Groundhog Decade: The Sequel

After I read Mark Curnutte's Q and A w/Mike Brown, I wanted to lie down in a cool place. I thought Clinton was president, gas was $1.25 a gallon and baseball was on strike. While it's worthwhile to get the owner-slash-quasi-GM on the record, I could have predicted the answers. You could have, too.

Unlucky. Disappointed. Want to do better. Great fans. Marvin's doing very well. We'll evaluate everything at the end of the year. 1994, knocking at your door.

In the NFL, it is possible to do better by accident than the Bengals have done by design. They are squandering the talents of Carson, Chad and TJ. Five years to build a defense the offense can be proud of, and nothing but whining about injuries and suspensions. The Bills were missing 3 defensive starters yesterday. They started the year 0-3. They used a QB they'd benched.

Maybe new Bengals fans or the overly naive believe what MB's saying. The rest of us know better. Same stink, different day. The money spends, whether they win or not. The bottom line is the bottom line. Cash flow without end, amen.

When you've had so many examples over the years of how to do it right, and you ignore them all, the only conclusion has to be that winning isn't that important to you. Having witnessed firsthand the charade for almost 20 years, it's hard to argue that.