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Cincinnati Bengals Franchise History
In 1966 the American Football League agreed to merge with the NFL and the Cincinnati Bengals joined the AFL in 1968 when the league granted an ownership group led by Paul Brown a franchise. Pete Rozelle was commissioner of the NFL and was being pressured by Congress to keep professional football in the twenty-three markets where it existed at the time. There were fifteen NFL teams and nine AFL teams for a total of twenty four teams when the two leagues merged. Senator Russell Long and Congressman Hale Boggs of Louisiana insisted that New Orleans receive an NFL franchise in return for their support. The outcome resulted in the New Orleans Saints being the NFL’s sixteenth franchise in 1967. This gave the NFL an odd number of teams so another team was needed to even out the number of teams in the league. Cincinnati was granted that franchise.
The Bengals played their first two seasons at Nippert Stadium. The stadium was under the 50,000 capacity limit required by the league for potential expansion teams. However, the AFL allowed the Bengals to play their first two seasons in the stadium before the merger of the two leagues provided a new stadium would be completed by the 1970 season. Riverfront Stadium was completed in time for the 1970 season as promised and the Bengals were placed in the AFC Central Division. Ironically, the Cleveland Browns were moved to the AFC Central Division in 1970 too and a rivalry was instantly formed because of the Paul Brown / Art Modell conflict. Paul Brown was head coach for the Bengals first three seasons. He went on to be General Manager and eventually majority owner of the team. The Bengals went through eight coaches in the first 3 decades of existence. Marvin Lewis became head coach in 2003 and has been at the helm for over 15 years.
The Bengals now make up one of the four teams in the AFC North. The other teams in the division are the Cleveland Browns, the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Baltimore Ravens. Paul Brown Stadium was built in 2000 and is where they call home today. The Bengals have played in two Super Bowls but failed to win either.
