It turns out that after all this time, Cincinnati Bengals president Mike Brown didn’t get to experience his first playoff win in person at Paul Brown Stadium.
While Joe Burrow and Co. were beating the Las Vegas Raiders in the wild card round to end the franchise’s 31-year drought, Brown was stuck elsewhere due to a mild case of COVID-19.
The Cincinnati Enquirer’s Paul Daugherty (subscription required) provided the info:
“Recently, COVID-19 nicked him, a mild case that caused him to miss his team’s first playoff win in 31 years. He watched from home. Yet on this day, Brown looks and sounds energized. Work keeps him young. The winning validates the work.”
Brown has been there from the franchise’s beginning in 1968 and took over as owner in 1991. The team had been 0-8 in chances to end the drought before the wild card round.
Not that Brown didn’t enjoy the win from afar — and what it means to the franchise, fans and city: “It was as exciting as I can stand. It lifted a weight off me. We know we haven’t crossed the goal line (but) we’ve re-kindled (fan) enthusiasm. That’s what this is all about. It’s what we strive to do. That’s our goal.”
If there’s a silver lining, it’s that thanks to the curse finally ending, Brown will get a chance to see his team win another game this weekend in Tennessee, which would catapult his Bengals to the AFC title game, one shy of the Super Bowl.
