Where We Go From Here

It's been quite an active couple of days for comments on our site.  We appreciate everyone's viewpoint, and I think it is all a testament to how emotionally we are tied to this team...in one way or another. 

For those of you who were up in arms over the posting of the Blair Witch style video of the two crucial plays from the game on Sunday:  It was not my intention to celebrate those who were in the stadium as supporting Mike Brown, etc.  I just thought it captured what this city actually felt on Sunday, and how it could be like that all the time if the Bengals actually structured the organization like a real-live NFL team.  This team has a long way to go to even sniff the playoffs, and I sure as hell don't to think this team is going to a Super Bowl anytime soon.  If Brian Leonard doesn't get his hand down and leap for a first down, we are talking about another loss to Pittsburgh and a disappointing 1-2 start.  I as much as anyone understand that.  

The margin of winning and losing in the NFL is razor thin.  Much like playing blackjack at a casino...over the long run, you are going to lose.  In today's NFL if you are not hunting for and exploiting every single last advantage you can find, the other teams will consistently win more than you.  Without having a general manager, an extensive scouting department, or a clear long-range 'plan' (or system) for your football team, you will not be successful over the long run.  It just isn't possible.  We have a sample size of nearly twenty years in the Mike Brown/Salary Cap era.  I think that is enough to make a logical, realistic judgment.

Bottom line is this:  I know for a fact the Bengals will not be able to sustain success for an extended period of time the way the current ownership is structured.  I believe that like the sky is blue and the Boise State field turf is also blue.  But what happens if the Bengals do stay in the playoff hunt this year and compete for a wild-card spot (or even the AFC North)?  Do we just ignore what is going on around us as the Bengals make a run at the playoffs.  As a site, wouldn't we be guilty of the same stubbornness and lack of creativity/ability to adapt that we accuse Mike Brown and co. on a daily basis?

Best answer I can come up with right now?  It's just complicated.

Paul Brown once said it, "Winning makes believers of us all".  Winning has the ability to cover up the bullying of pilots, the lack of being a good corporate citizen, and the frustrations of nearly two decades of losing piled high like corned beef on a Reuben. 

I think the greatest frustration for me as I was walking out of Blackfinn on Sunday evening was that it can be like this a WHOLE LOT MORE around here if certain actions were set into motion.  Hire a General Manager.  Make the scouting department a solid operation instead of a joke.  Hire football people to make football decisions.  Make winning Super Bowls your sole, number one priority.  Not giving your family tree run of the castle and pocketing money despite producing a substandard product on the field.

While Sunday felt great, the main reason it felt SO great because we have beaten down over, and over, and over again so many times, particularly by the Steelers.  While the win was cause for some celebration...the team is still very likely going to get beat in Baltimore, and will return home with a buzz-killing thud at 3-2 on the season.  After the Denver game, that looks pretty darn good.  As for making the playoffs with teams like the Jets, the Chargers, and yes, even the Steelers remaining?  3-2 might not be good enough. 

What you can expect from WDR is the following:  100% honest coverage of this football team and the organization.  Hard Knocks did a very good job showing that there is a core of likable, hungry football players on this team.  You can't help but love a coach with so much passion and toughness like Mike Zimmer.  That being said, I still feel the way that Mike Brown has treated this city, the citizens of Hamilton County, and the most loyal fans in professional sports is deplorable.  Even the lack of continuous improvement and innovation in the organization (which we will discuss in an upcoming post) should be very alarming to everyone. 

Like I said, it's complicated.  No matter what the results are this season, the mission of this site will never die.  Despite some early season success for this team, we will stay ever vigilant to give you the complete, honest, and sometimes brutal truth. 

It could be an interesting year around here, from a number of standpoints.  We look forward to having the WDR nation along with us for the ride. 

Comments

[KTRB]

I agree. It's ok to hate Obama or Bush and still want your country to be successful just as it's ok to hate Mike Brown and still root for the team. The president is not the country and Mike Brown is not the Bengals.

[Kato]

Complete nonsense, KTRB. Every win sends more lemmings down to PBS. You can't have it both ways. If you want Brown gone, you need to "call for a popular revolution" as this very site's manifesto states.

I'm sorry that you don't have the guts to do what's right, and you'll probably go all crybaby poopy pants on me and tell me to go root for another team.

