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| Monday, March 26 Updated: April 4, 1:05 PM ET How Bengals became NFL's L.A. Clippers By Greg Garber ESPN.com |
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The Cincinnati Bengals entered the NFL's free agent period with more salary cap money to spend ($17 million) than any other team. The Bengals boasted they were paying some $20,000 on first-class airfare for prospective players. Imagine the surprise of some of those athletes when their Cincinnati hotel demanded a credit card imprint for any incidental charges like, say, Spectra vision or the mini-bar. And instead of an elegant breakfast with a team representative, they had to go the continental route -- solo.
While the Bengals have been praised for aggressively pursuing former Kansas City quarterback Elvis Grbac -- they offered him millions more than the $30 million over five years that he ultimately took from Super Bowl champion Baltimore -- smaller details, like those charges for late-night candy bars, continue to defeat Cincinnati. Even with a history of handing out lucrative contracts to their terminally high draft choices, the Bengals are still viewed as the bumbling team that sent then-free agent Tony Siragusa, all 340 pounds of him, a coach ticket in an attempt to land him in 1997. Jim Gould, the agent who represents Bengals wide receiver Peter Warrick, last year's No. 4 overall pick, lives in Cincinnati. "With Siragusa, they got a bad rap," Gould said. "Any other team, it wasn't an issue, but because they did it, people said, 'These guys don't have their (stuff) together." "But the fact is, someone hasn't dealt with those small details -- and those tiny details say a lot. Coming to Cincinnati, it isn't viewed as an attractive place. Well, that's the fault of the presentation package." Said Richard Katz, who represents Bengals players John Jackson and Vaughn Booker and also lives in Cincinnati, "There are a ton of those little things. I believe they need fixing, but there's evidence that things are changing. "When Green Bay signed Reggie White a few years ago, they overpaid him so people would say, 'Wow!' Elvis would have made a splash here. I think they have to do something like that to send a message." Since reaching Super Bowl XXIII -- and suffering a 20-16 loss to Joe Montana and the San Francisco 49ers -- losing has been the Bengals' numbingly consistent message. Cincinnati went 8-8 in 1989 and followed that up with a 9-7 playoff season. In the decade since, the Bengals have had 10 consecutive non-winning seasons and compiled a 47-113 record, a pitiful winning percentage of .294. Looking for a little context? The Bengals have the worst record in major professional sports over the last decade. Believe it or not, no team in the NFL, NBA, NHL or major league baseball was more dreadful. The Dallas Mavericks (211-495, .299) are next in line, followed by the oft-maligned Los Angeles Clippers (236-470, .334). It may sound harsh, but the Bengals are the L.A. Clippers of the NFL. Or are the Clippers the Bengals of the NBA? "Unfortunately," said Jack Brennan, Cincinnati's public relations director, "it's not all that harsh." Paul Brown is in the Pro Football Hall of Fame because he built a dynasty in Cleveland, winning seven league titles in the old AAFC and NFL from 1946 to '62. The architect (and namesake) of the Cleveland Browns coached the fledgling Bengals from 1968 to '75, but not even Brown (55-59-1) could win in Cincinnati. His son, Mike Brown, took over when Paul died before the 1991 season.
Mike Brown, the Bengals' owner and de facto general manager, declined to be interviewed for this story, delegating that grisly responsibility to Brennan. Brown, according to Brennan, is trying to cut down his interview schedule. Perhaps that's because the criticism of the team in recent years has moved away from the coaching staff and focused on Brown himself. Geoff Hobson, like Brennan, a former Cincinnati sportswriter, runs the team's website. He defends the team's efforts to land free agents, such as Grbac, former Redskins Dana Stubblefield and former Viking Todd Steussie. "You'll probably find that their offers are comparable to other teams', if not better," Hobson said. "But it's a vicious cycle. To get players, you need to win. To win, you need to sign players. People here keep crying for a breakthrough in free agency. Really, they need to have a breakthrough season on the field." Columnist Tim Sullivan, a former colleague of Hobson's has worked for the Cincinnati Enquirer for 24 years. Just for fun, he has been tracking Mike Brown's won-loss record and comparing it to the woeful 1962 New York Mets. "I think," Sullivan said, "Mike's just ahead." After 10 seasons, Brown's Bengals have, oddly, played exactly as many games as Casey Stengels' truly Amazing Mets. Brown's 47-113 mark is a slim seven games better than those Mets, who went 40-120.
Hot seat(s) Fans who bought seat licenses for specific locations sometimes wound up 20 yards farther from the field than advertised because of design changes that weren't immediately made public. Disgruntled fans are now suing the county and the team, who want to pass on the $1.5 million cost to Hamilton County taxpayers. The Bengals claim they warned the county last fall that a lawsuit was imminent and asked the county to issue refunds. The county claims there was no such conversation. Same old small-time, mom-and-pop Bengals?
