CINCINNATI — With a 19-16 win against the Tennessee Titans, the Cincinnati Bengals made history for the second week in a row, earning their first road playoff win in franchise history and advancing to the AFC Championship for the first time since 1989.
For fans who have stuck with the franchise through the turbulent past few decades, it can feel simultaneously surreal yet meant to be, after everything the team has been through.
John Robinson remembers the first time he called himself a Bengals fan at the age of five and the emotional whiplash that came not long after.
“It was ’81 when we went to the Super Bowl, and I remember crying in my dad’s lap when we lost the game,” he said.
Still, Robinson cheered them on game after game, eventually becoming a season ticket holder and traveling to as many away games as he could, finding refuge in a group of fans as dedicated as he was, “The Bengal Bomb Squad.”
One of the largest tailgate crews in Cincinnati, Melissa Burton, another founding member said it started small 15 years ago.
“We started coming together with our families, then we would combine with other tailgates and the Bengal Bomb Squad was born,” she said.
Every year, she said it grew bigger and their costumes did as well. Burton now sports an orange and black-striped wig and Robinson sports an orange mohawk and leather jacket filled with patches documenting his time following the team.
Chris Neace, complete with his tiger face paint, joined their ranks 10 years ago when he met them on road in St. Louis.
“It was like we’re gonna show people out here how to tailgate, pull in and this guy pulls up next to us and he showed us how to tailgate,” he said.
Together the tailgate crew has watched the teams highs and mourned the lows, never losing hope their loyalty would pay off.
“When I grew up playing softball, my parents didn’t stop cheering for my team because we were having a losing game,” Burton said. “Why would I stop cheering for the Bengals?”
Over the years, the Bengals didn’t make cheering easy. After losing two Super Bowls in the ‘80s, the team would only win two more playoff games for the next 30 years.
“We all started in the Super Bowl years and we took it for granted that we would be back here again,” Robinson said.
During the Carson Palmer era, the team made it twice but failed to advance past the first round. Then with Andy Dalton, the team saw five postseason runs, all of which ended with early exits.
After Dalton’s final playoff appearance with the team in 2016, the Bengals wouldn’t have another winning season until this year, when Burton said all the team’s pieces started coming together.
“To watch Joe Burrow, to watch Joe Mixon, to watch our defense gel the way that they have, has been so exciting to me,” she said.
In celebration of the historic playoff run, Robinson said he and his friends debated a trip to Nashville but opted instead to watch together, hoping for the opportunity to celebrate as a team.
“The first thing I did was hug my step-daughter,” he said. “I wouldn’t be able to do that in Nashville.”
So far, Robinson said that’s been the sweetest part of this post-season success, celebrating with people like himself who have been cheering the Bengals on their entire lives.
“It doesn’t matter where you’re at, what you have, where you’re going,” he said. “What matters most of anything is the people you’re doing it with and the people you have around you.”
One game away from the Super Bowl, the fans hope the team keeps this momentum going, perhaps learning a lesson from their own dedication.
“It’s a lot like us,” Burton said. “We don’t quit on each other either.”