Mercifully, the ’08 NFL season is at an end.

The curse of being a Bengals fan, which is tantamount to being a Cubs or LA Clippers fan, is that they tend to really stink things up for the first 10 weeks of the season or so. Then they do just enough over the last half of the season to give you some hope for the next year. Of course, this leads you to have the one thing you should stay away from at all costs: hope.

The Bungals finished with a winning record (barely, though) over the last half of the season, with a 4-3-1 run. However, they did the same thing last year, finishing 5-3. That sure did them a lot of good, didn’t it? They crushed the Dolphins in the season finale, yet who improved and won their division with a 10-6 record and who collapsed and finished 4-11-1?

The Bungals, of course.

It didn’t seem that long ago (2005) when the Bengals had a star-studded offense loaded with Pro Bowl talent (Carson Palmer, Chad Johnson, TJ Houshmandzadeh, Rudi Johnson, and Willie Anderson) and won the AFC North.

But it took the miserable Mike Brown all of three years to wreck all of that. Besides bringing in a score of criminals and under performers, he is a miser who loathes spending money.

Since Mike took over for his legendary father, Paul, back in 1991, the Bungals have approximately ONE winning season! Where else in the world would you be able to do so horribly at your job and still keep it? Well, I guess in light of the economic bailouts some CEOS have gotten, it’s probably pretty par for the course.

Poor Paul Brown. He has to be rolling over in his grave. Here was the man who devised face masks for the pro game, started using the first playbook, rigged a helmet radio in the early seventies, hired Bill Walsh as his offensive coordinator (yes, that Bill Walsh), was the first coach to integrate African Americans into the league, started using a scouting staff and so on. Outside of Lombardi, Hallis, and Walsh, you won’t find a more prominent individual in the NFL.

Yet, Mike is the total opposite. Again, one winning record. Our only hope is that he will either step down or die. That way his daughter, Katie Blackburn, would run the team. She might not be better. But as a Bungals fan, sometimes better is just too inconceivable. All you can hope for is change.