Bengals coach was fired after making risky…

One of the most surprisingly sports moments in 2018 came on the very last day of the year. On Dec. 31, one day after the 2018 NFL regular season ended, the Cincinnati Bengals really and truly broke up with Marvin Lewis. For the first time in 16 years, they were on the hunt for a new head coach.

It’s not that the move was unexpected. The Bengals had gone 0-7 under Lewis in the playoffs, each loss its own unique brand of heartbreak. And after three straight losing seasons, even making the postseason seemed quaint at that point. There had also been rumblings for weeks that Lewis was on his way out.

It was still a surprise, though, because it was supposed to happen a year earlier — and didn’t.

In December 2017, ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported Lewis’ time in Cincinnati would be up at the end of the season. A few weeks later, Lewis met with team owner Mike Brown and came to the conclusion that most people in toxic, codependent relationships do: let’s keep this thing going!

How would things gone for the Bengals if they HAD “mutually agreed to part ways with” Lewis (or whatever euphemism they wanted to use for “fired”) in 2017?

Probably not much differently, for the Bengals anyway. The team that would have felt the biggest impact would’ve been the Browns.