But then, how many Cincinnati Bengals fans are there in Quebec?
Posted at 9:00 a.m.
At the end of the line, there is a silence. Stéphane Gonzalez, our interlocutor on this short weekday, is having a hard time answering this question. For the sake of our research, he directs us to a Facebook group where, he says, many Quebec Cincinnati Bengals fans gather to discuss their team.
We finally find the group in question. Total number of subscribers: five.
This is nothing new for Stéphane Gonzalez, who is used to being the only one in his tiger tribe. The host of sports powerhouse on 91.9 Sports in Montreal is a long-time Bengals fan, but in Quebec, being a fan of this team is a bit like playing the Rubik’s cube: it’s done alone.
“Do I know any other Bengals fans here? Apart from Brendan Gallagher, no, he replies laughing on the phone. I do not know why… ”
We can probably attempt a beginning of an answer.
Like the Rubik’s cube, the Bengals’ heyday dates back to the 1980s, when the club used that magical decade to reach the Super Bowl game twice, losing twice to the San Francisco 49ers.
Since then, it’s been a succession of bad decisions, questionable characters (Vontaze Burfict, anyone?) and seasons with defeats, many defeats. This has not prevented a few rare supporters from clinging to this team over time, even in Quebec.
PHOTO PROVIDED BY 91.9 SPORTS
Stéphane Gonzalez, host at 91.9 Sports in Montreal, is a longtime Cincinnati Bengals fan.
“On Sundays, I used to go watch NFL games at my cousins’ house, who took for the Rams [de St. Louis], adds González. Once, there was a Bengals game on TV, and I noticed that their quarterback was left-handed, like me! So, thanks to Boomer Esiason, I started taking for them… At the time, it was very difficult to get clothes in the colors of the Bengals, and I had managed to find a black Starter coat and a cap at Carrefour Angrignon. I think it was the best day of my life. »
But the Esiason effect was short-lived, and in 1990s Quebec, oval ball fans were primarily obsessed with geographically friendlier clubs – the Buffalo Bills, the Nova Scotia Patriots. England – while the Bengals did nothing to win new fans.
Case in point: quarterback Ken Anderson, the team’s all-time leading passing yardage leader, played his last game in… 1986.
“I don’t know how many first-round picks they wasted,” said with a sigh Mark Dickey, host of the Énergie channel in Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean, also a loyal Bengals fan. It didn’t stop, and there, finally, there was Joe Burrow! »
Over here in Saguenay, my friends who are NFL fans are Bills and Patriots fans. I’m all alone. It is sure that, from a geographical point of view, you have no reason to take for the Bengals…
Mark Dickey
But it wasn’t geography that stopped Mark Dickey from hopping in his car and going to see his Bengals in person, “at least nine times,” by his own estimate. “I’ll tell you, Arvida-Cincinnati drive, it’s a cr…de ride ! It’s two days. I am now that I know the route by heart. »
Maybe in the future, Mark Dickey won’t be the only one with a Quebec plate en route to Ohio; on Twitter, the @BengalsQc account may not be huge (484 followers as of this writing), but at least it’s growing.
“I imagine that there are new fans who want to jump on the train, answers Jean-Philippe Rioux, from Quebec, who takes care of the account. With the start of the series, we gain subscribers. It’s new because before that, being a fan of the Bengals in Quebec, it aroused some mockery… ”
But no one is laughing anymore.
