By Mark Curnutte
The Cincinnati Enquirer

The Sept. 7 opener is more than four months away, but the Bengals threw a thinly veiled pep rally Thursday at Paul Brown Stadium.

NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue came to town Thursday to give a pat on the back to Bengals coach Marvin Lewis. (Jeff Swinger photo) | ZOOM |

Dozens of corporate elite from the Cincinnati Business Committee, a dozen Bengals players, the coaching staff and team owners gathered at Paul Brown Stadium to hear NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue praise the organization for the progress it has made under new coach Marvin Lewis.

Tagliabue called such a visit in the spring unusual but said he came to Cincinnati to show support for the Bengals, Lewis and team owner Mike Brown.

"This is a sign of how important we all feel this is and how significant the change is," Tagliabue said after the two-hour lunch program.

The only things missing were the marching band and cheerleaders.

Brown opened the program by quoting from the movie Patton.

"Patton said: 'All America loves a winner. It will not tolerate a loser,' " Brown said. "Well, Cincinnati is a very American city."

Lewis, hired Jan. 14 as the league's third African-American coach, has overseen a makeover of how the Bengals do business. They spent aggressively and wisely in free agency and signed the first overall draft pick, quarterback Carson Palmer, two days before a draft that has been hailed as one of the NFL's two best.

Lewis was hired, Brown said, "to get our ox out of the ditch. He is a catalyst for change."

The pressure is squarely on Lewis, but both he and Tagliabue went out of their way to praise Brown. Since the death of his father, Paul Brown, Mike Brown has presided over a stretch of 12 consecutive seasons without a postseason berth and a composite 55-137 record.

"Our owner has been beat up a lot, around different things," Lewis said from the podium. "But there's no way a person or family can change as much in three months as we're doing now. This isn't about me. It's about all of us, and Mike's vision about where he wants his football team to get.

"He's giving us everything we need to get there. So it's about us getting it done."

In an interview, Tagliabue said national reports that he forced changes upon Brown last season - which ended in a franchise-worst 2-14 record - were false.

"I know our owners well enough to know they have a competitive fire within them," Tagliabue said. "I know Mike has that competitive fire. You can't dictate from the top what an owner is going to do. You have to let them work it through in their own minds, and that's what Mike did.

"I think he deserves a lot of credit for the commitment he has made to the team, to the community, through Coach Lewis and other ways."

Lewis is a rookie head coach but was a Super Bowl-winning defensive coordinator for Baltimore in 2000 and reconstructed Washington's defense into a top-five finish in a single season last year.

The eyes of Cincinnati, and of the NFL, are on him.

Lewis recalled in an interview a conversation he had with former Steelers coach Chuck Noll on a golf course.

"Chuck told me once, pressure is when you don't think you can make that putt," Lewis said. "Pressure is when people know they can't do something.

"We can do everything we've set out to do, and that is to be a team that wins more games than it loses and has the opportunity to go to the playoffs and go forward and win a championship. Those are what our goals are. We can't be afraid to strive to be great."

Earlier, Lewis had closed his speech with this rally cry to business leaders - who also are some of the Bengals' major financial supporters.

"I know that when you look up at us in the fall, you'll be proud that we're representing your city," said Lewis, earning a standing ovation from some audience members.

The event celebrated everything good about the Bengals. The CBC presented Anthony Munoz with a $12,500 check, a donation matched by the NFL, for use in his foundation's summer football academy. Munoz is the only Bengals player in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

The Bengals and the Castellini Foundation each presented $2,500 checks to two Tristate high school football coaches - Taft's Mike Martin and Anderson's Vince Suriano - as the first winners of the Paul Brown Award for Excellence in Coaching and Leadership.

The Bengals open a second voluntary minicamp today at the stadium, and Lewis has instituted what he says will be an annual Bengals alumni dinner on Saturday night. More than 50 former Bengals players are expected to attend.

Lewis wants his current players to connect with the franchise's successful past - primarily the decade of the 1980s, when the Bengals played in two Super Bowls.

Lewis also prodded his players in attendance at the luncheon to get Tagliabue back to Cincinnati.

In his remarks, the commissioner said he hoped to see the Bengals play at home later this season.

"The commissioner has challenged us, guys," Lewis said. "He only goes to (see) teams that are playing well at the end of the year. We want him to be a regular in the city of Cincinnati."

Tagliabue acknowledged the steady support of business leaders and Bengals fans.

"In recent years, we have had more than two dozen teams selling out and competitive, and last year we had a record number of teams competing for playoff spots in the last week of the season," Tagliabue said.

"Obviously, the disappointment here in the community has been for a number of years is that the Bengals have not been in that category. I think that promises to be reversed now. That is important for the league. We want everybody to be in that cycle of success that rewards the fans for their steadfastness."

E-mail mcurnutte@enquirer.com