NFL: 4 Reasons Why Cincinnati Bengals Fans Deserve Sympathy

I don’t feel bad for most fans. They aren’t forced to cheer for their teams, so they deserve whatever they get. If they really wanted to they could just pick a new team to cheer for.

I make one big exception, though—I have nothing but sympathy for Cincinnati Bengals fans.

No one deserves to go through the hell they have been forced to endure since, well, pretty much forever. At this point, the majority of Bengals fans would probably be relieved if the team folded. It’s that bad.

Someone who has never watched a moment of a football game in their life could come up with 100 reasons why this team is such a mess. Here are four at the top of the list:

The Palmer debacle

Their handling of the Carson Palmer ordeal is ridiculous in many different ways.

First, they wasted his talent for all these years. Thanks to horrific coaching (more on that later) the team has never accomplished what they should have with a QB of his quality. Then they forced a perfectly adequate QB to look for any possible exit—including a crazy early retirement.

Then they couldn’t realize when they had lost so that they could salvage something from a valuable asset. They would rather let him grow old at home than trade him for something—anything—to any one of the eight or 10 teams that would kill to have him.

It’s juvenile. It’s ridiculous. It’s so very Bengal.

Not only do they have nothing to show for Palmer, but they have the biggest possible distraction hanging over them. Perfect.

The Lewis mess

Marvin Lewis must have pictures of Bengals owner Mike Brown doing something he really shouldn’t be doing. Blackmail is the only possible explanation I can come up with to explain why he still has a job.

Let me put it simply—Marvin Lewis is the worst coach in football. Not just in the NFL, but in any level. He is terrible. In eight years he has been better than .500 just twice, he has an ugly 60-67 record, he is 0-2 in the playoffs and he has wasted tremendous amounts of talent through pure incompetence.

He has had plenty of talent through the years, but he is totally incapable of tapping the potential of those he leads. If Super Bowls were awarded for the most jail time, then Lewis would be in the Hall of Fame, but as it is he’s hopeless.

If Lewis were coaching any other team in the league he would have been fired while Bush was still President, but the Bengals just can’t save themselves. Lewis has been the wrong guy to lead this team for the last eight years, and he absolutely is the wrong guy to try to lead this rebuilding job.

The Dalton travesty

Andy Dalton is a great football player, a remarkable leader and seemingly a great guy. He’s also in the worst possible scenario here.

The talent level is bleak for the Bengals. His most talented receiver, A.J. Green, has played as many NFL games as he has.

Dalton has what it takes to make it in this league—eventually. He needed to land somewhere where he could slowly ease into things, learn what is needed of him and find his way. He needed a Matt Schaub or Matt Cassel scenario. Instead, he has been thrown into the deep end of the pool.

Success for him at this point is being able to walk at the end of the season. That’s it. Anything he accomplishes beyond mere survival is a total bonus. Any decent free-agent wouldn’t have wanted anything to do with this situation, but Dalton had no choice, and he’s the one who is going to have to pay the price as a result.

The Brown catastrophe

Mike Brown has done precisely one thing in his life to earn his positions as owner and President of the Bengals—he was born as the son of Paul Brown. That was pretty much the last worthwhile thing he has done for the team.

The guy is a moron. Remember, this is the guy who won’t fire Marvin Lewis or trade Carson Palmer. He’s also the guy who is impossibly cheap, and who is still waiting for the right moment to make his first good decision.

Al Davis thinks this guy is clueless.

Al Davis would be an upgrade for the people of Cincinnati.

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