John Sawyer, a Bengals team vice president who has been with the franchise since its founding, died today at the age of 90.
Sawyer worked with Hall of Fame coach Paul Brown in the 1960s to get a pro football franchise for Cincinnati, and Brown’s son, Bengals owner Mike Brown, says that without Sawyer’s efforts the Bengals never would have been born.
“I think it’s fair to say it probably wouldn’t have come off,” Brown said. “He was instrumental in bringing an NFL franchise to Cincinnati. He was a key person who worked behind the scenes and was always very supportive of what we were doing.