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Third in a series exploring the histories of all 10
AFL franchises as the NFL celebrates the league's 50th
anniversary.
The Cincinnati Bengals were members
of the American Football League, the one that fought the
mighty National Football League and actually won.
Thing is, though, the Bengals' first
caretaker was an NFL legend.
He was instant credibility.
He was Paul Brown, the man who, as
coach of the storied Cleveland Browns, helped lift the NFL
to heights still being enjoyed today.
So he will not go down in history as
an "AFL guy" or league pioneer.
Yet he was … to some degree.
The Bengals began play in 1968 as the
AFL's 10th and final franchise, and even that was something
of a wink-wink proposition, according to Mike Brown, son of
Paul and the current owner of the Bengals.
"My father did think of himself as an
NFL guy," Mike Brown says, "but keep in mind, he came out of
the old All-America Football Conference with the Browns and
the 49ers and the Colts, and that merger (with the NFL) took
place in 1950, so it wasn't as though he was unfamiliar with
new leagues and being part of a new league. … Besides that,
when we got the Bengals franchise, the merger had been
agreed to (in 1966), although it hadn't been defined."
In other words, Paul Brown's foray
into the AFL was a calculated path into the NFL.
Or rather, back into the NFL.
Understand, Paul Brown — who led the
Browns to seven titles beginning with their AAFC inception
in 1946 and entered the Hall of Fame in 1967 — remains an
NFL icon and innovator. Face masks on helmets, racial
integration, innovative plays — you name it, he did it.
Said former NFL commissioner Pete
Rozelle in 1991: "His wealth of ideas changed the game."
The Bengals finished 3-11 and 4-9-1
in their two AFL seasons, led by linebacker Bill Bergey,
halfback Paul Robinson, tight end Bob Trumpy — all all-star
caliber players — and quarterbacks Greg Cook and Sam Wyche,
who later coached the team to a Super Bowl XXIII berth after
the 1988 season.
And the Bengals had Paul Brown as
their coach. In their tiny AFL corner, they had
establishment, or in today's vernacular, "street cred."
And then, in their third season —
when the AFL and NFL had officially merged and the Browns
joined the Bengals in the newly formed AFC Central (now AFC
North) — they played the Browns.
Paul Brown's Browns pitted against
Paul Brown's Bengals.
The Browns won the first meeting
30-27 at home. But the Bengals took the rematch in
Cincinnati 14-10, part of a season-ending seven-game win
streak that propelled them to an 8-6 record in 1970, winners
of the first AFC Central crown.
"For us, that was a very keen
rivalry," Mike Brown says of facing Cleveland. "Nobody said
anything, but everybody understood that game was a little
bit like the Army-Navy game. That's the one that mattered;
the others were important, but this one was more important.
"And it was; it was. Throughout my
father's time here, especially when he was a coach here …
those games were meaningful, special games, and we took them
very seriously." |
