Friday, April 02, 1999No prime time for Bengals
Brown: No respect 'until we do better'
BY GEOFF HOBSON
The Cincinnati EnquirerThe Bengals found out just how low they are in the eyes of the NFL Thursday when the league released its 1999 schedule with:
• Cincinnati and other last-place teams shut out of national television games in prime time.
• The Bengals not getting a bye until Week 15, late in the season when the NFL doesn't want to give contenders an advantage with a week off.
• No home games for the Bengals in the last three weeks.
• The Bengals finishing on the road Jan. 2 against the powerful Jaguars.
“They must think Jacksonville is going to be in the catbird seat by then and we'll be there for the weather,” said Bengals President Mike Brown.
“The message they have for us is we're not going to get the normal respect until we do better. I'm not in position to complain about it. As a whole, it's a fair schedule.”
Since 1990, when the league expanded its Sunday night package, each team has had at least one prime-time slot. But it's a different world.
“Prime time is more competitive and more fragmented,” said NFL spokesman Greg Aiello. “In an effort to improve prime-time ratings, last-place teams were excluded.”
Bengals coach Bruce Coslet didn't take the schedule personally.
“After years of griping our bye week was too early, I'm not going to say anything,” said Coslet of playing 14 straight games. “I look at it game-by-game. I'm only looking at (the opener Sept. 12 at) Tennessee, a team that kicked our butt twice last year.”
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