Win the Super Bowl or bust
By STEVE KING
Kansas City Chiefs head coach Andy Reid was right with what he said recently — not just for his own team, but the other 31 as well in the NFL, including the Browns.
He said he would consider the season a failure if the Chiefs failed to win the Super Bowl.
It’s Super Bowl championship or bust for him. It’s hoist the Lombardi Trophy or bust for him. It’s be the last team standing or bust for him.
And indeed, that’s the way it should be for every team.
A ton of money is pumped into these franchises to get them to win the Super Bowl, which is not just the ultimate goal, but the only one, really.
It’s not to win the division title, though that’s obviously important.
It’s not to win a few games in the postseason, though that’s obviously important.
It’s not to get to the conference championship game, though that’s obviously important.
It’s not to win the conference championship game and earn a trip to the Super Bowl, though that’s obviously important.
It’s not to make it a close game in the Super Bowl, though that’s obviously important.
The only goal is to win the Super Bowl.
And why in the world would it be anything else?
Cincinnati quarterback Joe Burrow refused to get all giddy when the Bengals held off the Las Vegas Raiders in the wild-card round of the AFC playoffs last Saturday, thus winning their first postseason game in 31 years, since when former team owner Paul Brown was still alive. He said he and the rest of his teammates knew they would win and now it was time to get ready for their divisional-round game, which turns out to be against the Tennessee Titans.
Good for him. That’s the right attitude to have.
And you can bet that if the Bengals lose to the Titans, then Burrow, an Athens, Ohio native who quarterbacked LSU to the national championship after transferring from Ohio State, will not be pleased. He will not look back at the big turnaround season with pride.
And that’s because the Bengals would have fallen short of a Super Bowl title.
You can’t accept anything less.
Are you listening, Browns?
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