The Cincinnati Bengals are disrespected, or so I keep reading.
Week after week, the Bengals advance in the players and so does the mistreatment, or so some of you will post.
You see slight, and so you feel it. You echo what Bengals nose tackle. D.J. Reader said during the playoffs.
It is real?
I flash back to my editor days, when players and coaches often channeled Rodney Dangerfield and say they got no respect. I appreciated when reporters looked at whether that was true – and why. Sometimes, there was good reason for the rest of us to be dubious, and sometimes there was great storytelling in showing what went right.
If players felt unfairly disrespected, they could use that for motivation. If it energizes you, use it. This is primarily emotion, and every fan has the right to get worked up a little bit. And why not? We can see our team on the side of good, anyone who gets in the way as the villain and anyone who disagrees as disrespectful. If that thickens the plot and enhances the fun, go for it.
Be advised, a shoulder chip for a fan does not come with a warning label. Negative feelings are more powerful than positive ones and can kidnap your Super Bowl feel-good. If you know it, you can counter it. Knowledge empowers.
Are there other ways to look at it? Are the Bengals really being snubbed? How much? By whom? How much does it matter? How much do you want it to matter?
Let’s look at some of the playoff disrespect you described to me on Twitter:
Stop ignoring the Bengals before games
DISRESPECT: “General tones of commentators, saying we are out of things before we even get in, such as with KC,” @CausticGemini1 tweeted. “Before the game even happened, sports media gen(eral) themes were ‘oh they had a good run but..’ and then would talk about how amazing PM (Patrick Mahomes) was and who he might face in the SB.”
ANOTHER TAKE: “Honestly, I kind of get it because I love the Bengals and know this team inside and out,” @Reddawgs2012 tweeted, “but it was only after the Titans win that I was truly a believer.”
MY TAKE: No matter how much we laud the Bengals’ turnaround from 2-14 and 4-11-1, they started the season 7-6 before surging at the end. What if the rest of the nation needed more convincing than the wild, playoff-clinching victory over Kansas City? What if Bengals-Raiders in the playoffs was a blip to the NFL world, considering their recent pasts, even if this win changed your lives? What if the reprogramming outside Bengal Land will take time?
Stop ignoring the Bengals after wins
DISRESPECT: “Listened to the move the sticks podcast where they reviewed the champ game,” @IrelandsWhodey tweeted. “Straight out the gate its what happened (to) the Chiefs and Mahomes. It's as if we don't beat teams, that they simply beat themselves.”
ANOTHER TAKE: “Can only assume it’s because Bengals can beat good teams and will (capitalize) on mistakes,” @weedode tweeted. “Plus Bengals have not been great for many years, so going to take some getting used to for these media folks.”
MY TAKE: The Titans were the top seed, good-but-not-great quarterback Ryan Tannehill threw three interceptions, and Tennessee lost – how surprising is it that this was the prime focus? The Chiefs were two-time AFC champions, with arguably the NFL’s most electrifying quarterback – how shocking is it that the initial onus was on Kansas City and Patrick Mahomes? Yes, this stinks if you are a Bengals fan. Yes, you wanted your team properly credited. These were huge and well-earned wins. If you weren’t a Bengals fan, what would you see at first?
Stop looking at it as a fluke
DISRESPECT: “The ringer especially, Warren sharp, Steven Ruiz, Ben solack, I like them all a lot but they have just been doubting the bengals the entire season,” @drewskki1 tweeted. “IE, every game we win, it was due to luck or the other coaching staff not doing the right thing. Defense is overrated, all pre game coverage is just ‘Joe burrow is going to get sacked 15 times.’ They give about as little credit as is possible to a team that made the super bowl.”
ANOTHER TAKE: “Why would we be respected?” @MikeCan85220453 tweeted. “We have one 2 playoff games in 31 years. We need to claim the prize and all the haters will magically go away.”
MY TAKE: Some of you pointed out that not everyone in the national media treats the Bengals the same way. It might help you to remember that. Why focus on those who annoy you? You can question their motivation or take their opinions as just that. Also ... what if the hype machine of Super Bowl Week changes the narrative? What if the love starts to blossom for the Bengals? What if Joe Burrow becomes a media darling?
