Marc Hoover
Since Christmas is only days away, this means the NFL regular season is nearly over. Santa will be delivering playoff berths to the nice teams and coal to the naughty ones. For now, the AFC North has the Steelers and Ravens seeking playoff glory while the Bengals spend the playoffs at home. Another dismal failure for Marvin Lewis and company. Only the Bengals won’t make it to the playoffs this year. As usual, the Steelers ended their season with last week’s win over the Bengals.

December is when the best NFL teams step up. For instance, Pittsburgh is a city beloved by Santa. He always has tickets for Steelers fans. The Ravens are questionable, but you can never count out professional sports teams from Maryland. Professional football in Ohio, however, is a different story. It’s nothing but futility, failure and hopelessness.

History proves Santa just doesn’t like the Bengals or the Browns. But he loves The Ohio State Buckeyes. All the Bengals and Browns can expect from Santa are lumps of coal for Christmas.

No surprise about the Cleveland Browns. They change owners and quarterbacks like most of us change underwear. No one ever expects anything from the Cleveland Browns. So far they haven’t won a single game this year. The Browns can expect their standard lump of coal or two.

So back to Bengals. What do the name Marvin Lewis and Bill Belichick have in common? Not much. Belichick has the longest tenure in the NFL and Lewis has the number two spot. Lewis has coached the Bengals since Jan. 14, 2003. Although I am sure he is a great person and done much for his community and players, he has never won a playoff game in Cincinnati.

Let’s put this into perspective. In 14 years, Lewis hasn’t won a playoff game. How many other head coaches could operate in the red for so many years? It’s simple.

None.

Even the God-awful Cleveland Browns wouldn’t keep anyone on the payroll for so many years. Consider your own job. Would your boss keep you if you didn’t do your job?

Real Bengals fans will disagree. They will say, “But he gets to the playoffs.” Let’s get this straight. An NFL head coach has only one job description—win the next Super Bowl.

Anything short of winning a Vince Lombardi trophy is a failure. The playoffs are the necessary steps taken to win the ultimate prize. Do a Google search on retired head coach Marty Schottenheimer. He was a great coach with 200 wins, but he never won a Super Bowl. At the end of 2006, he finished 14-2 with the San Diego Chargers. His reward? The Chargers fired him after he lost to the Patriots in the playoffs.

So why does Lewis get to stay in Cincinnati? There is much conjecture, but he’s not here to win playoff games. Don’t believe me? Look at his playoff record. Nothing but failure. But give credit to Lewis. He did finally fire kicker Mike Nugent. But he should have done so a season ago. Maybe Nugent got to hang around because he kicked for the Buckeyes. So even if the Bengals fire Lewis, who would replace him?

The next Bengals head coach will probably be a college coach that can be molded by relic team owner Mike Brown. Bengals fans know this formula has never worked in the past and won’t work in the future. Insanity is repeating the same action while expecting a different result. Insanity is the Bengals. Maybe next year Bengals fans. To close out 2016, I wish Clermont Sun readers a Merry Christmas and a blessed 2017.

Marc is a grandparent and longtime resident of Clermont County. Visit his author page at www.lifewithgrandpa.com and blog at www.wisegrandpa.com.