It has been a decade plus, now, since Boomer Esiason threw the ball all over the place, since James Brooks and Ickey Woods ran behind Anthony Munoz and Max Montoya , since Tim Krumrie snarled and David Fulcher hit ballcarriers like the Pro Bowler he once was. So, so much has happened to the Cincinnati Bengals in that time. Nothing, of course, more than losing. Through Sam Wyche , through Dave Shula and now through a finally beaten Bruce Coslet , no one in the NFL has lost like the Bengals. It's a terrible thing, really.
Players talk about how winning is contagious.
Losing is, too. The Bengals came down with the losing bug a decade ago and have been terminal ever since. It can't be denied. Certainly, at times. This is a franchise that went to the Super Bowl after the 1988 season, one that was just seconds away from beating the San Francisco 49ers for the title, and has since been so bad that it lost more games in the '90s than any other.