Culture change: How Marvin Lewis turned the Bungles back into the Bengals
CINCINNATI – Following a disastrous four-win season in 2010, many Cincinnati Bengals fans wanted owner Mike Brown to fire coach Marvin Lewis. Nothing personal, Lewis is a terrific guy, but after eight seasons, you can't go 4-12, let alone when you're 60-67 overall. The trend line was obvious.
At the same time, plenty of Marvin Lewis' friends in football were calling him and telling him he needed to get out of Cincinnati. The franchise was lousy – too many bad apples on the roster, too much terrible history for it to be a coincidence. The script was written. He'd get another chance to do it right somewhere else.
Owner and coach had a meeting. They decided rather than separate, they'd reunite and apply the lessons they've learned in creating a losing team. And together, they'd change. Everything.
"I believed in him and he believed in me that we could get this right, " Lewis said. "I restarted here. A lot of coaches have to move. I was basically able to start again here, [to] restart in the same spot. "
He didn't waste the opportunity, cleaning house that offseason, empowering a core group of character guys and riding the unexpected positive effects of the NFL lockout that offseason to rewire the entire franchise.
"The lockout was the best thing, " Lewis said. "The lockout took this franchise back out of the muck. It was like an exorcism. It was really good. "
On Wednesday, Lewis sat in a Paul Brown Stadium meeting room with HBO "Hard Knocks" cameras installed all over the place, the most tangible sign that this is one of the most anticipated seasons in team history.
The locker room down the hall isn't just deep with talent, but the kind of team-first, mentally strong players Lewis vowed to ride or die with. Gone are the days of the police-blotter Bengals, let alone a bunch of me-first talents. Two consecutive playoff seasons (albeit without a victory) have everyone talking about breaking through and making a January run.
And Lewis swears this is different than past times (after 2005 and 2009) when expectations got high.
He has a team that is willing to trade individual "recognition for the ability to win a championship, " he said. "That's what's most important. It's different than if you have a group of guys [who] have a limited amount of success and then they have personal recognition and they think it's all about them and they want to write books and beat their chest. "
There is no Ochocinco here. No T. O. No Chris Henry or Odell Thurman or almost anyone else who may fit the above description or worse. Pacman Jones is here, but Lewis says, "Adam begged for an opportunity and for the most part, he’s made good on it. Adam has really turned the corner. " There is also a smarter, more surefooted coach with a different philosophy on building a roster and running a team.
"Things that we knew were true were proven in 2010 to be true, " Lewis said. "If you do those things, you're going to get your butt whipped. And if you do these other things, you're gong to be successful. Unfortunately, we had to live the 2010 season to really get that imprinted on our foreheads. "
He said he sat down immediately and began plotting out the revolution. Who would be in and who would be out. The Bengals have been drafting very good talent for years, now it would focus on character also. No more reaching for talent, Lewis said. He volunteered to coach the Senior Bowl that year to help get to know the prospects as people.
He absolutely had to have guys he could count on. This from a team that not only drafted the late Chris Henry, but re-signed him even after a slew of arrests.
"I don't think Chris Henry, we would pick today, " Lewis said. "See, Chris had social issues [at the time of the draft but] he hadn't really gotten into legal issues. Chris would have a harder time today just because we would be more sketchy on if he could handle the day to day of being a good teammate.
"I think there was always a feeling that boys will be boys, " Lewis continued. "There are some boys that just can't get over being boys. And unfortunately, the organization had to learn that. "
The new theory led to the Bengals pruning themselves of anyone they deemed a potential distraction, such as running back Cedric Benson in 2011 even after three consecutive 1, 000-yard seasons.
"Ced's not a bad guy, " Lewis said. "He texted me last year [and asked] 'when did you make the decision I couldn't do that for you anymore, run for 1, 300 yards. '
"And I said, 'Ced, it's not that i didn't think you could do that on the football field, it was the other [expletive] that i got tired of. When i would go to you and say we're going to rotate the backs [and Benson would take it poorly]. I don't need that anymore. ' Those are the things they don't get. It could be something as simple as that. But you just get tired of it. Then they put the pout on. I don't need that [expletive]. "
Lewis said he doesn't have the time or patience for unnecessary aggravation. The job is demanding enough. During the lockout, he realized there was life outside of football. He took up golf. He now belongs to two country clubs. On the grind of trying to manage a franchise, he's a bit more philosophical. He's not going to sweat everything.
"[Expletive] happens every day. "
Lewis points to a turning point for everything. It came after the second preseason game of the 2011 season. Quarterback Carson Palmer was holding out, leaving the team in the hands of rookie Andy Dalton. The offense was terrible. Dalton didn't look ready for primetime after a 27-7 loss to the New york Jets.