How many times must the Cincinnati Bengals do it to themselves before they'll learn to treat current and former players with the proper due respect?
Longtime quarterback Boomer Esiason called out the Bengals organization a couple months ago regarding their lowly accommodations for the team's new Ring of Honor inductees. Word of that appears to not have reached another past Cincinnati superstar.
In a social media rant for the ages, four-time Pro Bowl running back Corey Dillon went off as he made the trip to the Queen City for Sunday's Week 8 matchup against the New York Jets.
Bengals RB Corey Dillon goes nuclear on organization before Ring of Honor ceremony in Week 8
As he often did as a bruising ball-carrier for the Bengals around the turn of the millennium, Corey Dillon hopped on Elon Musk's X and chose violence. This time of the verbal variety (Warning: contains profanity), aimed right at Cincinnati's underwhelming treatment of their Ring of Honor members.
Dillon indeed used rather colorful language to express his displeasure, which will restrict how many of his X/Twitter posts can be directly embedded here. Suffice it to say, the man was incensed when he arrived at Los Angeles International Airport to discover his reservation wasn't paid for.
"Just leaving lax apparently the bengals made reservations for ROH but didn’t pay for the reservation I’m totally disgusted and disappointed with this bulls*** f*** the bengals [...] Take my mofo name off that building asap."
Oof. Obivously "ROH" stands for Ring of Honor. Dillon became a member last year, and deservedly so. He strung together six straight 1,000-yard rushing seasons to begin his NFL career. Translated to today's 17-game slate, Dillon averaged over 1,600 yards from scrimmage each year in that span.
Back to the topic at hand. That initial blowing off of steam from Dillon came around 1:30 a.m. ET, which granted, it was still the late evening in Los Angeles.
Nevertheless, Dillon's ire persisted into Saturday, when he tweeted out his itinerary, wherein his name was misspelled near the top
Couldn’t even spell my name right 😂
— Corey Dillon (@coreydillon_28) October 25, 2025
For a little more context on his airport encounter, here are further details from Dillon on his rude awakening at the Delta counter.
All I know is the delta agent!! Said this reservation was not paid for sir do you have a different reservation number 😂my lady heard and can testify on our behalf 😂
— Corey Dillon (@coreydillon_28) October 25, 2025
A past version of myself would scream at the clouds, or get royally ticked off like Dillon is and CAPS LOCK my disappointment in the organization.
To quote Ben Stiller's Walter Mitty, however, I have to make oxygen choices.
Bengals' unsurprising Corey Dillon debacle begs many (rhetorical) questions
The Bengals do this to themselves time and again. They will evidently never learn until ownership changes hands from Mike Brown. Sad thing is, his in-laws are next in line to take the reins, so Cincinnati fans shouldn't hold their breath, hoping anything will change in earnest in the next half-century or so.
Alienating players past and present is a bold strategy. Let's see if it keeps paying off for the Bengals, or, you know, let's see if they burn even more years of Joe Burrow's prime.
Put it this way, in the form of rhetorical "what are the chances?" questions that I can come up with right off the cuff.
1. What are the chances that next year, the Ring of Honor members will be fully paid for to make the trip to Cincinnati?
2. What are the chances that Trey Hendrickson makes it through the offseason without a serious contract dispute, or isn't angered/demanding a trade (again) when the team franchise tags him at below-market value?
3. What are the chances — assuming he maintains his current trajectory — that the Bengals will be proactive and work out a contract extension for ascending cornerback DJ Turner in his first year of eligibility for a new deal?
4. What are the chances that the Bengals spend the appropriate resources to field a near-average-sized scouting department relative to the rest of the NFL, so they don't keep whiffing on key draft picks?
5. What are the chances that the organizational brain trust will rethink how they manage the salary cap and guaranteed money, and actually make moves for top-of-market free agents to improve the roster immediately?
I'll help y'all out with a rhetorical question answer key below this paragraph, which again, underscores why I'm not getting more angry about the Corey Dillon fiasco. Because it's par for the course for the Bengals. Status quo. Not surprising in the slightest.
Bengals rhetorical question answer key: 1: 0%; 2: 0%; 3: 0%; 4: 0%; 5. 0%.