Super Bowl 2022: How did the Cincinnati Bengals get their name?
The Cincinnati Bengals will be in search of the first Super Bowl title in the franchise’s history when they take on the Los Angeles Rams on Sunday. So, you might be wondering how the Bengals got the name Bengals — after all, there aren’t many tigers roaming around Cincinnati.
The name origin goes back to 1937 when an American Football League team went by the name of the Cincinnati Bengals and folded in 1942. When Paul Brown brought another professional football team — part of a new AFL — to Cincinnati in 1968, he opted to bring back the name Bengals as homage to the 1937 club.
Cincinnati also has a pretty famous zoo with rare, endangered tigers.
When the AFL and NFL merged, the Bengals joined the NFL under the same name.