Bengals' Mike Brown talks playoff-win drought, small market teams, Vontaze Burfict
September 29, 2016 10:48am EDTSeptember 29, 2016 10:48am EDTBengals owner Mike Brown has no problem with Vontaze Burfict but he does want to see his team snap its playoff wins drought.
Mike Brown(Getty Images)
By Alex Marvez
Updated at 10:48 a.m. ET
CINCINNATI — Mike Brown remembers when the NFL’s main office was small enough to fit into the same area as his modest work space inside Paul Brown Stadium.
In many ways, he wishes that was still the case.
Brown and his Cincinnati Bengals are part of the gradually dwindling group of family-run franchises whose roots date back to an era when the league didn’t have such a single-minded focus on expanding revenues. The proliferation of outsider billionaire owners, especially those in larger markets, and the NFL’s incessant push for profits has the 81-year-old Brown worried about what direction the league is ultimately headed and whether clubs like his Bengals can remain financially viable.
On the field, though, Cincinnati is holding its own. The Bengals are one of only four NFL teams to have reached the playoffs for at least five straight seasons. The other three — Denver, New England and Green Bay — all have won Super Bowls in that span. Cincinnati, which is off to a 1-2 start this season, is still trying to win its first playoff game since the 1990 campaign.
On the eve of Thursday night’s game against the Miami Dolphins, Brown spoke exclusively with Sporting News about the state of the NFL as well as his club both on and off the field.
Sporting News: Where do you see the 2016 Bengals heading into Week 4 of the season?
Brown: “Well, we are catching up. We aren’t where we were a year ago and we have a lot of work ahead of us. We are going to have to stay healthy. We are going to have to get a couple of guys back. [Linebacker Vontaze] Burfict will be back this week. He will start in anyway. And then, I presume, (tight end Tyler) Eifert the week after, if not this week. But it will be gradual for both of them.
“That will help when they get up to full speed. But our core people have to play better. Our new people have to come on. We just aren’t hitting on all cylinders. We have to get there quickly or it will put us in a hole we can’t dig out of.”
SN: On the positive side, you have most of the talent back from a roster that finished 12-4 in 2015.
Brown: “I think we have a solid group of guys. I think we can have a good team and good record. I think that trajectory of this team will be, as the year goes on, we will pick up speed. But there is no doubt that we didn’t start out well and that is a fact. And we have to make up for that.”
SN: What does Burfict’s return mean for your team?
Brown: “He’s a difference maker. He just makes plays. I can’t explain why he does and others don’t. But the fact is he does and he’s a terrific player for us. He is a spark for others. He makes plays in games that win games. And when you get guys that can do that, you’ve got something that makes your team better.”
IYER: Vontaze Burfict is fast, furious and misunderstood
SN: Obviously, Vontaze is coming off a three-game suspension for repeated NFL safety-rule violations. What makes you optimistic that will be a thing of the past for him?
Brown: “He has to be controlled. Some of what happened in the past looks different to different people. If you are looking at it from our perspective, it looks one way. If you’re looking at it from another team’s perspective, it can look another. We haven’t gone out publically to try to argue the case. I don’t plan to do it here.
“I would tell you that, in our eyes, a lot of what has been part of the charges against him, if you will, is suspect. We don’t see it that way. There may be some things that are a little bit farther out than they should be but I could talk about each and every one of them and tell you, well, what about this or are you sure about that. We don’t see it quite like you’re saying.”
SN: You’ve also seen Burfict grow from the time you signed him as a rookie free agent despite off-field trouble in college.
Brown: “Oh, it’s an odd story that he is here. I credit Marvin (Lewis, Bengals head coach) for bringing him on. He is an oddly talented player. If you were at the Combine his year (in 2012), he was a joke. He couldn’t run. He didn’t participate. And yet Marvin somehow got to know him out in Arizona, where Marvin’s daughter lives and Marvin spends some time.
“You put him on a football field and all this stuff about running fast and jumping high, maybe he doesn’t do that but he sure as heck plays well and things happen. And that’s what you want.”
SN: Tyler Eifert is out because of an ankle injury he suffered in the Pro Bowl. What do you think the future of the game is considering the criticism of its quality and the injury risk to players who participate like Eifert?
Brown: “The league stays with it for different reasons. There are different reasons to stay with it. It is something that appeals to players on different levels. It is an achievement if you get selected. It can mean financial rewards if you get selected both in performance bonuses and future contract amounts. It’s prestige in their eyes. Going there, especially when it was in Hawaii, was something they liked. It was fun for them. Whether that will be as true when it is here in the (continental U.S.), we will see. One time it was here and they didn’t respond as enthusiastically and that is part of how we got to Hawaii (in 1980); that was the motive.
