LOS ANGELES — Someone sent Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford the same photo that circulated around Twitter on Friday. In Detroit, a T-shirt maker designed and sold a mashup logo of Stafford’s former and current team. Above a mascot with a lion’s body and horns was the word “Detroit Rams.”
For Lions fans, it was the ultimate sign of frustration during Super Bowl week. Online, they argued whether supporting the Rams — to whom the Lions traded Stafford a year ago — was sacrilegious or the right thing to do. The Lions, after all, haven’t won a single playoff game in 30 years.
Stafford, though, was touched.
“I was kinda blown away by it, to be honest with you …” he said Friday. “[My wife] Kelly and I have such a soft spot for Detroit in our heart. … The fact that it seems to be that they have that same soft spot for our family is pretty special.”
Compile a list of the most miserable fan bases in the sport and you hear the same three names: the Lions, the Browns and the Jets. The Bengals, though, might have been No. 4 until a month ago.
Not anymore. When they take the field to face Stafford’s Rams in the Super Bowl on Sunday, they’ll be representing every downtrodden fan base in the NFL. A win against the Rams, who have been to the Super Bowl twice in four years, would strike a blow for every supporter who’s ever walked into a stadium with a paper bag on their head.
The Bengals, after all, hadn’t won a single playoff game between 1991 and 2020 — and then rattled off three this year. Even after those three wins, the Bengals have the second-worst playoff winning percentage of all-time — behind the Lions, of course — and the seventh-worst regular season clip.
(The Bears, by comparison, have four playoff wins in the last 30 years, fewer than all but two franchises that have been in continuous operation).
Joe Burrow, the Bengals’ star quarterback, grew up in The Plains, Ohio, a two-and-a-half hour drive from Cincinnati.
“There really weren’t a lot of Bengals fans in high school and in middle school and growing up,” he said. “It was all Steelers and Browns. There were a few Bengals fans here and there that kinda got made fun of a little bit.”
With good reason. From the year Burrow was born to when he was 13, the Bengals made the playoffs once.
“We’re very proud of the history of the Cincinnati Bengals …” said Zac Taylor, who spent 2016 as the University of Cincinnati offensive coordinator and took the Bengals head coaching job three years ago. “it’s important to embrace all that and understand all that. But this is the 2021 Cincinnati Bengals. [Our players] weren’t a part of all that yet.”
This year’s team has brought its fans bragging rights.
“They haven’t had that in a while,” Burrow said. “I’m excited to give that to them.”
Maybe it’s for the best that the Bengals are too young to appreciate the drought they’ve helped to snap. Burrow is 25, Taylor is 38 and star receiver Ja’Marr Chase is only 21. “Having a fan base like this and bringing this back to the city would be huge,” Chase said. “Especially how they’ve been the past couple years.”
Rams left tackle Andrew Whitworth spent his first 11 years with the Bengals — he was part of the interviewing committee that picked Taylor — and can appreciate the turnaround.
“I think being a Bengals fan now might be one of the best eras ever,” he said. “As long as Joe Burrow’s there, they’re probably always gonna be a winner.”
Sunday, they can win their first-ever championship.
“We’re in the present,” Burrow said. “What happened in the past happened in the past. Obviously we weren’t a very good team for several years. Now we’re in the Super Bowl.”
