When was the last time the city of Cincinnati had stars at the level of Joe Burrow, Ja’Marr Chase, Tee Higgins, and Elly De La Cruz—all at the same time?
And I’m not talking about just local heroes. These are players who could go to any other city in America and still be massive stars.
The Big Red Machine? Absolutely legendary.
The Boomer Esiason era with a couple of Super Bowl appearances? Great memories.
But this?
This is different.
We are living in a rare era where both the Bengals and Reds have household names, players that the entire sports world recognizes, and all of them are here right now. Yet the people in charge—the ownership groups—are squandering it.
A Once-in-a-Lifetime Window
I’m almost 30 years old. And I’m coming to terms with something that’s hard to admit—this is probably the best opportunity I will ever see in my lifetime for the Bengals to win a Super Bowl or the Reds to win a World Series.
But instead of doing everything possible to seize the moment, ownership in both organizations seems content to let these golden years pass by.
Look at the Bengals—this offseason they enter the year with a defense that looks to have the exact same issues it did a year ago. They still don’t have Trey Hendrickson signed to a new deal, and it’s unclear if a deal is arriving anytime soon. For a team that’s been knocking on the door of a championship, that’s unacceptable.
Then there’s the Reds. We’ve known for years this offense has major deficiencies—low power, inconsistent run production—and yet, offseason after offseason, they do very little to address it. The bats go cold, the runs dry up, and the story never changes.
Example A: They scatter 7 hits on Paul Skenes and the Pirates but have next to no run production to get anything going or to even pose a threat.
Acting Like Stars Don’t Matter
These are not average players in average markets. These are marketing goldmines, the kind of stars that sell tickets, jerseys, and bring in national attention. In most cities, front offices would be operating like their hair is on fire—spending, trading, making aggressive moves to maximize the championship window.
But here? It feels like ownership operates with a shrug. As if postseason success is optional, not essential.
Cincinnati Deserves More
I’ve never lived in Cincinnati, but I’ve been a Cincinnati sports fan my entire life. And I can say without hesitation: the people of this city deserve so much more than what they’re getting from these owners.
We’re not just talking about wins and losses—we’re talking about an entire fanbase being robbed of what could be one of the greatest eras in Cincinnati sports history.
And if nothing changes, decades from now we’ll all look back and say the same thing:
They wasted it.
“We’ll spend the rest of our lives telling people about the stars we had in Cincinnati… and how ownership wasted them.”