Stop making us such underdogs
DISRESPECT: “(A) -4 opening line, being disrespected by everyone (from oddsmakers to betting public to talking heads),” tweeted @trevormansker of Northwest Arkansas. “What I’m hearing on the radio and from most everyone I talked to, is the majority of people want us to win, but don’t think we can. Same story I’ve heard for the 32 years I’ve been a Bengals fan, just louder.”
ANOTHER TAKE: “The line for SB give the rams 4.5 so home field adv. which means Vegas is terrified,” @BrandonMMurphy tweeted. “(I’m) staying away from the SB. The odds are so evenly matched.”
MY TAKE: What does it say that @BrandonMMurphy respects the spread? He had accused oddsmakers of disrespecting the Bengals as 7-point underdogs for the AFC title game and won his bet. “Bought AFC champ merchandise and the black and orange super bowl jerseys. Lol,” he tweeted. What does it say that a Houston furniture-store owner bet $4.5 million on the Bengals, at plus-170 odds, hoping to net $7 million? OK, it is part of a store promotion offering customers up to $3,000 rebates, but guess which team they will be supporting? You can’t have too many Bengals fans for the Super Bowl, right?
Stop the cheap, small-market narrative
DISRESPECT: “80% of the sports media are talking about not having a practice bubble, Mike Brown, & (limiting) take home gatorade,” @TFatbeard tweeted.
ANOTHER TAKE: “The broadcasters and commentators and coaches ... remember the 90s Bengals,” @EdwardEmerling tweeted. “They think it’s still fun to pick on the team. Small market team in a midwestern town just outside the rust belt and bordered with Kentucky.”
MY TAKE: Owner Mike Brown’s business model and spending habits will be a topic of conversation, and not just his return to the Super Bowl If you know it is coming, why fight it? So is the idea that Who Dey Nation is centered in Whoville. What if you look at how some of the NFL’s other small-market teams are faring? “The Bills, Bengals, Chiefs and Titans form the smallest average media market size of any conference's final four since the 1970 AFL-NFL merger,” Axios reported.
Stop looking at us as the "Bungles"
DISRESPECT: “I feel the media disrespects the Bengals because they haven't been great for so long,” @vspmsx246 tweeted. “However, I feel the disrespect is unwarranted because other franchises have been worse and aren't as talked about. This narrative needs to change especially after this year. If it doesn't. 😡 😡”
ANOTHER TAKE: “Personally, I think the narrative is changing after the (Chiefs) win, hard not to when in the super bowl,” @alwunder tweeted. “Huge NFL stories are overtaking any Bengals talk though and unfortunately for the Bengals they kind of are bigger stories, the Flores suit and Brady retiring.”
BONUS TAKES: “We are only being disrespected by salty fans of teams we beat and ex players such as Bart Scott,” @HellBird tweeted, “but we mostly are getting more positive vibes nationwide than we ever have in previous SB runs imo.”
“I'd say some of the reason (for the positive vibes) is the success several players had in college, Joe/Ja'marr have a huge following from LSU, and because of social media,” @Who_Dey_Beast tweeted. “SM makes every little thing ‘news worthy’, then it's amplified as it's shared. Team full of good guys also heightens things, imo.”
MY TAKE: We see what we see, the joy of this season in the context of the past. This is not Same Old Bengals. That was then and This Is Us. We hope the focus will be on the intoxicating tale of this team and these players not just Bungle rehashing, but why worry? What if we have faith that if this story is good enough, that will take care of itself? Why let anything spoil our fun?
We only can control how we look at our Bengals. We can choose the media and social media we follow and realize there is no unanimity. Heck, we are Bengals fans, and we can’t even agree on this topic.
So are the Bengals disrespected or respected? What if you can see both sides?
“Disrespected because of organization history and sacks taken this year. Remove the amount of sacks and pressure and it is hard to question the success,” @DontBlameTheVo1 tweeted.
“Respected because they ... overcame all of that and did the unthinkable to most of the nation.”
Imagine if they win the Super Bowl.
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