Cincinnati Bengals team president Mike Brown won’t be at his team’s game for the first time since 1991 this Thursday when they play on Thursday night against the Cleveland Browns.
Brown has attended 824 consecutive Bengals games, including the preseason and postseason. He’s attended games all over the country and even in London.
But Thursday’s game, roughly three hours or so up the road, takes place during a pandemic, and the 85-year-old Brown has been advised to stay home, according to Geoff Hobson of Bengals.com.
“I’m the age I am and I check all the boxes, and I’m told it’s foolish to do it,” Brown said. “It comes down to a decision and maybe it’s time to start doing stuff like this. I’m just at the age I have to go about life a little differently.”
Not that he doesn’t see the humor in it being the Browns, of all teams.
“It was going to be somebody,” Brown said. “The fact it’s Cleveland and on a Thursday night is all sort of ironic and not normal.”
This will be the second Bengals game Brown has ever missed. The other came in 1991 as he spent time with his dying father — the man he helped start the organization with in the late 1960s after leaving the team up north.
- 4 keys to a Bengals victory over the Browns in Week 2
- NFL players sure noticed Joe Burrow’s late-game drive and pro potential
[vertical-gallery id=37507]