“It’s a great sports town — I don’t have to tell you,” Michaels said on a teleconference to preview the game this week.
He saw first hand from 1971-73 when he was the voice of the Reds on radio.
“When I was 26-years-old, I’d go in to do the Cincinnati Reds. It’s the original Major League team. I mean, Cincinnati is baseball,” said Michaels, who also worked the 1972 World Series between the Reds and A’s for NBC.
Cincinnati traces its professional baseball origins to 1869, but the Bengals did not come around until 99 years later.
They were the new kids on the block when Michaels was living in the Queen City, but they did not need much time to make an impact, having made the playoffs in their third season.
“When I was there, I got to go to a number of Bengals games, and the town was very excited with football, with professional football,” he said. “The fact that they went to two Super Bowls in the ‘80s was tremendous, and then through the years it’s been rough, even though they’ve made a lot of playoff appearances, and finally they get over the hump.
“Having spent three years there, I loved every moment of it. A fantastic sports town.”
About the Author
