Monday Morning Quarterback

As I have already mentioned, I love sports. Baseball is my first love, but football is a close second. My office at work, until recently, was a veritable cornucopia of sports memorabilia; i.e., framed photos of various key moments in Cincinnati sports history, bobbleheads, autographed baseballs, sports figurines, etc. Because of this blatant display and my ability to “hold my own” in a sports conversation, the majority of the men where I work invariably appear in my office doorway every Monday morning during football season to engage in that age old pastime: Monday morning armchair quarterback. This morning was no different.

Now, I have been a Bengal's season ticket holder since 2004. That was the second year of the Marvin Lewis regime, and fans throughout Bengaldom were elated to see signs of life in a team that had been the scourge of the league for more than a dozen years. I was afraid they were going to get good, and if they got good, it would be impossible to get a ticket without selling a kidney. So, buy a season ticket I did and, in 2005, to the playoffs the Bengals did go. And all was happy in the Jungle until a Pittsburgh Steeler (I hate them) shredded Carson Palmer’s knee on the second play from scrimmage and Bengal Nation had their hopes dashed one more time. Last year, the Bengals won 8 and lost 8, but the fans of this team are hungry for more and we expect/demand more than a breakeven team. This year, the expectations are much, much higher.

So, when they opened at home on Monday Night Football against the Baltimore Ravens…and won, the mood in this town was…well…jubilant. Then my boys traveled north to that city on the lake…Cleveland. Not a Cleveland fan...not now...not ever, but I believe in giving credit where credit is due, and the Browns came to play and beat my guys a whopping 51-45. Now, folks, when your quarterback throws a "ginormous" six touchdown passes and your offense scores 45 points, you expect to win the game. But not this day. While our offense showed up, alas, our defense never made it off the plane, and it is hard to win a game when you cannot outscore your own lackluster defense. Then we went to Seattle yesterday. A better showing. I mean we only lost by three…24-21, but a loss is still a…you know…loss. This team could be, should be 3-0 going into next Monday night’s game against New England, but are we? Nooooooooooooooooo! We’re 1-2, and I’m disgusted and am fixin’ to sell my ticket on Stubhub.com.

What can I say? It’s not easy being a sports fan; especially when your favorite teams are the Cincinnati Reds and the Cincinnati Bengals.

Carson Palmer- our stud of a quarterback.

Anyone care for a T.J. Houshmandzadeh sandwich. Yep, that's how his name is spelled.

Carson and Chad Johnson...the "mouth" of the team. Would have liked to have eavesdropped on that conversation.

All photos courtesy of "The Cincinnati Enquirer."