The Cincinnati Bengals are within the Tremendous Bowl for the primary time since 1988. Actually, the final time they even gained a playoff sport, the primary George Bush was president of america. Proper round that point, Mike Brown took over as proprietor of the crew, a task he is served ever since.
How did Brown develop into the proprietor? And the way has he earned his fortune? He has his father to thank for each.
Mike Brown was born on August 10, 1935, in Massillon, Ohio. His father, Paul Brown, was a soccer coach and govt for greater than 60 years. The elder Brown was the primary coach of the Cleveland Browns and he later helped within the founding of the Bengals. His groups gained seven championships and Brown contributed to quite a few soccer improvements, together with the trendy face masks, the draw play, and utilizing sport movie to scout opponents.
Mike Brown (R) with Bengals head coach Zac Taylor (Joe Robbins/Getty Pictures)
After graduating from Dartmouth in 1957 and Harvard Regulation College in 1960, the youthful Brown adopted his father into soccer. Paul Brown co-founded the Bengals, an American Soccer League crew, in 1968. Mike Brown served because the crew’s assistant normal supervisor, serving to with personnel choices and serving as a crew spokesman.
When Paul Brown died in August 1991, Mike Brown took over as proprietor. The crew has not carried out very nicely since then, compiling simply eight profitable seasons in 30 years. This 12 months’s Bengals squad has given Brown his first playoff victories as proprietor.
Amongst Brown’s first main strikes have been changing common head coach Sam Wyche with Dave Shula and dealing to barter a brand new lease with the town of Cincinnati. In 1995, Brown introduced Cincinnati had breached its lease settlement after lacking a $167,000 fee in concession receipts by one week. Brown threatened to maneuver the crew to Baltimore if the town and Hamilton County did not fund a brand new stadium. Town and county relented and added a tax enhance of half a % to make the brand new stadium occur. Brown named the brand new location Paul Brown Stadium in honor of his father.
After first taking on, Brown additionally served because the crew’s normal supervisor—this twin position was solely employed by the Bengals and Dallas Cowboys proprietor Jerry Jones. The dearth of on-field success has led to loads of criticism of Brown, although in 2009 he stepped again from his normal supervisor roles and ceded these duties to a committee. From 2011 to 2015, the Bengals made the postseason, although they by no means superior previous their first playoff sport.
Brown has been a steadfast believer {that a} quarterback is a very powerful participant on the roster, and a crew cannot win a championship with no nice one. The Bengals’ lack of success backs up that declare—that they had a collection of common to subpar sign callers and by no means noticed a single playoff victory. Now, with Joe Burrow main the cost, they’re one win away from their first-ever championship.
To get the Bengals into existence, the unique founders spent $7.5 million in 1967. At present, the crew is value $2.275 billion. At 86 years previous, Brown might not have many extra seasons main the crew. A championship after such an extended drought could be the proper swan tune.
