That’s because all of them went right to the Pro Bowl after losing Super Bowl XVI and XXIII and missed the welcome back rally at Fountain Square. But Montoya, a local restaurant owner, is looking for a win this time.
“The great thing is that people are wearing their Bengals stuff. All the time,” Montoya said. “I’ve got a guy who works for me who said he’s not going to wash them and I told him, ‘You know we are in the food business.
“Holy mackerel. The Burrow factor. It’s incredible how they keep winning. In ’81 and ’88 we had good teams all year. But these guys, they just keep coming from behind and winning. It’s incredible.”
And fun to watch. Willie Anderson, the club’s all-time right tackle who is up for the Pro Football Hall of Fame in voting to be announced Thursday, was asked on stage what the Bengals have to do to bring back the Lombardi Trophy.
“Play Bengals football,” Anderson said. “Let me tell you something about this offensive line. They can run the ball. They did it in overtime last week and they can play physical. If they play Bengal football and run it, they’ll win it.”
Tim Krumrie, the old nose guard considered the greatest defensive tackle to ever play for Cincinnati, was also on the stage. When the legends vacated for the coaches and players, senior defensive assistant coach Mark Duffner, who was Krumrie’s defensive coordinator when they worked for the Bengals at the turn of the century, hugged him.
Krumrie is a poignant reminder of one of the saddest moments in Super Bowl history. As the greatest nose tackle in the game, he suffered a gruesome nationally-televised broken leg in the first half of Super Bowl XXIII that was thought to be career ending. But he drank a beer in the locker room until they dragged him to the hospital in the second half and he never missed a game in the last six years of his career, cementing his iconic cowboy legend.
