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The Cincinnati Bengals are a professional American football franchise based in Cincinnati, Ohio. They are currently members of the North Division of the American Football Conference (AFC) of the National Football League (NFL). Their home stadium is Paul Brown Stadium in downtown Cincinnati. Their current head coach is Marvin Lewis. Their chief rivals are the Pittsburgh Steelers, Cleveland Browns, and Baltimore Ravens. The Bengals were founded in as a member of the American Football League (AFL) by former Cleveland Browns head coach Paul Brown. Brown was the Bengals' head coach from their inception to . After being dismissed as the Browns' head coach by Art Modell (who had purchased majority interest in the team in ) in January , Brown had shown interest in establishing another NFL franchise in Ohio and looked at both Cincinnati and Columbus. He ultimately chose the former when a deal between the city, Hamilton County, and Major League Baseball's Cincinnati Reds (who were seeking a replacement for the obsolete Crosley Field) was struck that resulted in an agreement to build a multipurpose stadium which could host both baseball and football games. Due to the impending merger of the AFL and the NFL, which was due to take full effect in the season, Brown agreed to join the AFL as its tenth and final franchise. The Bengals, like the other former AFL teams, were assigned to the AFC following the merger. Cincinnati was also selected because, like their neighbors the Reds, they could draw from several large neighboring cities (Louisville and Lexington, Kentucky; Columbus, Dayton, and Springfield, Ohio; and Indianapolis, Indiana) that are all no more than away from downtown Cincinnati. The Bengals won the AFC championship in and , but lost Super Bowls XVI and XXIII to the San Francisco 49ers. After Paul Brown's death in 1991, controlling interest in the team was inherited by his son, Mike Brown. In 2011, Brown purchased shares of the team owned by the estate of co-founder Austin Knowlton and is now the majority owner of the Bengals franchise. The 1990s and the 2000s were a period of great struggle. The Bengals had several head coaches and several of their top draft picks did not pan out. Mike Brown, the team's ''de facto'' general manager, was rated as among the worst team owners in American professional sports. Compounding matters were off-field problems of several players, notably receiver Chris Henry, who was suspended several times during his short professional career and was actually released by the Bengals at one point, but was then re-signed for the season. Since the 2009 season, however, the team has been moving in the right direction. They traded disgruntled quarterback and former first-overall draft pick Carson Palmer to the Oakland Raiders in 2011, turning to then-rookie second-round pick Andy Dalton instead. Since then, the Bengals have won at least ten games per season, ranking highly among NFL teams in win totals. The Bengals drafts are also highly touted, leading to a consistency that had long escaped the franchise, Coach Marvin Lewis is now the second-longest tenured head coach in the NFL, behind the New England Patriots' Bill Belichick. The Bengals are one of the 13 NFL teams to not have won a Super Bowl . ==Franchise history== (詳細はCincinnati Bengals team, which played from 1937–1941. It also was a nod to Paul Brown's Massillon, Ohio, roots where he coached the high school team known as the Tigers. In 1967 an ownership group led by Paul Brown was granted a franchise in the American Football League. Brown named the team the Bengals in order "to give it a link with past professional football in Cincinnati."〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Cincinnati Bengals Team History )〕 Another Bengals team had existed in the city and played in three previous American Football Leagues〔AFL II 1937, AFL/APFA 1939, AFL III 1940–1941〕 from 1937 to 1942. The city's world-renowned zoo was also home to a rare white Bengal Tiger. However, possibly as an insult to Art Modell, or possibly as a homage to his own start as a head coach to the Massillon Tigers, Brown chose the exact shade of orange used by his former team. He added black as the secondary color. Brown chose a very simple logo: the word "BENGALS" in black lettering. One of the potential helmet designs Brown rejected was a striped motif that was similar to the helmets adopted by the team in 1981 and which is still in use to this day; however, that design featured yellow stripes on a turquoise helmet which were more uniform in width. In 1966, the American Football League agreed to a merger with its older and more established rival, the National Football League. Among the terms of the merger was that the AFL was permitted to add one additional franchise. One of the reasons the NFL agreed to this was that they wanted an even number of clubs in the merged league, so a team needed to be added that brought the combined total number clubs in the merged league to twenty-six teams. The NFL was content for that team to be in the American Football League because it meant that the existing nine AFL clubs were the ones that had to provide players in the ensuing expansion draft and the NFL owners preferred for the ensuing dilution of talent to occur in what they had always considered to be an inferior league. For the AFL, a key motive behind their agreement to accept a new team was that the guarantee of an eventual place in the NFL meant the league could charge a steep expansion fee of $10 million—400 times the $25,000 the original eight owners paid when they founded the league in 1960. The cash from the new team provided the American Football League with the funds needed to pay the indemnities required to be paid by the AFL to the NFL, as stipulated by the merger agreement. Prior to the merger being announced, Brown had not seriously considered joining the American Football League, and was not a supporter of what he openly regarded to be an inferior competition, once famously stating that "I didn't pay ten million dollars to be in the AFL."〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Paul Brown )〕 However, with the announcement of the merger, Brown realized that the AFL expansion franchise would likely be his only realistic path back into the NFL in the short to medium term. He ultimately acquiesced to joining the AFL when after learning that the team was guaranteed to become an NFL franchise after the merger was competed in 1970. There was also a complication: Major League Baseball's Cincinnati Reds were in need of a facility to replace the antiquated, obsolete Crosley Field, which they had used since 1912. Parking nightmares had plagued the city as far back as the 1950s, the little park lacked modern amenities, and New York City, which in 1957 had lost both its National League teams (the Dodgers and the Giants) to Los Angeles and San Francisco, respectively, was actively courting Reds owner Powel Crosley. However, Crosley was adamant that the Reds remain in Cincinnati and tolerated worsening problems with the Crosley Field location, which were exacerbated by the Millcreek Expressway (I-75) project that ran alongside the park. With assistance from Ohio governor James A. Rhodes, Hamilton County and the Cincinnati city council agreed to build a single multi-purpose facility on the dilapidated riverfront section of the city. The new facility had to be ready by the opening of the 1970 NFL season and was officially named Riverfront Stadium. With the completion of the merger in 1970, the Cleveland Browns were moved to the AFL-based American Football Conference and placed in the AFC Central, the same division as the Bengals. An instant rivalry was born, fueled initially by Paul Brown's rivalry with Art Modell. The teams have since met on ''Monday Night Football'' twice, the Bengals winning each time. For their first two seasons, the Bengals played at Nippert Stadium which is the current home of the University of Cincinnati Bearcats. The team held training camp at Wilmington College in Wilmington, Ohio, through the 1996 preseason. The team finished its first season with a 3–11 record. One bright spot was running back Paul Robinson, who rushed for 1,023 yards and was named the AFL Rookie of the Year. Founder Paul Brown coached the team for its first eight seasons. One of Brown's college draft strategies was to draft players with above-average intelligence. Punter/wide receiver Pat McInally attended Harvard University and linebacker Reggie Williams attended Dartmouth College and served on Cincinnati city council while on the Bengals' roster. Because of this policy, many former players were highly articulate and went on to have successful careers in commentary and broadcasting as well as the arts. In addition, Brown had a knack for locating and recognizing pro football talent in unusual places. In 1970 the Bengals moved to play at Riverfront Stadium, a home they shared with the Cincinnati Reds until the team moved to Paul Brown Stadium in 2000. The team reached the playoffs three times during that decade, but could not win any of those postseason games. In 1975, the team posted an 11–3 record, giving them what is to this day the highest winning percentage (.786) in franchise history. But it only earned them a wild card spot in the playoffs, behind the 12–2 Pittsburgh Steelers, who went on to win the Super Bowl. The Bengals lost to the Oakland Raiders 31–28 in the divisional playoffs. The Bengals reached the Super Bowl twice during the 1980s, but lost both times to the San Francisco 49ers. Then, after the team appeared in the playoffs in 1990, Paul Brown died. He had already transferred control to his son, Mike Brown, but was reported to still influence the daily operations of the team. The Bengals' fortunes changed for the worse as the team posted 14 consecutive non-winning seasons and were saddled with numerous draft busts. They began to emerge from that dismal period into a new era of increased consistency, however, after the hiring of Marvin Lewis as head coach in 2003. Carson Palmer, the future star quarterback, was drafted in 2003, but did not play a snap that whole season, as Jon Kitna had a comeback year (voted NFL Comeback Player of the Year). Despite Kitna's success, Palmer was promoted to starting quarterback the following season. Under Palmer, the team advanced to the playoffs for the first time since 1990 in the 2005 season, which also was the first time the team had a winning percentage above .500 since 1990. The Bengals returned to the playoffs again in 2009 in a season that included the franchise's first ever division sweep. This was especially impressive since two of the teams swept by the Bengals (the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Baltimore Ravens) had both made it to the AFC Championship Game the previous season. Marvin Lewis was rewarded for the accomplishment with the NFL Coach of the Year Award. In the 2010 season, the Bengals posted a 4–12 record. The next season, the Bengals improved to 9–7 and clinched a playoff spot. They lost to the Houston Texans 31–10 in the Wild Card Round. In the 2012 season, the Bengals clinched a playoff spot once more with a win over the Pittsburgh Steelers, going to the playoffs in back-to-back years for the first time since 1982. However, the Bengals faced the Texans in the first round yet again and took another early exit, losing 19–13. In the 2013 season, for the third straight year, the Bengals clinched a playoff berth and also won the AFC North, finishing with an 11-5 record. But once again, the Bengals were defeated in the wild card round, this time by the San Diego Chargers, 27-10. Most of the blame was put on Andy Dalton, who threw 2 interceptions and fumbled on a forward dive. This makes the Bengals 0-5 in playoff games since Mike Brown took over as owner. The 2014 season started well with the Bengals winning their first three contests against the Baltimore Ravens, the Atlanta Falcons, and the Tennessee Titans. However, they lost their week 5 matchup at the New England Patriots, 43-17. An overtime tie to the Carolina Panthers and shutout loss to the Indianapolis Colts followed the primetime loss to the Patriots. Finishing the season 10-5-1 as the 5th seed, they lost to the Colts 26-10 in the first round of the playoffs. This was the first time the franchise made the playoffs 4 straight seasons. In 2015, the Bengals got out to a franchise-best start, improving to 8-0 on Nov. 5 with a 31-10 win over the Cleveland Browns. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Cincinnati Bengals」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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