Local Cincinnati Bengals fans confident in AFC Wild Card game win

There are certain ways to rate a football fans’ interest in their home team.

Gregory and Brooke Cox’s would be off the charts.

Consider that when the couple moved from Butler County to Pittsburgh in 2005, they continued owning Cincinnati Bengals’ season ticket and for every Bengals home game, made the 290-mile drive from the Steel City to the Queen City.

And when the Bengals lost, they drove back home, or as they called it, “the trail of tears.”

Thankfully for Cincinnati fans, the Steelers didn’t make the NFL playoffs this year, but now the Bengals find themselves facing a familiar AFC North foe, the Baltimore Ravens, in the AFC Wild Card Game Sunday night at Paycor Stadium.

The Bengals beat the Ravens 27-16 in the regular season finale, and if they want to return to the Super Bowl, the Ravens pose the first threat.

The Cox family, which moved to Ross Twp. in 2016, and local Bengal fans are confident the team can beat the Ravens again and make another Super Bowl run after losing to the Los Angles Rams, 23-20, last year in Super Bowl LVI.

Living in Pittsburgh, home of the “Terrible Towels,” and rooting for the Bengals created some interesting Sundays for Gregory and Brooke Cox and their two children, Kyle, 20, and Abby, 17.

Their neighbors were notorious for placing Steelers signs in their front yard after Pittsburgh victories, a prank the couple pulled on their neighbors when the Bengals beat the Steelers.

Brooke Cox remembers one day when she visited her kids’ elementary school during lunch. The cafeteria was crammed with students sporting Steelers shirts and jerseys. Her two kids were easy to spot. They were the only ones in Bengals shirts.

‘This team has a chip on its shoulder’

Josh and Jade Davenport, of Middletown, attended every Bengal playoff game last year. They were there for the first-round home game against the Las Vegas Raiders, then on the road against the Tennessee Titans, the Kanas City Chiefs and the Super Bowl against the Rams.

“It was a wild ride,” said Josh.

When he was a child, his family moved from Boston to the Middletown area in 1988 and two years later, his father, a New England Patriots fan, purchased Bengals season tickets. While his father celebrated Tom Brady leading the Patriots to six Super Bowls, Davenport has waited his turn.

He’s hoping Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow can start a similar Super Bowl dynasty.

“This team has a chip on its shoulder,” Davenport said. “All you hear is KC and Buffalo.”

The Davenports and their children, Karsyn, 11, and Nolan, 6, plan to watch Sunday’s game at home.

‘Been a fan since I could walk and cheer’

Carl Bargar III, born in 1969, one year at the Bengals were founded, said he has followed the team for as long as he can remember.

His father, Carl Bargar Jr., now 94, purchased season tickets that first year.

“Been a fan since I could walk and cheer,” said Bargar, 53, of Hamilton.

Bargar said he and his father attended the famous “Freezer Bowl,” the 1981 AFC Championship Game when the Bengals beat the San Diego Chargers, 27-7. Wild chill temperatures reached minus 50 degrees that day at Riverfront Stadium, the coldest in NFL history.

He also was in the stands for Super Bowl XVI, a 26-21 loss to the San Francisco 49ers.

His family no longer owns season tickets, but Bargar attends several home games every year.

It’s “hard to play the same team three times,” but if the Bengals beat the Ravens, they are well suited for another Super Bowl run, Bargar believes.

‘The sky is the limit for this team’

Sean Dixon, like a lot of Bengals fans, has lived through what he called the “dark ages.”

From 1991 to 2002, the Bengals went 55-137.

He remembers watching the games, and turning the TV off after the first quarter.

“It got to the point where you didn’t want to wear their clothes around,” he said.

But now, the Bengals have won back-to-back AFC North titles for the first time in franchise history and the team is three wins from consecutive Super Bowl appearances.

“The sky is the limit for this team,” said Dixon, 38, of Hamilton. “It’s Super Bowl or not.”

He owned Bengals season ticket for eight years, but organizing tailgate parties became more of a chore than enjoyment, he said. He went to one home game this season, a 42-21 win over the Carolina Panthers.

Dixon, who works for Chatterbox Sports in Hamilton, is known for wearing his handmade hat that features numerous Solo cups connected together. The stripes are added by a friend of his wife’s. He has worn that style of hat for 13 years, and the cups have to be periodically changed due to damage.

Sometimes, he said, especially at tailgate parties, over served fans try to drink out of the cups that are dirty.

“I wouldn’t do that,” Dixon tells them.

When he’s not at Paycor Stadium, Dixon can be found every Sunday at The Drink Tavern in Hamilton, he said.