Check out this Franklin resident’s ultimate ‘Bengals Cave’

Franklin resident Craig Rolfes started working on his Bengals garage project around 2019. The garage is complete with a “Joe Mixon clock” and a “Joe Burrow bar.” WCPO/CONTRIBUTED

Franklin resident Craig Rolfes started working on his Bengals garage project around 2019. The garage is complete with a “Joe Mixon clock” and a “Joe Burrow bar.” WCPO/CONTRIBUTED

FRANKLIN — Game day can be a sacred experience, so finding the right location to watch the Bengals play is critical.

While some go to bars or watch in their living rooms, one Franklin fan has taken things up a notch.

“It’s just my team,” said Craig Rolfes. “I’m from Cincinnati, born and bred here, and it’s the team I love.”

Rolfes has decked out every nook and cranny of his garage in Bengals decor.

“Obviously, it’s my ‘Craig Cave,’” he said. “Some people got man caves, I got a ‘Craig Cave.’”

Craig Rolfes, of Franklin in Warren County, has a garage that is completed covered in items that show his love for the Cincinnati Bengals. CONTRIBUTED/KELLY ROLFES

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Rolfes started working on the project around 2019. The garage is complete with a “Joe Mixon clock” and a “Joe Burrow bar.”

The pieces are unique. Rolfes has made nearly every item with reclaimed wood.

“All of this is stuff that I have taken out of people’s trash, out of dumpsters because I do construction work,” Rolfes said.

Craig Rolfes, of Franklin in Warren County, has a garage that is completed covered in items that show his love for the Cincinnati Bengals. CONTRIBUTED/KELLY ROLFES

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He said his passion ramped up as the world slowed down during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“He has a gutter business,” said his wife Kelly Rolfes.”The supply and demand was absolutely ruined, so he really didn’t have a lot to do during that time. This was really his savior.”

“My wife let me go crazy,” Rolfes said. “Most wives wouldn’t. Mine did.”

Craig Rolfes, of Franklin in Warren County, has a garage that is completed covered in items that show his love for the Cincinnati Bengals. CONTRIBUTED/KELLY ROLFES

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Kelly Rolfes said the space is special to her husband.

“When he’s stressed or when he’s anything he comes out here and it makes him feel comfortable,” she said.

Craig Rolfes, of Franklin in Warren County, has a garage that is completed covered in items that show his love for the Cincinnati Bengals. CONTRIBUTED/KELLY ROLFES

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The work Rolfes has put in has offered him a way to celebrate a team that’s meant so much to him.

“I’ve always been a Bengals fan since I was knee-high to a grasshopper,” he said. “This team’s everything I love.”

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