We’re No. 2! We’re No. 2! Yes, Cincinnati Bengals fans, our team is No. 2 in the nation when it comes to least-favorite NFL squads, according to a poll released today (.pdf) by Harris.

The survey of 2,462 adults found that the only team in the NFL about which fans give less of a crap is this week’s opponent, the Jacksonville Jaguars. (In other words, don't expect this puppy to set any TV ratings records.)

The Bengals’ decline to the 31st-favorite team in a 32-team league reverses a slight upward trend from 2008, when they bottomed out at 32. In ’09, the Bengals rose to 29, and last year tied for 27th place. So if you’re looking for anything else to blame on Carson Palmer, here ya go.

Jacksonville, meanwhile, retained its position as the league’s least favorite team for a third straight year. The Jaguars have ranked 32nd in the survey for six of the last seven years. (And yes, Mike Brown is jealous.)

For the fifth straight year, the Dallas Cowboys finished as America’s favorite team, perhaps because Tony Romo is such an accomplished and entertaining choke artist – or maybe Jerry Jones just paid Harris off. The Cowboys are followed by the Pittsburgh Sanitation Engineers, with the Green Bay Packers, New England Patriots and Chicago Bears rounding out the top five.

At this point I ask you, my fellow Bengals fans, one question. 

How are you feeling? 

This question can be a question that simply is..."how are you feeling?"  It can be a question that applies to one of the three phases of the game.  It can be a question that applies to any of the fifty-three players on the roster, a question that applies to the head coach or any of the coaching staff, a question that applies to the fact that in just over two weeks this team will find itself playing under the bright lights of Paul Brown Stadium on national television against a (not to many, but to me) surprisingly good Pittsburgh Steelers football team. 

So, all that being said, how are you feeling?

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Major sports championships are a funny thing. They seemingly avoid your state while another state's major sports team always seems to win title games. Since 2002, the state of Massachusetts has won more major sports championships then any other state in the union with the Boston Red Sox's winning two World Series' (2004, 2007), the New England Patriots taking three Super Bowls (2002, 2004, and 2005) and the Boston Celtics winning one NBA Title (2008).

For this article, I define major sports to include college football and basketball, pro football, baseball, basketball and hockey. Sorry soccer fans, but it is not a major sport.

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We've been pretty much all about the upcoming NFL Draft here at CJ for these last couple of weeks, so I figured today would be a good time to catch up on some players who have already been through the draft process. Popular folks like Dhani Jones and Chad.

As we all are very well aware, both Jones and Johnson are quite good with today's modern media; although, Jones is nowhere near as prolific as Chad is. Nevertheless, that hasn't stopped The Travel Channel from doing another season of Dhani Tackles the Globe, which was one of my favorite "reality" shows, perhaps ever.

The first episode debuts on the 19th of this month and Dhani's first stop will be in Italy, where he'll try his hand at Olympic-level cycling.  Again, I see nothing but beneficial things from Jones' travel show.  First of all, it goes a long way in shedding the "Bengals = jailbirds" stigma -- Dhani's great personality obviously contributes here, and again, training for events like Olympic Cycling will only help in regards to getting physically prepared for the upcoming season.

At the top of this post, there's a preview of what you can expect when the Dhani Jones World Tour continues.  I, for one, am looking forward to it.

As for the Bengals' favorite son, his Dancing With the Stars exploits gives me an excuse to look at, talk about, and post videos featuring the incredible Cheryl Burke, Ochocinco's partner.  Chad's participation in this mess is just one more step in his adoption by the mainstream media, so we might as well enjoy the ride.

Did I mention Cheryl Burke, because if not, I should probably go ahead and do it, because, to quote Butters from South Park, her butt is like a big mountain of pudding (link is SFW), and that's just alright by me.  Anyway, since this is about the Bengals, I'd should probably mention Chad survived the second week of his DWTS competition, but it didn't look like he did that great in the scoring column.

Maybe he should try doing his Riverdance celebration next time.  Here's some video of his latest performance, with lots of Miss Burke thrown in for good measure.

