Well we have all waited and speculated for over a year now, but the Cincinnati Bengals season starts in less than 35 hours.  It is amazing to see how much conversation, thought, and hope occurs up to that first kick off with the fans. There is no doubt that the season opener on Monday Nights Football in front of the entire country will be big for this franchise and for Bengals fans!

Let’s face it, Cincinnati Bengals fans are starved for something more than 8 and 8 seasons in Cincinnati.  Last season was a total let down, and the team underperformed with perfection.  Bengals fans will also tell you that the city has earned the right to a championship season after enduring the likes of past Bengals ghost with names that are embedded in our minds an souls forever.. Shula, Klingler, Francis, and Carter!

Yes, the Bengals are no longer the laughing stock of the NFL and Jim Rome no longer has a weekly update as to whether the Bengals are still winless eight weeks into the season.  For Bengals fans being the laughing stocks of the league at least allowed us to know each week what to expect from our team.  It was horrible, but consistent.

Now Bengals fans find themselves in uncharted waters.  The Bengals really seemed to be out of the cellar after winning the division championship and going to the playoffs in 2005 only to have their hopes dashed by a blow to the knee of Carson Palmer.  We have all sent the photo of him laying in the end zone.  If Cincinnati fans had a dollar for ever time an opposing fan has told us that they think we would have gone on and won the Super Bowl if Carson Palmer did not get hurt in the 2005 playoffs, we would have enough money for all of us to have Bengals season tickets and a limo to every game.

At the end of the day, Bengals fans are sacred.  The reminder that the Shula era was not that long ago really seems to stick in their minds, and watching a 2005 playoff team become an underperforming 8 and 8 playoff miss has people wondering who the real Bengals actually are. 

We are less than 35 hours away from getting our first glimmer of an answer.  As a fan, I am no longer interested in we had a great team, but we only went 8 and 8.  I think all Bengals fans see this as the season that the Bengals will let us know who they really are as a team.  Are we the high powered favorites to win our division and make a run at a Super Bowl as we did in 2005, or is this team really just an underperforming team that has the ability to pull five more wins out of a season than Shula and his boys did?  You know, just enough to keep us out of the laughing stalk category of the NFL.

Remember sixteen weeks is a long season.  There will be lots of ups and downs.  There will be lots of ups and downs on Monday night.  One game does not make or break a season, but it sure can set a heck of a tone for things to come!  One thing is for sure, we know Bengals fans will do their part and the stadium will be rocking.  Let’s just hope the 10 and 5 Bengals show up and do their part as well.     

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