CINCINNATI -- The jock straps said it all.
When former All-Pro linebacker Takeo Spikes arrived in the league as a rookie in 1998, he noticed something about the protective equipment offered by the Cincinnati Bengals.
At the time, the franchise was near the end of a dreadful decade that produced the worst winning percentage in the NFL (.395). And to acquire gear, getting new items meant turning in the old ones.
But when it came to jockstraps, the replacements weren't guaranteed to be new.
"[There] would be times they would give out used ones and scratch out the number that was on it," Spikes told ESPN.