Cincinnati Bengals

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Cincinnati Bengals

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The Cincinnati Bengals are a professional football team based in Cincinnati, Ohio. They are currently members of the North Division of the American Football Conference (AFC) in the National Football League (NFL). Their first two seasons, 1968 and 1969, were as an American Football League franchise. They joined the NFL as part of the 1970 AFL-NFL Merger, which had actually been agreed upon in 1966.

The Bengals are the current AFC North Division Champions.

The Bengals currently conduct summer training camp at Georgetown College in Georgetown, Kentucky and play home games at Paul Brown Stadium in Downtown Cincinnati.

Radio and television

The Bengals flagship radio stations are WCKY, "ESPN 1530" and WEBN-FM, with WLW AM 700 joining in following the end of the Reds' season. Brad Johansen and former Bengals offensive lineman Dave Lapham, who started in 1985, form the announcing team. Most preseason and regular season games, are telecast on WKRC-TV, channel 12, the CBS affiliate. Dan Hoard and Anthony Munoz are the TV announcers for the preseason games. Games that feature an NFC opponent playing at Paul Brown Stadium will be televised on WXIX, channel 19, the local FOX affiliate.

Phil Samp was the Bengals original play-by-play announcer from 1968-1990. Ken Broo (1991–1995), Paul Keels (1996) and Pete Arbogast (1997–2000) have also done radio play-by-play for the Bengals.

Chant

"Who Dey" is the name of a chant of support by fans of the Cincinnati Bengals, in use for over 25 years. The entire chant is: "Who dey! Who dey! Who dey think gonna beat dem Bengals?" The answer screamed in unison, "Nobody!" Sometimes fans will instead shout "Who Dey" to represent the entire cheer. "Who Dey" is also the name of the team’s mascot, a Bengal tiger.

The Who Dey chant's first known use was by fans of the 1980 Cincinnati Bengals. It is similar to the phrase "Who Dat?" used by the New Orleans Saints since 1983. The saying “Who dat?" originated in minstrel shows and vaudeville acts in the late 1800s and early 1900s, then was taken up by New Orleans Jazz and various Big band folks in the 1920s and 1930s, then was adapted by Southern University in Louisiana and the public schools in New Orleans in the 1960s and 1970s. There is a long-standing debate over which fanbase originated the chant.