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The rise of the Cincinnati Reds has been a wild event for the city and its fans — but the Cincinnati Bengals experienced a bigger riser before that.
Not that fans will complain about the order it happened, of course. But the admission comes direct from Reds manager David Bell himself.
Bell, after meeting with Bengals head coach Zac Taylor last week amid his team’s 12-game streak to the top, said it’s the Bengals who inspired the Reds.
“This is a team that truly inspired our team and all of us, but really an entire city,” Bell said, according to Gordon Wittenmyer of the Cincinnati Enquirer. “I’ve been here for all of that, and (along with) my family and my friends how much those teams have meant to all of us. To hear that was a reminder of the bigger picture of what we’re trying to do.”
Like Bell went on to say in a great interview, there’s a chance these two head coaches can continue to bounce ideas off each other while their teams experience successes for a long time.
Like the Bengals, the rise of Bell’s Reds was fast — and now the goal shifts to maintaining that success for both.