Bengals

Cincinnati opens another year in the AFC North still built around Joe Burrow and Ja'Marr Chase.

Something did happen in 2021, when the club reached the Super Bowl and lost to the Los Angeles Rams.

Paul Brown built the team in 1967 and named it for the Bengals who had played in Cincinnati a generation earlier. Anthony Muñoz , the left tackle who anchored those 1981 and 1988 teams. The cold has its own place in the club's memory: the 1982 AFC Championship game, played at Riverfront Stadium in conditions that earned it the name "Freezer Bowl," is still the reference point whenever a January game turns brutal.

The rivalry that matters most sits across the state, against the Cleveland Browns in what both cities call the Battle of Ohio, sharpened by the Pittsburgh Steelers and Baltimore Ravens on the same side of the division. "Who Dey" travels with the team regardless of the opponent.