Until those of us who truly want Mike Brown to step down speak out against those who go to games and root for the team, nothing will change.

[Nate]

KTRB, I was racking my brain trying to come up with an adequate analogy for my feelings on the Bengals, but you did it for me. 100% agree.

Kato is just an angry person who likes to hear himself talk (or watch himself type in this case).

[Jeff Reynolds]

"No matter what the results are this season, the mission of this site will never die. Despite some early season success for this team, we will stay ever vigilant to give you the complete, honest, and sometimes brutal truth."

After reading all the posts for the last week, your idea of the complete, honest, and brutal truth has done a complete 180 since last year. This is the worst revolution ever.

[Jeff Reynolds]

Manifesto Demands

THAT the Mike Brown, Katie Blackburn, Marvin Lewis, along with every other member of the Bengals management, staff and personnel, state publicly to all Bengals fans, “I will do everything in my power to help the Cincinnati Bengals win a Super Bowl;”

THAT Mike Brown will hire a general manager, drastically expand the scouting department and relinquish all control of player personnel;

THAT all training, rehabilitation and medical facilities are considered best-in-class compared to other NFL teams;

THAT the management fill the team only with players who fit the system, both mentally and physically, and are not reluctant to makes changes to player personnel when needed, regardless of cost or loyalty concerns;

THAT offensive and defensive line depth is considered the top priority for all player personnel decisions;

THAT all decisions made by ownership, management, staff and players, both on and off the field, are judged only by this criterion: “Does this help the Cincinnati Bengals win a Super Bowl?”

Your manifesto demands are above. If anyone on this website can explain to me what the Bengals have done to meet YOUR ESTABLISHED CRITERIA FOR A REVOLUTION I would be estatic. Again, this is your manifesto. Not one point has been met. But all of a sudden everyone loves the Bengals again because they have won 2 games? How can you claim the revolution is working when none of your established demands have been met? My mind is blown.

[Kato_Is_A_Mongoloid]

Kato:

You're an absolute window-licker, but I'm willing to give you a chance to spit your ideas out. You talk a good game, let's hear your plan. You want to storm PBS with your lynch mob weilding torches and pitchforks to drag Mike B and the Blackburns out into the street for a public beheading? You want to go sweep streets while most others go to the game and enjoy what looks like it will become a 9-7/10-6 season? Do you want to write letters to all city, state and Bengals officials voicing your displeasure? WHAT THE HELL IS IT THAT YOU WANT? You talk, talk, and talk and talk and talk and then talk some more yet you have no ideas except to "root for them to lose at all costs" and "Screw the hypocritical WDR". What are your freaking ideas, there Mussolini?

P.S. You have Asperger's Syndrome.

[joemama]

well said ktrb. i was screaming like a nutcase at work on sunday. i am a server, an one of the other servers told me their table said "i hope that guy has at least $600 riding on this game." i cannot help it. i love cincinnati, i love the bengals, i hate the steelers, and i strongly dislike mike brown. although it is impossible to be negative towards the bengals right now, their formula for consistent success cannot possibly work. that is why WDR needs to continue to preach change. the bengals could win the superbowl this year and be gunning for a top 5 pick in 2 years. the foundation simply isnt strong enough to sustain consistent success year in and year out. it is, however, hard right now to convince people not to appreciate sunshine after 20 years of rain. this city is STARVING for a winner, you may have to live here to understand. so VIVA LA REVOLUTION, but WHO-DEY my bengals as stupid as that sounds. i will remain to not buy any bengals gear. after reading this website everyday for over a year now, i think the writers know where im coming from

[The Sontag]

I don't see why everyone's mind is being blown. It shouldn't be any different than if they were 0-3. It's ok to watch the Bengals on TV and cheer them on. Just hold up the boycott of buying jerseys, tickets, etc. Now, I'm sure they have already sold an entire inventory jerseys and our boycott will have a minimal affect on the organization if they do well this year, but at least you've done all you can do. I personally want the Bengals to do well. I also want them to run this football team with a group of competent individuals who will ensure success for many more years. Even if we won a super bowl this year i would still insist on hiring a GM. Carson and gang are the ones doing their jobs right now, not MB. that's what i thought we were trying to change.

