Hard to Swallow

[gregcook68]

after MB passes on, Katie starts changing the way the franchise starts doing things since her dad is no longer around to offend? 

[ArmyBengal]

There's always hope ??

"Remember Red, hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies."

[HoosierCat]

None. See:

https://www.si.com/nfl/bengals/news/andrew-whitworth-bengals-offer
 

Whitworth was entering a contract year and coming off one of his best seasons in 2014. He asked for an extension, but the front office was silent and didn't communicate with him about their plans to select his replacement early in the draft.

Whitworth voiced his displeasure in an interview shortly after the draft, which led to Katie and Troy Blackburn doubling down on their mistake to take Ogbuehi and Fisher. 

“After I went out in the media and said there wasn’t any communication, they [Katie and Troy Blackburn] brought me in the next week and said ‘we’re going to move forward with these two guys and we think you’re done,'" Whitworth said on Willie Anderson's Instagram.

Bengals owner Mike Brown stepped in during the 2015 season. Cincinnati was 2-0 and on their way to an 8-0 start. He made the decision to keep 'Big Whit' around for at least one more year.

“Midseason of that year, Mike (Brown) and I ended up sitting down as we always did usually to talk ball," Whitworth said. "He decided... him — not anybody else — Mike decided on his own that he wanted me to stick around another year so he ended up giving me a one-year extension, just between him and I.”

Whitworth agreed to a one-year, $9 million extension. The Bengals would keep their leader through the 2016 season, but the damage was already done. 

As Whitworth entered free agency for the first time in his career, he knew the Blackburns would be the ones negotiating his deal with the Bengals.

"I was not as angry when that went down because really it all went down two years before," Whitworth said. "It wasn’t that I wouldn’t have taken a Bengals deal to come back. The Bengals offered me 50 percent, 60 percent of what every team in the league offered me.

[ArmyBengal]

See... no hope.

It's a good thing my father brainwashed me at a young age to be a die hard fan of the hometown team.
Minus that, I would have left decades ago.  If it wasn't for my son and his love of the Texans, all of my rooting would still be the Bengals alone.
Now I'm about a 60/40 clip that still leans the Bengals way.  That has narrowed through the years.

I have been to Houston twice this year for games and my son and I went to Indy for that game.  Might still get to one more before it's all said and done.
I only went to the Bengals/Commanders game this year and have no plans to attend any more.
I don't buy Bengals gear any more, with the last time being a Bengals Burrow jersey a couple years back.

They just seem to fuck it up and ruin my enjoyment of pro football more often than not.
It's really quite old...

[ArmyBengal]

Gave this just a little more thought and then found a video clip that does a better job explaining where exactly we are as Bengals fans.
For your watching and listening pleasure...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bex5LyzbbBE

 

[gregcook68]

For a 4-7 team, that could very well be 9-2, THIS . . . . . . is very hard to swallow!

https://www.espn.com/nfl/qbr

[ArmyBengal]

Merging with other open threads