“The Devil went down to Georgia…but he didn’t find a football game.” Yes, the grand scheme of Commissioner Roger Goodell and the National Football League fell flat on its face at about 6:30 p.m. last Sunday evening. That’s when it was painfully obvious that the hallowed match up of the Buffalo Bills and Kansas City Chiefs ain’t gonna happen, much to the chagrin of the league and the owners of the horrible Atlanta Falcons football teams. Mercedes-Benz Stadium will sit empty this weekend, thanks to the party crashing Cincinnati Bengals.
Yep, the Bengals shattered the grand plan of the NFL proving that their neutral site championship game idea was the best thing since sliced bread, but they forgot one thing. The NFL has done a fantastic job in the last three weeks of totally disrespecting the Bengals, and the Bengals have shoved it right back in their face. From the ridiculous coin flip idea to the fact that a Bills win got them the Chiefs in a neutral site but a Bengals win didn’t…oh how sweet it is to stick it to the big boys. Going by the original rules, then the Bengals should go to Kansas City but Goodell and his cronies tossed the original rules in the proverbial trash, trying their best to manipulate a Bills-Chiefs match up. Sorry boys, maybe next year.
Unless you’re under a rock, you know that the Bengals ruined the NFL party by totally dominating the supposedly unbeatable Buffalo Bills, the new darlings of the league. All of us are glad that Damar Hamlin is progressing well and was able to be at the game on Sunday (though all we ever saw was some blob shape in a suite), but since that tragic incident the NFL has seemingly done everything they could to send the Bengals home. The ultimate slap in the face of selling 50,000 tickets to a Bills-Chiefs AFC title game in Atlanta may have turned out to be the ultimate motivation. You all heard what Joe said, “Better send them refunds.”
But since the Commissioner and his people are now stuck with their heads up their rears, the Bengals are off to Kansas City for a second consecutive AFC Championship Game. I can’t imagine a team going in with more confidence than the Bengals, especially after beating the Chiefs three consecutive times. This time it looks like it will be with a hobbled Patrick Mahomes, so of course when the Bengals win, you know what the narrative will be. I’m not sure what this team has to do to garner national respect, but I’ll assume that if they make a second consecutive trip to the Super Bowl. some of those media pundits might actually have to take notice. Well, only if it fits their narrative.
It will seem like forever until six-thirty Sunday night gets here. but you know what the best thing might be? It’s just good to know that the Bengals are relevant again and likely will be for along while if they can somehow finagle a way to keep their core together, which will be a challenge this offseason, but let’s worry about that after another trip to the Super Bowl. I hope many of you Adams Countians are making the jaunt to KC and I hope you are ultra loud with the “Who Dey” and even better, I hope you are driving or flying home, knowing that your team will be playing again in two weeks in Arizona. The NFL will hate every second of that, but we’ll love every second. Don’t take having a winning team for granted, I was there for David Klingler, Akili Smith and Davis Shula.
Enjoy the week, get ready for Sunday night’s big one, and if you have some sparetime, send a little note to Commissioner Goodell. Just four simple words, “Better send the refunds.”