[Funk]

I for one appreciated the clip of the fans at the game. It put a smile on my face. I also appreciate WDR and their efforts to keep MFB honest because the next best source of info is the propaganda machine, aka BagdadHob. Keep up the good work fellas.

[Leo deTrotskyo]

@Funk,

Thanks for bringing up HobSpin. In case everyone is too busy feuding to notice, the question he has up on the Bengals site RIGHT NOW is "Do you see any letdowns this Sunday against what will be an angry Steelers team that lost to the Bears, or do the Bengals put the Steelers a game down in the division early in the year?"

This is Browns week! How does he still have a job?

[KTRB]

Leo, it's only Wednesday, give Hob at least until Saturday before knocking him on his current poll question.

[CurseofBoJackson]

Well Kato, looks like you're in quite the minority eh? Not seeing your overzealous thoughts echoed eh? Know why? Because the rest of us can seperate being happy for the team they love when they do well, and still want things to change, it's easy, life is so much more enjoyable when you allow youself to enjoy it.

[mikebrownstinks]

"The Bengals could win the Super Bowl this year"? WTF? One slim last-second home victory over a team missing its best defensive player and ya'll get a case of A-1 delusional.

The Bengals have as much chance of winning the Super Bowl as they have of winning the Nobel Peace Prize. You didn't hear it here first, either.

Mike Brown is absolutely loving this. All he has to do is come up with a product that manages to eek out a surprise win every couple of years, and the money comes raining down. There's a sucka born every minute. In Ohio, maybe every 30 seconds.

[the bottom line is a bottom]

2 things:

1: You f@cking prets are just like capitalist/communist spin doctors - absolute bald faced lies and twists of double speak. "the margin of victory/defeat is razor-thin in the NFL...let's be serious - if b. leonard doesn't get his hand down, we're looking at a disappointing 1-2...we (smart) guys get that..." f@cking joke. how many times on this site did you all bust on people and marvin for saying, "just a one or two plays the other way and we would have won..." the reality was there - we did lose. the reality is now - we did beat shittsburgh. regardless of how fortunate or unskilled you think this team is. your herky-jerky analysis is making my penis soft and begs the question, "do you really understand football?"

2. For everybody all twisted and bent out of shape about Kato's comments - he's dead right. The vast majority of posters and founders on this site don't have the balls to literally take this shit to the streets and get in people's faces about this. they don't even have the testicular fortitude to follow through with their own directives (going to the games no matter how you got there IS bullshit). The only thing that keeps me and Kato distant is that I just don't care that much. I hate Mike Brown and his ugly family. I just don't get that worked up about it because at the end of the day, it's his business and in my opinion, he'll hang on to it while it lasts here and he's savvy enough to move it to l.a. if he has to. I root like hell for the bengals to win, get my whole week wrecked (inwardly) when the lose, and call it a day. long before this site was created, i chose to no longer give m. brown any money for his product and went the napster route, enjoying his creation for free whenever i can (watching on tv outside the cincy market in a bar, buying used benglas gear on ebay, etc). time will pass as it always does, and the browns will one day not own the bengals, and even then, there's no guarantee that the next owner will be that competent, or even that competent management will for sure deliver consistent winners. this site needs to define what consistent winning means, btw's. you'd be surprised how many definitions you get for it and how many other organizations (with gm's and scouts) wouldn't apply.

the one poster had it right - take the ups and the downs for what they are and enjoy life.

[Kato_Is_A_Mongoloid]

Wah wah wah. Let me call you guys the wahmbulance. Good God. If you thought that this site was going to organize a freaking lynching of the Brown family, then you seriously are a waterbrain. The organizers of this site have done their part and then some. If you want to start the second-coming of the L.A. Riots, then by all means do so--I won't be participating. I've said it before and I'll say it again: the efforts by disgruntled Bengals fans this offseason has spurred the most activity from Mike Brown that I've ever seen in his tenure. Quality draft, big free agents (for once), Hard Knocks, etc. This is probably the most you'll get out of him while he's still breathing. He would not have done any of this if he didn't realize that he was ostracizing fans. I don't always agree with things on this site (are you listening, Sly?), but it's an entertaining read and it's good to get a dose of reality instead of reading the constant ball-washing of Reedy and Hobson.

the bottom line is the bottom: "The vast majority of posters and founders on this site don't have the balls to literally take this shit to the streets and get in people's faces about this. they don't even have the testicular fortitude to follow through with their own directives (going to the games no matter how you got there IS bullshit)." This quote makes you look like a meatball Steelers fan. Are you kidding? You're going to bully people out of going to a game? Freaking asenine. I bet you were the "burning ants with a magnifying glass kid", right? You and Kato can go have your own little pow-wow and see how that goes--my guess would be nowhere.

