The Bengals and Dolphins had a bench clearing brawl the last time they met in December of 2020. It was brought on by Cincinnati’s wide receiver Michael Thomas getting flagged for hitting a defenseless player twice on punt returns. It was so bad that Dolphins’ head coach Brian Flores came onto the field to let everyone know how he felt.
A reminder that you don't want to be on Brian Flores' bad side. pic.twitter.com/mJ1RcnqXOf
— Dov Kleiman (@NFL_DovKleiman) December 12, 2020
There were plenty of fines handed out to both teams, but Bengals’ head coach Zac Taylor is trying to assure everyone that there is no beef remaining between these two teams.
“There’s respect there. Obviously, what happens there on the field a lot of times, happens on the field but Brian is a good guy,” Taylor told Geoff Hobson Bengals.com. “I’ve got a lot of respect for him. He’s done a great job. He and I have gotten to know each other a lot more through us becoming head coaches at the same time. He’s done a great job. We’ve got a lot of mutual people working down there who are close to him. I saw him at Florida’s Pro Day and that’s probably the last time I saw him. Yeah, I’ve got a lot of respect for him.”
The last thing any Bengals fan wants is to watch a repeat of what happened with Cincinnati and Pittsburgh during the 2010’s. That off-the-field drama is just exhausting to watch. It makes this news very nice to hear.
These teams and fanbases often get compared to each other since they really started their rebuilds at the same time with the Dolphins hiring Flores and Bengals hiring Taylor.
They both drafted franchise quarterbacks at the same time. The Dolphins also reportedly tried very hard to get the Bengals to trade away the No. 1 pick for Joe Burrow but ended up with Tua Tagovailoa.
There is so much to talk about with these two teams that these fans are constantly trying to talk about how much better their team is compared to the other. However, that drama doesn’t need to be taken up by the players on the field.
Here is to hoping that everyone stays healthy in the last preseason game before the regular season.
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