A heartbreaking Wild Card loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers saw the media and fans labelling the Cincinnati Bengals as “a bunch of thugs,” “classless” and many other negative names, but embracing the villain role could be good for Cincinnati.
Vontaze Burfict and Adam Jones were the center of an anti-Bengals media firestorm, which has reignited opinions that the Bengals are classless, that Marvin Lewis has no control over his team and that Cincinnati takes chances on players who don’t deserve a chance at all.
In all actuality, however, most NFL teams employ hothead players who can give their team a spark.