One Gigantic Full Circle

I remember the day well, Sept. 20, 1992, a beautiful day I headed over to my buddy Dave's apartment to watch the Bengals game. The Bengals had been to the Super Bowl three years ago, and had ruined the football career of Bo Jackson in the playoffs a little more than a year prior. Sunday afternoon with the Bengals is a fall ritual in these parts, which is not really surprising in metro Cincinnati. Cincinnati had a new coach and the optimism of a new season. During the game, the Green Bay quarterback Don "Magic" Majkowski was injured and in comes this back-up hardly anyone had ever heard of, Brett Favre, although we thought is was "Farve" by the way the name was being pronounced. Although the Bengals had a healthy lead in the fourth quarter, Favre led Green Bay to a come-from-behind win, threading the needle with a hypersonic throw through two defenders for the winning score. Thus began the divergence, the Bengals lost in years of malaise while Green Bay became a championship team and a contender every year. Now on October 30, 2005, with Favre still leading the Packers nearing the end of his Hall-of-Fame career, the Packers have struggled mightily this year. The Bengals seem to have finally recovered and come full circle. But for fans, it's hard to believe just how long and how hard its been.