Rex Burkhead - Cody Core - Mike Brown

We were talking the other day about Dalton reaching his ceiling but forget that we have seen both Lewis and Brown reach theirs. Lewis has no will and Brown has no vision. It's a self sustaining mediocrity. Both are intelligent men but their intelligence betrays them by not addressing their weaknesses. Which we all know is a must in all our lives great and small. Brown's lack of vision is clearly disturbing because he cannot see any other potential than right now to get this team to greatness. In his mind this is it. This is as good as it's ever going to get. And it's not that he lacks the will to make a change, it's that he can't see the good in it. Speaking on the philosopher Descartes, Colin Wilson described him as " the perpetual optimist basking in the sunshine of reason in a dusty old attic...". Intelligence and the ability to rationalize is not enough, without a vision a man is wandering through this life aimlessly. I know because I have done it for most of my life. It happens to highly successful people also and they are not exempt from it. Mike Brown is one. Suffocating in his dusty old reasons. Lewis I don't have to go in detail about. The team has not been the same since the playoff game and it is apparent in every detail. He needs to go. Times like this make you reflect on the big picture of it all. I can't believe at 43 years old the last time I saw a Bengals playoff win I was 17 years old. After the 83 and 88 seasons the Bengals became a passion. It was almost over as soon as it started. It reminds of how the horse of the year is viewed. The horse with the latest big win, especially in the Breeder's Cup in many minds trumps the horse with the best body of work for the whole year. I look at the Bengals and their latest 5 year run of playoff seasons is impressive but it still ended with futility. And when you look at the whole body of work in my adult life this latest blow is just a reminder that the recent playoff futility is merely a symptom of a lifelong futility that started with Mike Brown. A few more months and we will hit the reset button and hope for better things in 2017. Takes a little out of you every year though.