Its been 33 years since the Cincinnati Bengals last played in the Super Bowl. Ahead of Super Bowl LVI, former News Center 7 Sports Director Mike Hartsock sat down with News Center 7′s John Bedell to talk about his memories covering the Bengals in the big game and his prediction for Sunday.
Hartsock covered the Bengals first two appearances in the Super Bowl. He said there are parallels between this year’s Bengals team and that of the team that made it to Super Bowl XXIII in 1989.
“The Bengals had a woeful four-win season last year. Now they’re in the Super Bowl. In the 1988 season, which was the ‘89 Super Bowl, the Bengals had an awful four-win season the year before and they made it to the Super Bowl,” Hartsock said.
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Hartsock was there when the Bengals were underdogs against the San Francisco 49ers in Super Bowl XXIII.
“Jim Breech kicked three field goals. He was the offensive star. And unfortunately, the Bengals just didn’t have an answer for Joe Montana over the middle to John Taylor in the final 34 seconds,” he said.
He was also there for Super Bowl XVI in Detroit, covering the Bengals and the 49ners in the big game in 1982. That was Cincinnati’s first trip to the Super Bowl and Hartsock’s first sports assignment after coming over from the radio and TV news departments.
Hartsock said it was at that game that he met and even got a ticket to the game from Bengals founder and then-owner, Paul Brown.
He told News Center 7 that he met Brown on one of the first days he was in Detroit and the Brown ended up getting him a ticket in the Bengals family section.
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“I really didn’t have a press pass that was going to get me into the press box. I had a press pass, but it was going to get me into an auxiliary box somewhere in the bowels of the Pontiac Silverdome. So I got to sit on the 45-yard line for the game amongst all the Bengals family and friends,” he said.
Looking ahead to Sunday, Hartsock said he expects an offensive shootout between the Bengals and Los Angeles Rams, with Cincinnati coming out on top.
“I think it’s going to be a good game. I’m not saying that it’s going to be Evan McPherson winning another one with a walk-off field goal, but I like 31-30 Cincinnati in this game to bring home the first Super Bowl,” he said.
Just how exciting is this Bengals’ playoff run? Hartsock said it’s been the first time in his 14 months of retirement that he’s missed his job as sports director, but he admitted that, as a Bengals fan, he’s more than happy to relax at home and watch.
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