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Cincinnati Bengals President Mike Brown will not attend Sunday's game between the Bengals and Cardinals due to a "minor medical condition", the team announced Sunday afternoon. According to the statement, Brown suffered an undisclosed medical condition Sunday morning in Phoenix, where he was treated in what's being described as "precautionary". He's traveled back to Cincinnati.
The statement reads:
"Bengals president Mike Brown had a minor medical situation this morning in Phoenix. He is being treated, and for precautionary purposes, he will not attend this evening's game against the Arizona Cardinals. He will travel back to Cincinnati shortly."
Brown, who turned 79 on Aug. 10, assumed full control of the Bengals on August 1991, after his father, Paul, passed away from complications related to pneumonia. It's assumed that Brown has unclenched some of his control, allowing daughter Katie Blackburn to make more executives decisions. As a result, Cincinnati has signed long-term deals to several franchise-level players, including Andy Dalton, Geno Atkins, Carlos Dunlap and Vontaze Burfict.
He all but confirmed it last month when Brown told the media that Blackburn and head coach Marvin Lewis were running the franchise and that the "ball was in their court." Evidence of this progression is Blackburn's negotiation with Jeff Nally, Andy Dalton's agent, which led to a deal favorable for both sides. On the other hand, Blackburn has been independently negotiating deals for over five years now... at least since Hard Knocks (2009) when she was working Andre Smith's rookie deal.
Cincinnati Bengals beat writer Paul Dehner tweets that everything appears alright.
Sounds like everything is OK with Mike Brown. Word is he's doing just fine. #Bengals
— Paul Dehner Jr. (@pauldehnerjr) August 24, 2014
"Oh, you can tell I'm getting old," he said during the team's media luncheon in July. "I'm a grandfather. And my granddaughters are in college. When you get old, your children get impatient with you. Just the way it works in life. I have been blessed to have been able to work with my two kids and my father. That's something that is unusual in America these days. And I realize that roles change.
"My role changed with my father, just as Katie's role with me changes. One time I went up, now I'm going down and that's just the way it is."