Enduring another dreary football season with the surname “Bengal” might be a bummer. But it could be worse.

        “I try not to tell too many people my name unless they ask,” says Mike Brown, 32, a UPS driver from White Oak. “When you say your name's Mike Brown, people roll their eyes and (say) "jeez oh petes.' ”

        Having the same name as the Bengals owner — the man many blame for the team's ills — means hearing the same jokes, over and over. After a Bengals loss, Mr. Brown says he's likely to get something along the lines of, “What the heck did you let happen this weekend?”

        Another Mike Brown, this one a 39-year-old truck driver from Melbourne, Ky., says based on what he hears, “I don't think a whole lot of people are really pleased with (the Bengals owner).”

        He catches good-natured flak from people who think the Bengals owner got a sweetheart stadium deal.

        Last year he bought a car from Marge Schott. The former Reds CEO was handing out baseball tickets and signing autographs. “She asked me and my wife our names so she could sign,” so Mr. Brown told her.

        “She gave me a kind of funny look.”

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