Status Quo

Toward the end of Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451, one of the book men declares, "I hate a Roman named Status Quo." Of course, he is referring to some of the factors that led the people in Bradbury's dystopian society of non-readers and shallow thinkers to the brink of extinction.

Well, "Every year is the most important season, but as I stand here, is it an important season? You bet it's an important season," Brown said during the club's training camp media luncheon. "We're unhappy how we showed. Last year we disappointed ourselves as well as our public. That left a bad taste in the mouth. We want to get back on the field and prove we are a good team. We thought we should have been a good team last year. This year we want to prove we're a winning team. That it's the kind of team that can be a playoff team.

"We know this is an important year. That's felt by everyone in this organization. We disappointed our public and they let us know about it. It's something we didn't like hearing and we want to get out there and win them back."

Ole Mike Brown, son of the iconic Paul Brown, and owner/general manager/dictator/gestapo of the Cincinnati Bengals.

This is his version of a pep talk to the fans.

Too bad we can't believe a word of it. "Every year is the most important season?" Really?

Then why, Mr. Brown, does your club have one -- yes, ONE -- winning season in the past 18 seasons? One winning record?

In what other line of business would ANY employee or CEO or manager NOT get fired with one successful year in almost two full decades?

As the NFL is structured, Brown turns a profit regardless of whether his team wins or not.

Now, the website, which the team runs, of course, argues that he is a fine owner because he is a football man and football is all his family does - they aren't selling cars or into oil or anything else - this horrifies me even more. How can your claim to fame be football when you put such a miserable product on the field year after year?


". . . we want to go out there and win them back"???

Then why are you such a cheap organization. Yes, your quarterback is the highest paid in the league and will be so for a number of years. But that is your one high end contract. Your number one draft pick has now missed most of a week of practice because he is holding out. Why is it that a large number of your top draft picks always hold out? Because they know they have one shot at a payday given they are going to the NFL version of Siberia where they will win a handful of games during the life of that contract and then be ready for the NFL scrap heap.

How about these household names -- Chris Perry, David Pollack, Odell Thurman, Keiwan Ratliff, Kenny Irons, Ahmad Brooks ... all drafted on the first day and either out of the league or barely hanging on. Yet, how much money was wasted on them?

Instead of relying on rookies, how about signing some solid NFL vets during free agency. But that would require you, Mr. Brown, to actually spend some money instead of just looking like you do.

Somewhere Brown is wringing his fists just hoping to appease the fans with an 8-8 record - hey, it's not a losing record! Knowing that hope springs eternal and things will perceive to get better when they never ever do.