When you're a blogger who focuses way too much attention on the Cincinnati Bengals, a team that really seems to personally hate you sometimes, you can find yourself in a very one-sided relationship. On one hand, you love a certain team enough to pour a full-time work load worth of hours into writing about them, but on the other hand, that team doesn't really care.
Ah, but sometimes they do care and sometimes they even want to know your opinion. Those moments make everything worth it. Geoff Hobson of the Mothership (Bengals.com) recently wrote an article about the voting for the newest class of Bengals hall of fame. In that article he wrote about Cincy Jungle's managing editor Josh Kirkendall's and WhoDeyFans.com owner Mickey Mentzer's opinions.
Hobson wrote that Josh liked Bengals defensive back Lemar Parrish who played for the team from 1970-1977.
"Lemar Parrish is as deserving as any," Kikendall e-mails. "I hear older Bengals fans all the time talk about Parrish, cover his receivers so well that it actually opened interception opportunities for Ken Riley. That being said, of the 25 interceptions by Parrish, four were returned for touchdowns; double what Riley had from 1970-1977, the time they played together.
"Parrish is the only Bengals defensive player to score two defensive touchdowns on interception returns in the same game. And it wasn't just about his defense. Parrish is arguably one of the best punt returners in franchise history. his 18.8 yards/return on punts in 1974 is still a franchise best, along with his four touchdown returns. His career 24.7 yards/return on kickoffs is still a franchis best. ... Parrish isn't just as deserving as any player, I believe he's on of the franchise's best players of all-time."
Mickey discussed voting for a much more recent player....... a kicker.
"I'm surprised Nick didn't vote for Breech," says Mentzer with 0.0 qualms about voting for a kicker.
"Not after going through what they did with Shayne Graham," says Mentzer, who grew up in Columbus and is now a computer programmer living in the Cincinnati suburb of Loveland, "you understand jus how important kicking is. He hit big kicks and he had good percentages, over 70 percent on the field goals (71.5) and over 95 percent on extra points (95.9). And he has the (third) longest scoring streak in the NFL (186 games). Plus, he was perfect in overtime. That's pretty impressive."
I've had the opportunity to work for both CincyJungle.com and WhoDeyFans.com in the last few years and I have worked closely with both Josh and Mickey. I know that they know their Bengals and their opinions on the team and on who belongs in the Bengals hall of fame should be taken seriously.