[Rk]

As im typing this On the lrft side of the screen i see troy with a bottle of H&S shampoo how bad of add placement is that?

[Wyatt]

Dear the bottom line is a bottom:

If you have nothing more to offer than hypocritical statements, then please take your tripe and go elsewhere. This is a direct quote from your post:

"The vast majority of posters and founders on this site don't have the balls to literally take this shit to the streets and get in people's faces about this. they don't even have the testicular fortitude to follow through with their own directives (going to the games no matter how you got there IS bullshit). The only thing that keeps me and Kato distant is that I just don't care that much."

Three sentences, and you've managed to both contradict yourself and prove that you're a hypocrite (and borderline mentally challenged, as well). Calling out the people on this site for not having "balls" and "testicular fortitude" and then claiming that you "just don't care that much"? Hypocrite. Just saying that you "just don't care that much" while taking the time out of busy day to post on this message board is huge contradiction in and of itself. For you to come on this website and call out the people behind it tells me that you DO care, at least enough to offer up your opinion.

Between that and Kato's attempts to organize a lynch mob (and actually cheering for the Steelers, which is way worse in my book), all you're doing is giving the regulars on this site (aka, "the guys who have been coming here and posting regularly for more than a week") even more credence.

[bottom line is a bottom]

there's nothing contradictory about saying that most people (including me) on this site don't have the balls or gumption to really do the things that could bring about drastic and immediate change and saying i just don't care that much. kato does and i (like most people on here) don't, but i can see where what he's saying is legit; again, i just care that much to do it. i like following and rooting for the bengals, win or lose. i loathe mike brown, but realize that he's going to be around a while and in the meantime, i can't live with myself if i give him a dime. will it force him out? no. but i'm happy with just not caring enough to do more to force him out and can live with myself by not giving him money.

[Head in hands]

"I've said it before and I'll say it again: the efforts by disgruntled Bengals fans this offseason has spurred the most activity from Mike Brown that I've ever seen in his tenure. Quality draft, big free agents (for once), Hard Knocks, etc. This is probably the most you'll get out of him while he's still breathing. He would not have done any of this if he didn't realize that he was ostracizing fans." - Kato_is_a_mongolid

I think what motivated these actions is the threat of Luxury Suite vacancies. This is classic MFB. They only time he does something positive, from an organizational standpoint, is when his checkbook is affected. Used similar tactic when the new stadium was up for vote, and a new revenue stream in seat licenses was in the balance - Bengals trade up in draft for Carter. Again, when the team is at it worst and season tickets sales at the lowest, he finally hires a HC outside of the miserable organization, spending the most he ever has on a coach.

Typical MFB, put a bandaid on a hemoraging wound to keep the flock of sheep from wondering, then return to his cheap, pocket-lining ways.

Cheer all you want, but Boycott if you want change.

[Andy]

Something tells me that Kato and the other "u cant h8 teh bengels & meik brown 2gether lolol" people are Bengals Front Office Trolls.

Maybe Project Mayhem Phase 10 is in order to celebrate the early success and keep peoples' minds on track?

[Rich]

Other teams take days like Sunday for granted - they are commonplace.
In Cincinnati, its freaking Christmas.
We need an organization where winning is expected and not a surprise.
You celebrate when they win, but you want more and you want it sustained.
To me, that's what the revolution is about.
That's why you can bitch and celebrate at the same time.

[Wyatt]

bottom line is a bottom,

I didn't say that part was contradictory, I said it was hypocritical, and it is. You calling the rest of us out for not having balls enough to lynch the Browns then saying you're too lazy to do anything, much less that, is hypocritical, plain and simple. There's no arguing it.

The contradictory part is saying you don't care and then coming on here and posting, proving that you do. Again, there's no arguing it.

[Joemama]

Hey mikebrownstinks, way to take my words out of context u dumb fuck