MARVIN, NO LONGER STARVIN': In a blow to the twin old-white-boys networks of NFL coaching and Queen City sports, the Cincinnati Bengals today hired Marvin Lewis as their new head coach. It's a long overdue chance for Lewis, who presided over the #1 defense in NFL history (the Ravens' Super Bowl champions of two years ago) and had fallen just short of jobs in recent years with the Buffalo Bills and Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Lewis becomes the third active black coach in the NFL, along with Herman Edwards of the Jets and Tony Dungy of the Colts.
While the Bengals have been the league's most moribund franchise for over a decade mostly due to a marked lack of effort from ownership, Lewis is known as a superior defensive mind and a keen judge of talent, so if anyone can turn the Bengals around, he can. Especially considering the NFL's ridiculous parity, in which a team can go from 3-13 one year to 13-3 the next (or vice versa) and no one bats an eye.