Did the Bengals Claw Taxpayers?

摘要

If the dallas cowboys are America's Team, the Bengals are Cincinnati's Torment. This year's 0-3 start prolongs the misery for Bengals fans, who last season endured a franchise-worst 2-14 record. Even the good old days were lousy: In the '90s, the Bengals had the worst record in pro football. The only victory the team has had this season came in a courtroom. On Sept. 5, a judge in Hamilton County dismissed a lawsuit alleging, among other things, that the Bengals committed fraud in duping county taxpayers into footing the bill for three-year-old Paul Brown Stadium. The suit claimed that the franchise compounded its deceit when management failed to make minimal efforts to field a competitive team. "People here are beginning to differentiate between rooting for the players and feeling used by management," says Todd Portune, the Hamilton County commissioner who filed the suit as an individual taxpayer.