embarrassing and disappointing performances by an organization in the National Football League. You have allowed for an atmosphere of mediocrity and laziness that has swept over the entire organization, resulting in zero playoff wins since 1990. You kept Marvin Lewis around as head coach for 16 years, with absolutely nothing to show for it. For what reason? I admire your loyalty to your friends, but you have cost this team and fan base so much because of it.
After 16 years, you have finally allowed yourself to move on and launch this “New Dey” campaign with the hiring of Zac Taylor. At the time of the hiring, I was extremely optimistic and I couldn’t wait to see how Taylor would come in and implement a more modern style of football. We still have yet to see him coach a game so I can’t really judge the hiring too much, but the moves that have been since his hiring are extremely questionable and quite honestly are a slap in the face to the fan base. To start, it took way too long to fill in the rest of the staff, and as a result, it appears we were forced to bring in some lower quality coaches. Once again, we haven’t seen a game yet but some of the decisions were head-scratching and to be honest a lot of coaches didn’t want to come to Cincy because of how you’ve run this organization.
In addition to failing to attract more lucrative coaches, you have proven yourself to be one of the worst owners in the league in terms of bringing in outside free agents. We all know that you have the money to spend, but you continue to be greedy and when you do spend your money, you choose to invest it horribly in below average players like Bobby Hart. All you have to do is look around your own division to see what has to be done to be successful in this league. So the question becomes, how is Zac Taylor going to implement this “New Dey” if he isn’t given the players necessary to get the job done? Or is he the one helping make some of these questionable roster decisions? Regardless, this fan base deserves an answer and they deserve a winning product on the football field.
If you look around the sports scene in the city of Cincinnati, you will quickly realize that your franchise is on its way to the bottom. FC Cincinnati has burst on to the scene, and their fan base seems to grow larger and larger by the day, especially in terms of a younger audience. Next door at Great American Ball Park, the Reds front office has constructed a powerful roster and has them on their way towards one of the most exciting seasons in years. And then there’s your Cincinnati Bengals. You’ve made absolutely no prominent moves during this free agency and have made zero effort to improve the roster whatsoever. This “New Dey” appears to be a failure at the moment, and you will quickly see your attendance numbers fall even farther than they did last season if something isn’t done soon. You will continue to lose your younger audience to teams like the new and improved Cleveland Browns, and just like that the Bengals will have the smallest fan base in the National Football League. The only way to truly create change for this franchise is for you to sell the team to someone that will actually make the effort to improve. You’ve put this city through way too much already, and I’m not sure they can handle it much longer. So please, just sell the team to someone who cares.
Sincerely,
Bengals fans everywhere
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