Editor’s Note: This is a weekly column from former sports reporter and editor Mike Bass. Bass will be contributing to The Enquirer by offering advice for sports fans, athletes and youth sports parents and coaches through a weekly Q&A. You can reach him at [email protected] or on Twitter @SportsFanCoach1.
The picks are in. The clock is off. You waited four months for the NFL Draft once the season ended — five, if you go back to when Joe Burrow was hurt — and now you have to wait another four months for the season to start.
You are a Bengals fan.
You don’t want to wait.
@chadwag87516097 tweeted a GIF of Tom Petty singing, “YEAH THE WAITING IS THE HARDEST PART.”
More:Bass column: Back-to-back No. 1s for the Cincinnati Bengals in the NFL Draft
You want to see Burrow back quarterback … his Bayou-to-Cincinnati Bengals re-connection with wide receiver Ja'Marr Chase … his enhanced protection behind Jackson Carman and Riley Reiff … and you imagine the possibilities for a turnaround after five lost seasons.
“The daydreaming,” @BengalsWhitney tweeted. “Oh man, the daydreaming. This roster has SUCH a high ceiling and the potential to be something SO special and SO electric. I am dying to see it all come together. [On that note, is it training camp yet???]
“It feels like getting the most epic Christmas present ever. And heck, you were good all year so you deserve it. But your mom puts it up on a shelf you can't reach so all you can do is look at it for four months before she'll let you play w/ it because YOU HAVE A SADISTIC MOTHER!”
Trick or tweet?
Healthy dreams
When you love an NFL team, the offseason drama surges in free agency and crescendoes at the draft. When you love the Bengals, you normally try to walk away from the draft with a little hope. This year, you left with daydreams.
“It's as if we just finalized plans to build our dream home.” @BengalsCaptain tweeted, with a GIF of a mansion. “Game room, pool, indoor basketball court, the works. Now we wait to watch 'em build and hope everything goes as planned. I CAN'T WAIT!!!!!”
Four months, you have to wait. I asked Bengals fans what the hardest part will be.
“Hoping someone doesn't get injured between now and regular season game 1,” @StevenCrowtown tweeted.
“Also I want to see how the injured players come back,” @chadwag87516097 tweeted. “Burrow, (D.J.) reader, (Trae) Waynes, (Trey) Hopkins etc etc.”’
Especially one player’s health.
“Burrow’s health,” @nattyboh tweeted.
“Just wanting Joey to be healthy and the OL to keep him that way,” @SWatcher2021 tweeted. “Hoping the Bengals have done enough.”
You spent 30 years ducking while the other shoe dropped on you and the Bengals, so you try to see clearly without seeming paranoid. You have legitimate concerns here.
You don’t know if Burrow will be fully recovered from Dec. 2 knee surgery for the season opener. You don’t know if the Bengals did enough to fix an offensive line that failed him last season. You don’t know if bypassing tackle Penei Sewell in the draft will haunt, or if adding Reiff in free agency and then Carman (Round 2), D’Ante Smith (Round 4) and Trey Hill (Round 6) in the draft will suffice.
Then again …
“If one of these offensive lineman hits,” @RyanBea64600306 tweeted, “and by ‘hits’ I mean pro bowl caliber player I’ll be over the MOON!!”
On schedule
Some of you will brace for disappointment.
Some of you will proceed cautiously.
Some of you will proceed analytically and disengage emotionally.
Some of you will disengage totally.
When you are a diehard Bengals fan, letting go might not be so easy, or so desirable, when you want to feed your passion and ease your angst.
So how will you get through four months of waiting?
More:Here are the Cincinnati Bengals' nominees for the inaugural ring of honor class
“Distraction,” @StevenCrowtown tweeted. “Pure distraction ?.”
You can’t change the NFL schedule. But you can change your schedule.
Look for opportunities to enjoy yourself.
“Fishing and motorcycles, both of which keep me separated from my phone,” @StevenCrowtown tweeted, with a GIF of actor Kayode Ewumi as R.S. pointing to his head in YouTube’s “Hood Documentary” series.
Smart.
Maybe you can watch one of your other favorite teams in another sport.
“The reds,” @chadwag87516097 tweeted.
Exactly.
The dream house you envision as the Bengals is not ready, but you can get ready in the meantime.
“Trying to focus on taking care of the current house without dreaming of what might become of the new one ?,” @BengalsCaptain tweeted. “I have to work to USE this ‘free time’ and get things done I can't get done during football season.”
Well said.
You don’t have to stop dreaming. Dreaming can help lift you in the coming months.
“The expectations of what I think will be the best season since the ’80s,” @TonyDaTiger96 tweeted. “I will keep busy, save money so that I can have every opportunity to watch them at home and away when the season starts!”
Great plan.
Here is another: Even if you can’t change the NFL’s schedule, you can look forward to it. Because it is coming. Fast. The league will release the 2021 schedule May 12.
With COVID-19 restrictions easing, you can start planning which games to see in person or where else you can watch with friends. The opponents and home teams were predetermined, but now you can debate whether the Bengals were helped or hurt by the game order.
“Do you think we’ll get to 8-9 wins or his year or possibly better?” @chadwag87516097 tweeted.
Let the predictions begin. Why not? Talk amongst yourselves. Stay connected in some way with your Bengals community. Follow the news or the accounts of the new players. Pay attention to other key dates and updates, such as the start of training camp in late July and whether practices will be open to the public. “I hope theyre back this year,” @McclaudePrettz tweeted.
Hope.
Hope is big right now.
Rise up
How cool is it to even think of the Bengals winning eight or nine games for the first time since the year “Hamilton” debuted and “Mad Men” ended?
“Well we have dynamic playmakers at every skill position, our o line has been successfully upgraded,” @chadwag87516097 tweeted. “The defense may not overpower but they can be good enough. As long as we are healthy and get some good luck. We did lead in like 24 of 32 games.”
NFL analyst Warren Sharp tweeted that statistic last month, adding, “but they won a total of 6 games in the two years combined” and “no team since at least 2000 has led in more games in a two-year span but won fewer than Zac Taylor's Bengals.”
Which means what? That maybe the Bengals still were bad? Or that maybe they were not that bad? And that maybe they were close to being OK? And that maybe now they are on the verge of being more than OK?
And that maybe they are on the verge of …
“Seeing the hard work of coaches and Bengal staff in the effort to showcase a team they know is a champion team!” @TonyDaTiger96 tweeted. “ New stripes, new coaches, players, and a new emphasis on the best fans! I can not wait to see it all come together on that opening kick off! WHO DEY ALL DEY!”
In May, anything is possible. In May, the Bengals are undefeated. In May, you have four months to hope or wonder or look away when you choose. In May, you can enjoy this for what it is. And in June. And in July. And in August. And until the season starts. You want to believe the turnaround is coming. You wish you could see it now.
“You take it on faith, you take it to the heart,” Tom Petty sang. “The waiting is the hardest part.”
Remember to email Bass at [email protected] or reach out to him @SportsFanCoach1 on Twitter if you want to be included next week. His website is MikeBassCoaching.com.
