For all of my life, the “home team” has been the Cincinnati Bengals. When I was really little, I was a Pittsburgh Steelers fan. I’m not exactly sure how or why this was the case, but since the Steelers and the Bengals were division rivals, I was never really one to root for the “home team.” Around the late 1980's, I became interested in some other teams, including the Minnesota Vikings and the Houston Oilers. These are perennial “hard luck teams.” For a while there, it seemed like every year, they would make it to the top of their divisions only to have their hopes dashed in the post-season. The 1992 Oilers were one of my favorite teams of all time and it’s still agonizing to watch highlight films from their loss to the Buffalo Bills in the ‘92 AFC championship game. Even though the Oilers are now defunct, I still carry a torch for them. I have a bunch of Oilers memorabilia in my office and about once a week, a visitor says, “So, are you an Oilers fan?” My response is typically a sigh followed by, “Well, I was an Oilers fan...” Nowadays, the Oilers are the Tennessee Titans and seeing as how their roster still boasts a few Oilers vets, the Titans are still on my favorites list.
The Vikings are certainly set to
be a hard luck team again this year, although this time around, it
looks like they’ll be hard-pressed to even make it to the
post-season. Yesterday was one of the most abysmal drubbings that
I have ever seen the Vikings take. And it was all at the hands
of...the Bengals? Y’know, I have never really been excited about
a Bengals season until this year. It looks like things might be
coming together for them. The city of Cincinnati could sure use
something to be proud of for a change.
Remember the “World League of American Football" back in 1991? If I recall correctly, these folks wre the first group to put “helmet cams” in the helmets of quarterbacks and other players. The Orlando Thunder was my team. WLAF was way cooler than the XFL.
Great site: Helmets, Helmets, Helmets: A Field Guide to Football Helmets