Ironically, the new stadium seems to have had a positive impact on the Bengals' pursuit of free agents. It could be the pressure to deliver a winner to all those high-priced ticket holders. It may be that the increased cash flow has given the Bengals higher profit margin. So far, it hasn't translated into a marquee crop of free agents. Grbac got away, as did defensive tackles Ted Washington and Stubblefield. Of note, Cincinnati has signed former Minnesota defensive tackle Tony Williams and former Seattle quarterback Jon Kitna, second-tier free agents like last year's group of Scott Mitchell, Tom Barndt, Darryl Williams and Booker. The funny thing? The Bengals have been more than generous with their high-profile draft choices over the last decade, including Ki-Jana Carter, Dan Wilkinson, David Klingler, Carl Pickens, Akili Smith and Warrick. Running back Corey Dillon, according to his former agents, was offered an eight-year contract worth $60 million -- a record for an NFL running back if the numbers are accurate. The offer was declined and the Bengals made Dillon their transition player, which gives them the right to match any offer from another team. So far, no offers have been forthcoming. Now, fortuitously, it appears the Bengals may get Dillon for less than they imagined. Last year, the Bengals' payroll was $68.615 million, more than both Super Bowl participants, as well as teams like New Orleans, Minnesota, Denver and San Francisco. The problem, according to some agents and personnel men around the league, isn't what the Bengals are paying, it is who they are paying. The small-market Minnesota Twins, notorious for their thrifty approach, won the World Series in 1987 and 1991 by shrewdly collecting young talent. The Bengals, on the other hand, have been widely criticized for their scouting department, or more properly, the lack of it. The four-man operation is the league's smallest. Two of those men counted by the team as full-timers are named Brown -- Pete Brown, Mike's brother, and Paul Brown, Jr., Mike's son. They are listed in the Bengals' masthead as senior vice president and vice president, respectively. "The scouting thing is something we've encountered potshots on for a long period," Brennan said. "We continue to say we're confident in our scouting system. We like the fact that coaches do a lot of the scouting. We get as good and as detailed information as anyone." Said Sullivan, "People here perceive it as a systemic problem. The Bengals have cut corners on scouting and they had not been competitive in free agency. When they make a mistake they don't have the margin for error other teams have. And they've made a lot of mistakes."
Changing the culture Pickens was only voicing what so many players really think about the Bengals. Since 1993, the dawn of the NFL's current age of free agency, Cincinnati has failed to land a single marquee free agent. Of course, Green Bay, St. Louis and Tampa Bay were faced with similar perception problems and managed to overcome them.
"Nobody gets everybody they're chasing after," Mike Brown said before this year's free agency period opened. "A group of teams chases one player. One team gets that player. And the teams who don't get that player, suddenly their media and talk shows say: 'Gee, they don't get the guys they should. What's wrong?' Well, nothing's wrong. That's just how the system works." The new stadium and its grass playing surface is a selling point for prospective free agents. Jim Lippincott, the Bengals' director of pro/college personnel, believes the team would have signed free agent Rod Woodson two years ago if there had been grass at Cinergy Field. The family-run operation may benefit from the emergence of Troy Blackburn, the husband of Mike's daughter, Katie Blackburn, the team's executive vice president. Observers in Cincinnati say he is the first person to rise to a level of significance that isn't a head coach or someone named Brown. It is believed that Blackburn, whose title is director of stadium development, was behind the big push for Grbac. There is optimism that Dick LeBeau, who replaced Bruce Coslet as head coach, has upgraded the coaching staff. This is good news for a team that employed Sam Wyche, Hall of Fame tackle Forrest Gregg and David Shula in that capacity. Shula, Coslet's predecessor, went 19-52 from 1992 to '96 and is now out of coaching. He was recently named president of his father's company, Shula's Steak Houses. Gould, for one, said he aches to see the Bengals return to prominence. He has lived in New York and Los Angeles. In addition to being Warrick's agent, he handled Wilkinson and at one time represented six Bengals starters. He even coached Mike Brown's kids in soccer. "There's a prevailing feeling that this is a wasteland here," Gould says. "That's wrong -- it's a great, great place to live. For the quality of life, nothing beats Cincinnati. "I think they need to expand their personnel department and, secondly, they've got to overpay for one guy, one time. That will change a lot of things. I don't care if the guy's not my client. Call me, I'll come over and talk to him. I want to see this team succeed. I want to see this city succeed." Greg Garber is a senior writer for ESPN.com. |
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