ESPN recently compiled a list of the 32 best teams never to win the Super Bowl, and arguably the two best teams ever to suit up for the Cincinnati Bengals didn’t make the cut.
Instead, ESPN picked a 1976 Bengals’ squad that failed to make the playoffs at No. 18. Cincinnati’s two Super Bowl teams of 1981 and 1988 were conspicuous by their absence.
But there is no argument that the 1976 squad was special.
In Cincinnati’s first season without Paul Brown as head coach, the Bengals put together an impressive record of 10-4 under the guidance of Bill Johnson.