The Miserly Bengals

I can confirm that the Cincinnati Bengals give the families and friends of opposing players horrible seats. One year when I was in grad school at Ohio and my friend Ethan Brooks was still playing for the Atlanta Falcons early in his NFL career I went to see him play against the Bengals in Cinci. He had gotten me a ticket from the player allotment and those tickets were horrible. But I was surrounded by families and friends and girlfriends and wives of other Falcons players way up in nosebleed land.

Now, I suppose there is logic to not wanting to give choice seats to what amounts to opposing fans. But the numbers we are talking about are relatively small -- there were not two dozen of us there with Falcons ducats on that drizzly day in Cincinnati -- and it would seem to me to be simply a courtesy to give the players decent tickets to the game in which they are playing. Then again, the Bengals are run by legendary cheapskates, so I guess no one should be surprised that they'd nickel-and-dime any time they get the opportunity.