Cincinnati is going to the Super Bowl

A Cincinnati sportsball team was on a huge stage on Sunday, and when the going got tough, they...won. They won the damn thing. They made it to the big stage in the first place, overcame odds, dug themselves out of a deficit, made the biggest plays, and won.

Cincinnati is going to the Super Bowl, and damnit, we are elated.

Congratulations to Joe Burrow and the Bengals for doing their best to shrug off the godawful stretch of sports failures seen by the city for decade after decade, and here’s to them putting things together again in two weeks to bring home some hardware that Cincinnati deserves in such a big way.

I don’t care if it’s the Los Angeles Rams, though pretending they’re still St. Louis in the run-up would be fun. I don’t care if it’s the San Francisco 49ers and all the 1980s references it would induce. As long as Joe Burrow’s in charge, I frankly don’t care who the hell’s in the way, as Cincinnati’s going to plow right through them.

Go Cincinnati.