{"id":55708,"date":"2018-12-31T11:42:45","date_gmt":"2018-12-31T16:42:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lwosonnfl.ms.lastwordonsports.com\/?p=55708"},"modified":"2018-12-31T11:42:45","modified_gmt":"2018-12-31T16:42:45","slug":"cincinnati-bengals-fire-head-coach-marvin-lewis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2018\/12\/31\/cincinnati-bengals-fire-head-coach-marvin-lewis\/","title":{"rendered":"Cincinnati Bengals Fire Head Coach Marvin Lewis"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>After 16 years in his role, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/teams\/cin\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Cincinnati Bengals <\/a>fired head coach\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/L\/LewiMa22.htm\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>Marvin Lewis<\/strong><\/a>. He told his staff this morning that, per Mike Brown, he is no longer the leader of this\u00a0team. The only coach with a longer tenure than Lewis is\u00a0<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/executives\/BeliBi0.htm\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Bill Belichick<\/a><\/strong> with the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/teams\/nwe\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">New England Patriots<\/a>\u00a0for 19 years.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Marvin Lewis has informed his <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/Bengals?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#Bengals<\/a> staff he&#39;s out as coach, source said. Owner Mike Brown made the decision.<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/TomPelissero\/status\/1079753796446814209?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">December 31, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h2>Cincinnati Bengals Fire Head Coach Marvin Lewis After 16 Seasons<\/h2>\n<p>As\u00a0the 2017 season came to a close, it was rumored that Lewis was done in Cincinnati. However, the Bengals decided to go all in on Lewis in hope of making a postseason run and signed him to a two-year contract. This contract came after several heartbreaking ends to the season, and fans felt the team should have parted ways with him. This caused a significant decrease in game attendance. For the first time since 2011, the team only managed to sell\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cincinnati.com\/story\/sports\/nfl\/bengals\/2018\/12\/31\/cincinnati-bengals-marvin-lewis-decision-head-coach-nfl-status\/2430414002\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">50,754 tickets<\/a> per game\u00a0and played to\u00a0a half-empty stadium, especially toward the end of this season.<\/p>\n<h3>Failing to Get Over the Hump<\/h3>\n<p>Lewis changed the culture in Cincinnati when he arrived in 2003. He led the team to its first playoff appearance\u00a0since 1990. Under his tenure as head coach, the Bengals played in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/teams\/cin\/playoffs.htm\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Wildcard games<\/a> in 2005, 2009, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, and 2015. The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbssports.com\/nfl\/news\/bengals-have-playoff-meltdown-for-the-ages-vs-steelers-5-things-to-know\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">2015\u00a0Wildcard loss<\/a> to division rivals, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/teams\/pit\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Pittsburgh Steelers<\/a>, was exceptionally heartbreaking for the Bengals. Had the defense not given up yards from penalties late in the fourth quarter, that game could have played out differently. Since this playoff meltdown, this team hasn&#8217;t seen any football fields after Week 17.<\/p>\n<p>Failing to win any of these playoff games ultimately made the decision easy for Brown. Lewis helped reestablish a winning culture and a deep desire for success, but he couldn&#8217;t help them get over that last hump.<\/p>\n<p>In Lewis&#8217;s<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Bengals\/status\/1079770113480437761\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> last meeting with Cincinnati media<\/a>, he admitted that he did not deliver. When asked\u00a0what his message would be for the team\u00a0moving forward, he said, &#8220;Hold the passion of yesterday.&#8221; Saying goodbye to their longest-tenure head coach is certainly bittersweet, but it seems this man could only take the team so far.<\/p>\n<p>Main Photo:<br \/>\n<a id=\"8qAdf2WmRvFHRzOYuEKwOQ\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/1076037920\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'8qAdf2WmRvFHRzOYuEKwOQ',sig:'YZhcDyz9YgUjVbDZoeAYql-P6AQFymoTNz_z9vDzVaU=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'1076037920',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>After 16 years in his role, the Cincinnati Bengals fire head coach\u00a0Marvin Lewis. He told his staff this morning that, per Mike Brown, he is out.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2831,"featured_media":55721,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[36,7],"tags":[330,61,2716,40],"class_list":["post-55708","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nfl-news","category-bengals","tag-cincinnati-bengals","tag-football","tag-marvin-lewis","tag-nfl"],"modified_by":"Will Noltie, Managing Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55708","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2831"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55708"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55708\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/55721"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55708"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55708"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55708"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}