By Reid Forgrave
The Cincinnati Enquirer

When he plays pickup football at recess now, 11-year-old Alex Exum is Bengals wide receiver Chad Johnson. In lunch line at Sacred Heart School in Fairfield, he yells "Who Dey!" and everyone yells back in response.

Bill Donabedian, a longtime season-ticket holder, has rooted for the Bengals since the 1970s. But this year, he feels like a born-again, brand-new fan.

Winning, he says, makes you "almost forget about all the bad seasons."

As the Bengals face perhaps their biggest game at Baltimore today, with first place in the AFC North on the line and playoff hopes very much alive, diehard fans are feeling rejuvenated and vindicated - and new fans are buying orange-and-black garb and climbing aboard.

Bengals jerseys are hot items - stores are having trouble keeping Chad Johnson's in stock - and people are planning their Sundays around their games. Some even traveled to Baltimore for today's game.

Bill Castellini of Harrison bought a new shirt from the Bengals' Pro Shop for his trip to Baltimore. His Bengals shirt says: "One Heartbeat." He planned to stop by the team hotel "to show my support and hopefully get to meet and talk with some of the team and coaches."

At the Lookout Bowl in Fort Wright, Ky., long-time fans and friends will gather today to root on the Bengals.

"We turn on the two TVs in the lounge, everyone brings some food, and we have a cut-rate price on their drinks," said owner Bill McClure, a season-ticket holder. "Anyone can come in. It's fun if they win."

They decided to stay home this weekend, but he and friends went to Pittsburgh for last week's Bengal victory, tailgating on a table brought from the lounge.

This Bengal fever is a brand-new experience for Everett Johnson, a senior tailback for Colerain High School's football team.

"All my life you would go to Bengals games and there just weren't many people there," he says. "Colerain High School football games used to be a lot more exciting than Bengal games. But not anymore.

"Seeing this for the first time, it's just unbelievable."

In mid-November, Chad Johnson and linebacker Adrian Ross visited Colerain High to speak. Word spread quickly, and kids tried to get out of class to see them.

"There was never as much excitement and buzz in this building than there was that day," says Colerain football coach Kerry Coombs. "These kids have never seen it and don't know what it's like."

Bengal stripes are cool again, or for some, cool for the first time.

Greater Cincinnati has glowed recent Mondays. Bengals gear is on holiday shopping lists. Water cooler talk is about the playoffs instead of next year's top draft pick.

Tickets for late-season Bengals games, given away just last year, are tough to come by. Sports talk shows are filled with folks dissecting the latest victory or making projections for next Sunday.

"My son is only 10, so this is the first team he's seen that wins. This is heaven for him," says Butch Daniels of Groesbeck, who has taken his son, Nick, to Bengals home games since Nick was 2.

Keeping the faith

At St. Ignatius Loyola Church in Monfort Heights, the Bengals often appear in the Rev. Tom Bolte's homilies. He relates the team to Scriptures about overcoming adversity.

In the most recent church bulletin, Bolte wrote, "Joy, joy, joy! Being a huge Bengals fan, it's hard to believe they've won three games in a row and are in first place. ... Hopefully, everyone will use Advent to grow in faith and one day reach the Super Bowl of Heaven."

Bolte says he got through the tough times as a Bengal fan by having hope.

"When the team's not doing well, you have to buy into that faith element," he says. "You have to persevere through the hard times."

On the drive to work, listeners of the Two Angry Guys sports talk show on 1360 AM are flooding the lines with Bengals babble.

"I can't tell you how enjoyable it is in December to talk about games that really matter," says Tom Gamble, an Angry Guy. "That's what a professional sports team can do - literally galvanize a community," he says. "It's hard for me to be an angry guy on Monday morning when the Bengals are playing they way they are."

Bengals fans accustomed to being laughed at are puffing out their chests and don't have to wince when they hear their hometown mentioned on sports TV shows.

"The coolest feeling is turning on Sports Center and not have them laughing at your town," says Daniel Abromowitz, 21, of Clifton. "And when you see people you know on the street, you always got the Bengals in common."

At away games, unlike last year, the club lounge at Paul Brown Stadium is packed with fans watching the game on television.

Long-time fans say they don't mind the bandwagon fans - it's nice to have a wagon that people want to jump on.

"It's almost like you're watching the game with a bunch of friends," says Alex Exum, the Sacred Heart fifth-grader. "60,000 of them."

Bengal Buzz

• Steve Exum of Fairfield, season-ticket holder who brings his 11-year-old son, Alex, to games: "For years, I've had to explain to my son, when the Bengals are getting their brains beat in in every game, at least we have an NFL team in town. To me that's always the biggest deal. Towns like Columbus have to envy us for that."

• Jim Bonaminio, owner of Jungle Jim's Market in Fairfield and long-time fan: "The Bungles are the Super Bowl Bengals now. Who wants to be a loser? You want to sit and watch the game, but last year you knew the outcome before the game. It's great to have some positive stuff for the city. This city needs this."

• Bill Donabedian, season-ticket holder, president of the Mid-Point Music Festival and a Convergys employee: "When you have a sports team and they do well, it really brings the city together. This city has taken its lumps lately. This city has some heroes now, and this team has a few stars with Marvin Lewis and Jon Kitna. Marvin has shown this city that nothing is impossible."

• Kerry Coombs, Colerain High School football coach: "Kids like the fact that (Chad Johnson) guaranteed a win. Kids like stuff like him saying he's always open like 7-11 (or Waffle House). They like that brash, cocky attitude."

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Reporter Anna Michael contributed. E-mail rforgrave@enquirer.com

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