If you didn’t know, the Bengals and Raiders met in the playoffs many years back — 1991 to be exact — when the Raiders were still a Los Angeles product. The Raiders won the game 20-10 but suffered a monumental loss within the course of victory. Of course, I’m referring to Los Angeles losing superstar running back Bo Jackson to a hip injury during the third quarter of that playoff game, which wound up ending his football career entirely.
The Bengals had yet to win a playoff game since that 1991 postseason when they defeated the Houston Oilers before meeting with the Raiders. And the belief behind their string of incredibly poor luck since then is often credited to their role in Jackson’s career-ending injury. Many deemed it the “Curse of Bo Jackson.”
In 1991, #Bengals LB Kevin Walker tackled #Raiders RB Bo Jackson in the Divisional Round of the AFC playoffs, dislocating Jackson’s hip and ending his NFL career. The Bengals haven’t won a playoff game since. And so… these fans just held a Reverse the Curse ceremony outside PBS pic.twitter.com/3L4We9bTrF
— Aditi Kinkhabwala (@AKinkhabwala) January 14, 2022
Whether you believe in the curse or not, is up to you. But the unluckiness that followed that mid-January day in ’91 is unimaginable — 31 years, eight playoff losses, and no playoff wins, including some truly gut-wrenching defeats.
Thirty-one years later, the Raiders, now of Las Vegas, and Bengals took center stage for another mid-January playoff game. As fate would have it, a playoff rematch turned out to be the perfect remedy for breaking a curse.
In front of a record crowd of 66,277 people at Paul Brown Stadium in Cincinnati, the Bengals finally exercised some playoff demons. They handed the Raiders a 26-19 loss on the strength of Joe Burrow’s arm, lifting the 31-year curse and delighting Bengals fans across the country.
FOR THE CITY! We're not done. pic.twitter.com/VD6NKjmkYL
— Cincinnati Bengals (@Bengals) January 16, 2022
Cincinnati will know its next opponent at the conclusion of Sunday’s second day of Super Wild Card Weekend, with the result of Steelers-Chiefs being the decider.
The Bengals currently have +1200 odds at Tipico Sportsbook to win this season’s Super Bowl.
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