“But the questions that are on the other side of the equation are of injuries. We suffered one with Eifert that has impacted our team, no question about it. And then there’s the game itself. They don’t play football. They play whatever you want to call it and it’s played in spurts of effort and physicality. It is not the norm that we are accustomed to when we watch a regular-season game. So, do I think there are things that make me wonder? Yes, and I don’t know that it matters what I think because there is nothing in front of us at the moment that is going to change what is going on.”
SN: What are the challenges of preparing to play the Bengals’ first international game next month in London?
Brown: “Well, they are quite eye-opening if you haven’t done it before and this will be our first trip over there. But we have people that work very hard to get there pieces together and the league provides people that help. It is a combination of all of their efforts. It is pretty challenging. It is different than flying to San Francisco to play a game. Yet when you get there, it’s going to be a football game just as it would be if you flew to San Francisco. That’s what’s important in the end.”
MORE: Will the Bengals ever prove themselves as true AFC contenders?
SN: What are your thoughts on the NFL’s push for international expansion?
Brown: “The league has made efforts to show our wares, if you will, in Europe and we do it through actually games (and) television. It seems to be having a slow but gradual impact. Certainly when the teams go over to England, the crowds show up. People watch our games on TV. We have fans, believe it or not, that come to our games from England. Why? Well, they saw the game in some way somewhere and got interested in it so they become fans of the Bengals. That is quite amazing.
“I find it very interesting as to where it will go. I don’t have a clear crystal ball about all of that. I do know that the efforts are to build our presence in Europe and mainly, right now, England. I think that we are going to, in some ways, increase our presence over there. Just how fast, well, it seems to be faster than I initially would have thought so we’ll see.
SN: On the outside, it seems the league is relatively calm as far as big-picture issues now that the Los Angeles market was settled with the Rams. What are the biggest issues facing the NFL for the immediate future?
Brown: “I think below the surface there are always things that are contentious in one form or another. We are 32 teams. Some are in large markets and some are promotionally inclined. Some of us are in small markets. Maybe some of us are less focused on promotion or development or whatever you want to call it. We are just looking at football. That’s what we know. That’s what we think we do and that’s where we want to put our efforts. You have different ways of going about it and those can conflict in different ways.
“I don’t know that this is front-burner stuff publically. But some of it is pretty important stuff behind the scenes and you have problems that have to be worked on, like the concussion issues. … It hasn’t been fully worked through. That’s an important issue that needs to be fully understood at some point, and then there are probably things that will have to happen to get it fully understood. Who knows what after that.”
SN: Paul Brown Stadium is one of the last NFL facilities whose naming rights haven’t been sold now that the Buffalo Bills reached an agreement with New Era. What are your thoughts on that and is there any chance the Bengals will be selling naming rights for your stadium?
Brown: “That gets back to what we were talking about just a minute ago. Is the focus on maximizing income or is the focus on just the traditions that go with running a football team? Let’s face it, the train has left the station and we are still standing next to the tracks. It may be unfortunate, in my eyes, but we are where we are in the National Football League these days. It will compel us to try to keep up (financially), try to adjust if we can.
“We don’t have a ready opportunity to do things that the large-market teams can do. They just aren’t available to us or they are available to us at such a level that it scarcely matters to make the effort. That gets back to what you asked when you first started this discussion, which is, well, there doesn’t seem to be much going on (among NFL owners). Yes, there is much going on. It just isn’t out front.”
SN: The Bengals currently don’t have a Ring of Honor or the like to honor former players. What is the status of potentially adding something in the future?
Brown: “It’s an oddly complicated issue. We honor our old Pro Bowl players. We put up large permanent posters of them in the building and that has been our way of doing this. I was at a stadium recently and I looked around at the Ring of Honor players they have and I would tell you that these are guys that played 30, 40, 50 years ago. People don’t know who the hell they are. These things have a shelf life and I wonder whether there isn’t a better way to recognize old contributing players.
“We are going to try to do it by focusing on the Pro Bowl players (and) putting something on our website. We’re pressed to have the space to do it out in the stadium itself. So, we will do it our way and we hope that the old players and the fans understand that it is a bona fide effort to recognize these people that played here and made the team what it is today.”
SN: Finally, you’ve pretty much spent your entire adult life in football. Are you still having fun and how long do you want to keep running the team?
Brown: “It’s what I know. When I wake up in the morning, this is where I go and it’s what I do. People will say you are too old and to stop. Well, I would rather not. Now, do you define that as enjoyment or do you define that as happiness (or) fun? I don’t know how you define it, but it gives me satisfaction. I am grateful for being able to do it still and I treasure the fact that I still have the opportunity.”
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