BY PAUL DAUGHERTY
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Bengals emperor Mike Brown has spared us from corporate sponsor hell. We will have no 3Com Aberration in this town, no Pro Player Mistake. The notion of Really Big Fortune 500 Company Field won't be entertained anytime soon.

No and no. It is to be Paul Brown Stadium. That's it.

As unadorned as the man himself. As absent of pretense as his son. Just guessing, but I'd bet Mike Brown has about 30 button-down Oxford shirts, in varying shades of white. He drives a sensible, American-made, mid-sized sedan. He knows what he knows.

"We feel there has been more commercialization in sports than is good for it. Maybe it's right to name stadiums for people who were prominent in our game," Brown said Sunday.

That's it. That's all. Paul Brown Stadium. What's right is right.

Feel-good choice is right

This is a good and amazing thing. A team that doesn't sell out. It could be that Brown and the Bengals didn't get the offers they anticipated when they put the stadium's name up for sale. It could be they found the process distasteful. It could be both.

"We didn't feel good about it," Brown said. "And we didn't have much success anyway."

Does it matter why? The stadium won't be named for a business that would write off the cost, or add it to your next electric bill or airline fare. It will be named for an important stitch in the local fabric. Paul Brown Stadium.

It represents a remarkable buck of the trend. Teams run for the money now. Their frantic, sad, tasteless - and altogether necessary - grub for cash leaves us numb from "big payoff" innings and weather reports sponsored by makers of air conditioners and action missed because it dared start before the ads ended.

A man can't hit a home run now without an announcer heaping credit on a phone company.

It's not the teams' fault. They are mining fresh cash sources, to pay ballplayers far beyond what ballplayers should be paid. Teams are hoping to find nickels stuck to the soles of their shoes. We are approaching a time when individual stars could be paid at least partly by companies. Barry Larkin, brought to you by the deli section at Kroger.

We've already arrived at a time when a baseball player can make $10 million a year, a basketball player $30 million. Rather than rob banks, teams seduce sponsors.

Value comes over time

Naming rights fees were part of the Bengals share of the cost for their new home. Mike Brown figured the lack of sponsorship will cost the Bengals $5 million in the near term.

What they gain is entirely intangible. And altogether terrific. Tradition shouldn't be bought and sold like groceries. If everything comes with a price, nothing of real value is worth having.

Mike Brown is one to pursue and protect his interests, not flaunt them. He wasn't congratulating himself for Paul Brown Stadium. "It seemed fitting" is about all he said.

"You know, in my father's lifetime, he never sponsored a product for money; he never made a speech for money. He thought it was undignified," said Brown. "Today we have people fighting to do those things. 3Com Park, and on and on."

And on and on.

"Why don't we ask, 'Why is this so?' Why are the bills so high? Players don't have to be paid $5 million, $10 million, $20 million a year. That's nonsense," Brown said.

Nonsense breeds nonsense, which explains Houlihan's Stadium in Tampa.

"I think it's unfortunate sports have been driven to this. The player costs have accelerated so high," Brown said. "I keep repeating that. Naming rights would have been laughable 15 years ago. It would have been material for a stand-up comic."

Now, it's just bad for the digestion.

It isn't that Mike Brown is righteous. Only decent. Naming a place for a person instead of a business won't make the games any better. But maybe we'll feel better about going. Paul Brown made memories. What did 3Com make?

Enquirer columnist Paul Daugherty welcomes your calls at 768-8454.

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