All things considered, it's been a fairly smooth offseason so far, although, I'm betting Chad's upcoming VH-1 dating show might just change that a little.  And with that, we have your non-NFL Draft update for the day. 

Isn't all this talk about Cheryl Burke's tight end better than worrying about whether or not Mike Brown drafts one?

Christmas is a day on which most of us get to share time with our families, which is the best gift of all.  Here at Cincy Jungle we consider all of you to be part of our family, a great family which allows us to be one of the very best NFL blogs on the web.  We hope that you have had a wonderful Christmas morning celebrating with your families and thank you so much for coming here and being part of our extended family. 

So eat, drink and be merry on this Christmas day, but most of all enjoy your time with those you love and be safe.  If you are away from your family today, think fondly of them and send up a quick prayer or two that you'll get to see them soon.  We here at Cincy Jungle will do the same. 

Please use the comment thread here to wish each other a Merry Christmas and tell us about your haul this year or what you got your loved ones.  Children, husband/wife, boyfriend/girlfriend, parents, in-laws, how'd you treat them this holiday? 

Merry Christmas, everyone.  :) 

-A Pragmatic Bengals Fan and the rest of the CincyJungle.com writing staff

This is a sponsored post. Peter King hasn't always looked favorably on the Cincinnati Bengals. And perhaps there's merit to that, considering the Bengals have been so bad for so long. Regardless, most Bengals fans started tiring of the over-coverage of bigger NFL teams and the more elite players while either ignoring the Bengals, or taking pop shots at them whenever they played poorly. When things went well, King, at most, would serve a one-liner somewhere praising something they did.

King, who wrote for the Cincinnati Enquirer covering pro football from 1980 until 1985, has a new book out called Monday Morning Quarterback -- the popular title for his weekly Sports Illustrated Column. Asked to review the book, I considered whether or not it was best for my health to do that here. After all, what would the readers of Cincy Jungle think of me if I were to actually like it. As I put on my kevlar vest Darth Vader helmet to tell you, I actually liked it, even though it didn't have too many Bengals references in it.

Like all things during the Internet Revolution, King went from NFL Insider on CNN's NFL Pregame show to writing a column for the Sports Illustrated website back when it was CNNSI.com. The company wanted to expand NFL's coverage riding the exponential growth of the internet, asking King to write 24 columns a year. King's popular MMQB grew to roughly 8,000 words a week for 48 editions a year.

A majority of the book is a collection of King's favorite Monday Morning Quarterback stories. And while the Bengals themselves are hardly referenced, the stories themselves are entertaining, such as the evolution of the Giants and Chargers trade in 2004 following Giants General Manager Ernie Accorsi during draft weekend. I really enjoyed the story with King following Chris Canty's agent, Brad Blank, hours after the start of free agency which brought a behind the scenes perspective of sorts. Peyton Manning's story in 2008 in which he nearly didn't play because of a reoccurring knee problem wasn't healing until well after the season started. Remember? Manning and the Colts started the season 3-4 before going on a 9-0 run, when Manning was finally healthy.

Several of King's favorite columns sidestep football completely. The story about King's friend Mike McGuire, who is an Army Sergeant tasked with leading a group of young men to disarm Improvised Explosive Devices in Iraq, is humbling. As is his trip to Afghanistan in a USO/NFL joint effort with players like Luis Castillo, Tommie Harris and Mike Rucker.

Like his column, he features several Ten Things I Think I Think, with topics like Top Coaching Hires (Paul Brown is #1 with the Browns), Best Draft Picks, Hall of Fame Snubs, Sports Illustrated Covers (Boomer Esiason is one), Cliches he hates, NFL's Best and Worst. He also lists his top players of today (Carson Palmer is the only Bengals player listed at #41) and Top Players of All Time (Anthony Munoz is the only Bengals player listed at #19).

If you only like books that are Bengals-centric, this isn't for you. If you enjoy King's columns on a more general football related front, which includes plenty of Peyton Manning, Tom Brady and Brett Favre references, I think you'll enjoy this as much as I did.

(h/t Mo Egger)