The Bengal family at Paul Brown Stadium:   Back row: Kristy, Stephen M., Chrisd, Matt, Jefri Ann.   Front: Stephen F., Maragret, Mary Lou holding Kyler, John L., Faye (Michael E. Keating photo) | ZOOM |

        This would not seem to be the best time to be a Cincinnati Bengal, given one painfully obvious fact: They stink.

        Radio talk jocks, newspaper scribes, TV talking heads and fed-up fans are ripping the sad sack football squad, and for good reason: Sunday's win over lowly Arizona was only the third victory in games this year for a team that has not had a winning season since 1990.

        (Remember 1990? Dances with Wolves won Best Picture. Seinfeld debuted. Sony created the first portable compact disc player. But we digress.)

        As it is, Bengals bashers are everywhere. The Bengals are pitiful, they say. The Bengals are pathetic. The Bengals are a joke. The Bengals name is being dragged through the mud like quarterback Akili Smith after a linebacker blitz.

        So we wondered: How do the Bengals deal with the incessant insults? But we didn't ask the men who suit up in shoulder pads each Sunday. We went to the real Bengals.
       

Only Bengal clan

               “I'm not going to let it ruin my day or my life,” says Stephen F. Bengal, who lives in West Chester.

        “I don't take it personally,” says his brother, John L. Bengal, a Deerfield Township resident.

        None of them do. Not Margaret Bengal or Chris Bengal or Stephen M. Bengal or John R. Bengal or Matt Bengal or anyone else in the family.

        As far as they know, they are the only Bengal clan in Greater Cincinnati. And living here, with the last name “Bengal,” they've learned to roll with the losses.

        “My whole family has joked about it over the last 10 years, as long as the Bengals have been terrible,” says Chris Bengal, who is 17.

        Not long ago, he and his mother, Mary Lou Bengal, were watching a sports show on TV. “They were really cracking on the Bengals,” Chris says. “We were thinking about calling and (saying) we want to file a lawsuit.”

        He's kidding.

        His brother, 21-year-old Stephen M. Bengal, says he received some hate mail last year during football season.

        “It just said, "Take your Cincinnati Bengals and get out. We need a team that will win.' I guess he thought I was using a false name. I just kind of giggled.”
       

They were here first

               Indeed, these Bengals say there's no chance they'll develop an inferiority complex.

        "I'm a professional sales person,” says John Bengal, 44, whose business is batteries that energize lift trucks. “When I identify myself, they'll ask, "How you do spell your name?' ” His standard response: “Just like that losing football team we have here in town.”

        Stephen F. Bengal, 42, owner of a West Chester-based machine tool company, gets business calls from far and wide.

        “People are constantly (saying), "Oh, you're living in Cincinnati and your name is Bengal? No way!' I make sure I let people know I was a Bengal before they (the team) were Bengals.

        “It's great when we're winning,” he says, “but how long's that been?”

        Uh, let's see, Dan Quayle was vice president.
       

A few good years

               Despite the team's troubles, “I'm still a Bengals fan,” Stephen F. Bengal declares.

        So is his brother John, although neither of them likes the way owner Mike Brown runs things. Says Stephen: “I firmly believe if he wants to bring a winning team to the area, he has to hire a football man (to be general manager).”

        Mary Lou Bengal, Stephen's ex-wife, remembers “a few good years when it was great to sign your name "Bengal.' ” She also recalls when her sons were little, and they dreamed of playing for the hometown team.

        “Do you think they'd draft me just because of my last name?” says Chris, now a senior at Lakota East High School. (Cynics might say having a real Bengal on the sideline couldn't hurt.)

        That last name used to be spelled B-e-n-g-e-l, John Bengal says. “Our grandfather, back in the 1930s, changed it.” He's not sure why.

        Today, the Bengal matriarch is Margaret Bengal, who lives in Deerfield Township. She has five children (only John and Stephen live in Greater Cincinnati), 15 grandchildren, two great-grandchildren, and zero stake in the local team that bears her name.

        “I really don't care much about football,” she says.

        Others in the family do. The Bengals trace their roots to Chicago, so for some, the Bears are the sentimental favorite.

        “But they stink this year, too,” Stephen Bengal notes.
       

Cleveland ties

               Margaret and her late husband, Anthony, grew up in the Windy City. They moved around, from Ohio to Oklahoma to Indiana and back to Ohio, and retired in Cincinnati in 1991.

        When the Bengals lived in Cleveland in the 1980s, Margaret worked at a bank. “I always used to say, "Thanks for calling Bank One. This is Mrs. Bengal. May I help you?' And of course with the (Cleveland) Browns there, that was a little bit of fun.”

        Alas, fans of the local pro football team are not having much fun these days. And so anyone named Bengal can expect some ribbing.

        Says Margaret Bengal: “If somebody says something, I say, "My name's Bengal; they're the Bungles.' ”

Mike Browns take heat, too

Bengal family used to bad jokes
KNIPPENBERG: 98º tours city in 'Seventeen' pages
KIESEWETTER: KKK strikes out on Channel 19
Books for giving
Tristate best sellers list
What Tristaters are reading
Get to It