The Cincinnati Commandos actually hold a bit of history in the books of professional football that the Cincinnati Bengals have yet to achieve. This local indoor football team is the first professional football team in Cincinnati to actually bring home a title. Though it's not the Lombardi trophy, the Cincinnati Commandos won the Continental Indoor Football Title in late June after beating the Wisconsin Wolfpack 54-40 at the Cincinnati Gardens. The team capped their inaugural season in the CIFL with a perfect 8-0 record. Former Cincinnati Bearcat Ben Mauk won the title game MVP, completing 18 of 29 passes for 195 yards passing and four touchdowns.
Their second season kicks off this February and the team is bringing a familiar face. Former Bengals wide receiver Peter Warrick, the team's first round draft pick (and fourth overall) in 2000, is suiting up for the Commandos this year.
Warrick's five year career in Cincinnati included 264 receptions, 2,811 yards receiving and 18 touchdowns and he was the team's leading receiver during his rookie year recording 51 receptions for 592 yards passing. Warrick played at least 15 games through the first four seasons before a knee injury forced him to miss eight games in 2004. As a result, the T.J. Houshmandzadeh era emerged with career year (to date) of 73 receptions for 978 yards receiving and four touchdowns. Warrick would be released before the 2005 season, primary thanks to Houshmandzadeh's emergence. Ironically, Warrick signed with the Seattle Seahawks (as Houshmandzadeh would do four years later), playing in 13 games, only recording 11 receptions for 180 yards receiving and no touchdowns. Warrick's final NFL game would take place in Green Bay on January 1st, 2006.
Warrick would go on to sign with the AFL's Las Vegas Gladiators, but didn't show up after the first week in the season. He signed with the CFL's Montreal Alouettes and was released less than a month later. Warrick played a season with the IFL's Bloomington Extreme in 2009.
My greatest image of Warrick to this day is his 68-yard punt return for touchdown against the 9-0 Kansas City Chiefs on November 16, 2003, giving Cincinnati a 17-6 lead. Seven minutes later, Warrick hauled in a 77-yard touchdown reception from Kitna to seal Cincinnati's eventual win 24-19. This is often considered the game in which we believed in the Marvin Lewis era, that the Cincinnati Bengals would be a factor and not a joke. Seven years later and, well...