Professional sports increasingly has to deal with this nonsense. This year it certainly hurt the Bengals. As a Bengals fan I'm not proud of it, and the organization should be ashamed. It reflects badly on the NFL, the team, and the city.
It also is an indictment to some extent of Marvin Lewis. Cincinnati fans have been hopeful that he would bring back winning football teams, and he seemed to bring that attitude the last few years. Doubtless, Marvin would have been forgiven for some extent had they ended up 10-6. But they fell apart. They should have been one of the better teams in the AFC, and the off the field stuff had to play a part. Lewis should get a large share of the blame.
