The "Red Rocker" Sammy Hagar said it best when we want the "Best of Both Worlds." Van Halen's title song to their 36-song album describes how a lot of us feel when it comes to many situations in sports and in life. It also applies to this poignant question about the Cincinnati Bengals, that was first posed by ESPN1530 host Mo Egger leading up to Super Bowl LVI.
Would you rather have the Bengals win the Super Bowl and then soon after dip back into mediocrity, or would you rather them be really good, if not great, for the next 10 to 15 years, but maybe not win the Super Bowl in that span?
In other words, is a Super Bowl necessary to validate this era of Bengals football? Because let's face it, they've never won the Big One.
Would Bengals fans sign up for a lot of deep playoff runs without a ring, or one Super Bowl win with more postseason misses?
As disappointing as it'd be for Joe Burrow never to lift the Lombardi Trophy, plenty of his peers haven't even made it to that grand stage. Josh Allen and Lamar Jackson are just a couple who come to mind.
I think a lot of fans are going to take the former answer here. They want so badly to see the Bengals win the Super Bowl. Teams that win the Super Bowl are changed as an organization forever. Once a team wins the Super Bowl and brings the Lombardi Trophy back to their city, they are legitimized forever.
Burrow came in and legitimized the Bengals in 2021, taking them to the precipice of bringing the Lombardi Trophy back to Cincinnati. I remember during their magical run to Super Bowl LVI thinking it's going to be so much fun to watch this team contend for Super Bowls for the next 10 to 15 years and win one or more Super Bowls along the way.
Other great quarterbacks throughout NFL history like Tom Brady, Peyton Manning, Brett Favre, and John Elway had phenomenal careers. Their teams be in Super Bowl contention for a decade-plus. Brady is an outlier, though. Elway didn't get over the hump until his last two years. Manning got carried to his second Super Bowl win. Favre only won it once.
The Bengals went back to the AFC Championship the following season in 2022. Obviously, we know how the last three years have gone. Not well. They've fallen back to mediocrity. It's made me think about what if they had finished in Super Bowl LVI. What if they had won the Super Bowl? How would the last three seasons have felt knowing the Bengals at least had a Super Bowl championship?
Coming so close to something a team has never won before is twofold. It can be exciting because it creates a feeling for the fans that they're going to eventually win the Super Bowl. But it can also be frustrating when that team takes a step back just a couple years after going to the Super Bowl and coming so close to winning it. Knowing that team you root for as a fan was that close to winning it all and now it feels like they're so far away from getting back, if they'll even get back at all.
Imagine if the Bengals had won a lot of the games they should have won over the last three seasons but ended up losing. What if they had made the Playoffs in 2024 when Burrow and Chase had MVP-caliber seasons? What if Burrow hadn't gotten hurt in 2023, or 2025 for that matter? Again, the Bengals were that close to winning the Super Bowl just five years ago. What if they had won it? How would Bengals fans have taken the last three seasons of mediocrity or, at the very least, barely making the Playoffs?
Irrelevant is something fans don't want their teams to be. It's a scary and lonely place to be. Think about teams like the New Orleans Saints or Las Vegas Raiders. They're both not relevant right now. But they both have Super Bowl championships. Those fanbases had their moments. The Bengals haven't had theirs yet.
Think about the Buffalo Bills. They were so good in the 90s and have made the Playoffs seven straight seasons. They lost four straight Super Bowls in the 90s and have had heartbreaking loss after heartbreaking loss in the Playoffs the last seven years. The Bills have never won the Super Bowl in their franchise history.
Being relevant is important. It matters. It's fun when your team is playing on prime time and national television several times each season. But not being able to win the big one adds up in terms of heartbreak and wondering if your team ever will win the Super Bowl. Think about the Philadelphia Eagles and all of their near-misses before finally winning Super Bowl LII.
That's why if a team can win the Super Bowl when they have the opportunity to, that's the time to go all in. The Bengals are doing that this season. NFL teams that don't have a Super Bowl championship are judged differently than those that have one or more Lombardi Trophies. When the Bengals win one, they will be changed forever. Even if they are mediocre again in a few seasons after doing so, knowing they have a Lombardi Trophy is forever franchise-changing.
Relevance matters in the NFL. So too does winning the Super Bowl. Which matters to you as a Bengals fan? It can be complicated question to answer, but it also might be quite simple.
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