For the first time franchise history, Bengals owner Mike Brown is going to miss a game. The team has existed since 1968 and over the past 52 years, Brown has attended every single regular season and postseason game that the Bengals have played in. However, that streak will be coming to an end on Thursday night when his team travels to Cleveland to take on the Browns.
Brown revealed that the streak would be ending during an interview with the Bengals official website this week.
"Wrenching," Brown said of the streak ending. "I miss not going. I want to go."
The streak is ending due to the pandemic. At 85 years old, Brown didn't feel like it was safe for him to travel.
"I'm the age I am and I check all the boxes and I'm told it's foolish to do it," Brown said of traveling during the pandemic. "It comes down to a decision and maybe it's time to start doing stuff like this. I'm just at the age I have to go about life a little differently."
Brown's attendance streak started all the way back in 1968 when the expansion Bengals played their first game ever, which took place in San Diego against the Chargers. Since then, Brown has attended 824 games, including two Super Bowls. Brown's streak is even more impressive when you include that fact that he's attended every single preseason game the team has ever played, except for one.
The only game that Brown has missed in the history of the franchise came in August 1991 when he stayed at home to be with his ailing father, Paul Brown, while the team played its opening preseason game in Detroit. Paul Brown, an NFL icon, is the man who founded both the Bengals and Browns franchises, which makes it kind of fitting that Mike Brown's streak will be coming to an end at a game that involves both teams.
"It was going to be somebody," Brown said. "The fact it's Cleveland and on a Thursday night is all sort of ironic and not normal."
Mike Brown has been the Bengals owner since his dad passed away on Aug. 5, 1991.
The game on Thursday will mark the first time the Bengals have played a primetime game in Cleveland since October 1990, when Cincinnati came away with a 34-13 win on "Monday Night Football." That also happens to be the last season where the Bengals won a playoff game.
