Sunday, March 18, 2018 – I boarded a charter bus that morning at UC to head down to Nashville for the Bearcats second-round tournament game against Nevada. It was a really nice day outside walking on Broadway in the Music City where there was live music behind seemingly every door. Of course, though, I was thinking about the game at Bridgestone Arena. This was my first NCAA Tournament game I had attended beyond the First Four, and I was thinking how there were going to be more games I would be attending the following week in my birthplace of Atlanta. Or so I thought.
I was going to tell you all exactly what I was thinking through the final 11 minutes of that game, but I think it’s all still fresh in our minds that I don’t need to bring back any bad memories for anyone. But I will say that that loss validated that this city is under a curse, which for so long I thought that wasn’t the case.
At after prom my senior year, a friend of mine told me that he thoght the city is under a sports curse. I actually don’t remember if he said the entire city was, or just the Bengals, but his reason was something about 25 years without winning meant a curse. It was 26 years at the time that the Bengals had won a playoff game or any Cincinnati sports team won a championship. For me, I don’t think time determines whether or not a team or city is under a sports curse. Rather, it’s the accumulation of defeats that shouldn’t have happened but actually did that shape my opinion as to whether a curse is constituted.
Now, here’s why the Bearcats loss validated the belief that we are living through a sports curse. I never thought what happened to the Reds and the Bengals would happen to the Bearcats, but, sure enough, it did. Because these kinds of losses reached the college level, I now believe this city is cursed.
The Reds blowing a 2-0 lead was devastating, but it happens. They weren’t the first team to blow a 2-0 lead in the League Division Series round of the MLB postseason. They were the sixth team to do so at the time, actually. The Bengals loss was just flat out sad. I didn’t utter one word for at least an hour after that game. But it’s the Bengals, and they have a history of losing games they shouldn’t have. But the Bearcats? A team that was so good all season, had won the regular season and conference tournament championship games each by one point and seemed destined for a deep tournament run? Never would I have though that their season would have ended last year the way it did, but, sure enough, that’s what happened.
Now, I think this curse is going to be broken sooner rather than later. That, and FC Cincinnati playing in their first-ever MLS match, was the motivation behind writing this post. I obviously hope FC Cincinnati doesn’t succumb to the Cincinnati sports curse, but I can’t be naive by not thinking about how they could.
To me, the Bearcats loss was as bad as it’s going to get for our sports teams here in the Queen City. Plus, this Bearcats team feels like, to me at least, a team of destiny. They’re doing what last year’s team only did 50 percent of the time; consistently winning games decided by five points or less. This team’s ability to win those kinds of games will bode well for them in the tournament. I’m not saying they’re going to win a national championship, but they have what it takes, in my opinion, for a deep run in March. They can, though, win a national championship, which would, obviously, break the curse.
I remember when I first started thinking about which team from the Queen City was going to break the curse, and my initial thought was the Reds. Why? They’re the city’s first professional sports team as well as the first professional baseball team in history. They were also the last team in this city to win a championship, so it makes sense that they would be the first team since 1990 to win a championship. Plus, the offseason moves they made have expectations higher than what they have been the last few years. They may not win the World Series this year, but they may be trending in that direction these next few years.
But of all of the Cincinnati teams that could break the city’s sports curse, my gut tells me it’s going to be the Bengals. Here’s why: the Bengals winning the Super Bowl would feel like a total revolution of Cincinnati sports because the Bengals are the only major Cincinnati sports team to have never won a championship and the Super Bowl is the greatest game in the history of Western Civilization, the final game of the best season in sports: the NFL. Other than their two Super Bowl appearances, I will admit the Bengals have had a pretty lousy history. Only five playoff wins- all at home, by the way- 28 years without a playoff win to mark the longest current playoff-win drought in the NFL and 70 more losses than wins in 51 years.
Sure the Reds and the Bearcats have, in a bad way, of course, contributed to the sports curse, but they both have some winning history. Maybe not recently, but they both still do. But like I mentioned, outside of the 1980’s, the Bengals only have four playoff appearances, in addition to the seven under Marvin Lewis, with all four of those postseason trips ending with a loss in their first playoff game, just like the seven appearances ended from 2005-2015.
But I will say this, the Bengals are closer than some of you may think to winning the Super Bowl. I like the talent they have, and hopefully Zac Taylor and the new coaching staff gets the most out of it by leading that talent to positions to win championships. Marvin Lewis made the Bengals relevant again. He may not have been able to win in the playoffs or any important regular-season game consistently, particularly in prime time, but the fact that he made the Bengals relevant and put them in positions where they had a chance to win is something I have to acknowledge and, to a certain extent, respect. Seven winning seasons in an 11-year span; the Bengals only had 11 such seasons in 37 total from 1968-2004. Case in point; Marvin Lewis made the Bengals relevant. Now it’s up to Zac Taylor and the team to do what so many of Marvin Lewis’s teams had the potential to do but was never fulfilled: win a championship.
Obviously, if the Reds, Bearcats football or men’s basketball or FC Cincinnati win a championship the curse will be broken. But if you want a complete revolution in Cincinnati sports, the Bengals winning the Super Bowl would constitute that. Ultimately, I truly feel in my gut, the Bengals will be the team to break the Cincinnati sports curse and kick-start a new era in Cincinnati sports that showcases winning championships.
Let me be Frank and Cut to the Chase 