Bengals fans celebrate long-awaited Super Bowl appearance

“Who dey” bought its personal day on Monday.

The Cincinnati Bengals’ 40-year-old rally cry rang out time and again in the course of the staff’s Paul Brown Stadium NFL Opening Night time Fan Rally on Monday night time.

The celebration for the staff was loud and festive a day earlier than the Bengals journey to Los Angeles and the Tremendous Bowl in opposition to the Rams on Sunday.

Fans wanting to be on hand to have fun in-person the staff’s first Tremendous Bowl journey since January 1989 and third in staff historical past wanted fewer than 5 hours to seize the 30,000 free tickets once they grew to become out there on Wednesday. Sufficient confirmed as much as fill the decrease bowl.

Six Tremendous Bowl tickets got away. The massive display confirmed highlights and interviews.

Former Bengals greats together with David Fulcher, Tim Krumrie and Max Montoya, all members of the most-recent Tremendous Bowl staff, have been interviewed on stage close to midfield, the place the AFC championship trophy was displayed.

“This staff has discovered a approach to win all yr, and they’ll win yet another time,” mentioned Ken Anderson, quarterback on Cincinnati’s first Tremendous Bowl staff in 1982.

A banner hanging on an upper-deck façade proclaimed. “This one’s for you, Mike,” referring to staff president Mike Brown.

Forty-three minutes into the scheduled hour-long rally, Coach Zac Taylor, his assistants and the gamers took the sphere carrying matching white warmup outfits. Many shot cellphone movies as they exited the tunnel.

“I promise you we’ll feed off the power from wherever you’re watching the sport — your dwelling rooms, the native bars,” Taylor mentioned. “Wherever we’re, we’ll really feel it.”

Operating again Joe Mixon tweeted: “CROWD 4 TONIGHT’S PEP RALLY WAS LIT!!!!”

Quarterback Joe Burrow was the final to be launched.

“I’m honored to be the quarterback for a fantastic group and one of the best followers on the planet,” Burrow mentioned.

Tight finish C.J. Uzomah ripped off his knee brace and chucked it backward and over his head, inciting cheers earlier than saying just a few phrases. Uzomah was injured early within the AFC championship sport in opposition to Kansas Metropolis and hopes to play on Sunday. He was the final speaker earlier than fireworks lit up the south finish of the stadium.

The followers began lining up on Monday greater than an hour earlier than the gates opened for the final admission rally with no assigned seating. Among the many followers ready in mid-30 diploma temperatures was Dominic Thomas from Covington, Ky., simply throughout the Ohio River from Paul Brown Stadium.

Thomas, 26, wore Bengals gear from head-to-toe, from his orange-and-black camouflage hat with orange and black streamers hanging down from beneath to his orange Burrow jersey, three necklaces with alternating orange-and-black beads, a weathered Burrow towel and a “Who Dey” towel tucked into his black pants and orange-and-black striped tube socks.

Jordan Inman, 21, of Lawrenceburg in southeast Indiana is on a roll. The Bengals are going to the Tremendous Bowl in his first season of getting season tickets.

“It’s surreal — positively surreal,” Inman mentioned.

Monday’s occasion was the next-best factor to having an precise watch get together Sunday on the stadium, an concept floated by the administration of stadium proprietor Hamilton County. The NFL denied the request.