I recommend Mark Curnutte's story in the Tuesday Enquirer, from Marvin Lewis' press conference Monday. It's a reason the Bengals are the Bengals. Lewis said he's "very committed to doing the right thing here'' whatever that means. He'd like to get the Bengals "back to where (they) were'' presumably the glory days of, um, one whole season in which they won more than they lost.
"I'm excited about our football team,'' said the coach. "I actually like our football team. Other than being 0-5.''
Oh, Lord, get me to a cool place. So's I can lie down.
Question: Is there any other town in America where a coach can look at 0-5 and say how "excited'' he is, and how fond he is of his team? It's just going great here, people. Except for zero wins. There is that, but what the heck, we like our guys and, "They come here and they go to work. We go out there and we play football games.'' Damn, Marvin, that's phenomenal.
"We fought the thing down,'' he said. I guess that means the Men played hard. You know it's bad when the coach praises the effort.
Here's a problem, beyond the obvious: There is very little pressure here, beyond the pressure a coach puts on himself. Lewis has the job security of Fidel Castro, as long as he's loyal to Mike and wins just enough to keep the suites leased and the stadium close to full. If P and G lost money or broke even 17 years out of 18, heads might roll. Here, it's just fine and dandy. Ownership apparently has told Lewis he can coach here as long as he likes. And ohhhhh and five is, you know, not great. But we're working hard, by golly, with a swell group of young men.
