The Cincinnati Bengals are a professional American football team based in Cincinnati, Ohio.

They are currently members of the North Division of the American Football Conference (AFC) in the National Football League (NFL).

Their first season, 1968, was as an American Football League franchise, but they joined the NFL as part of the 1970 AFL-NFL Merger, which had actually been agreed to in 1966.

The Bengals currently conduct summer training camp at Georgetown College in Georgetown, Kentucky and play home games at Paul Brown Stadium in Downtown Cincinnati.

Ironically, one of the potential helmet designs Brown rejected was a striped motif that was similar to the helmets adopted by the team in 1981 and which is still in use to this day; however, that design featured orange stripes on a black helmet which were more uniform in width.

The Bengals joined the AFL when they were guaranteed that the team would become an NFL franchise after the impending merger of the two leagues.

There was also a complication: the Major League Baseball Cincinnati Reds were in need of a facility to replace the antiquated, obsolete Crosley Field, which they had used since 1912.

In 1975, the team posted an 11-3 record, giving them what is to this day the highest winning percentage (.786) in franchise history.

But it only earned them a Wild Card spot in the playoffs, behind the 12-2 Pittsburgh Steelers, who went on to win the Super Bowl, and Cincinnati Bengals lost to the Oakland Raiders 31-28 in the divisional playoffs.

1986 New York Jets vs Cincinnati Bengals 1st Preseason Game Tickets Ad