Kiwi Bengals diehard hoping for fairytale Super Bowl win
Justin Nelson tells Brendon Egan what it’s like being a ‘lone wolf’ supporter of a rags-to-riches gridiron team.
JUSTIN Nelson has cheered on his beloved Cincinnati Bengals in sub-zero temperatures and stuck with them through two-win seasons.
Seeing the Bengals in tomorrow’s Super Bowl against the Los Angeles Rams, Cincinnati’s first trip to the big dance since 1989, will be a sweet feeling for affable Australian Nelson – Sky TV’s head of commercial and events.
Their rise to the Super Bowl has been a heartwarming story after finishing with the worst record in the NFL two years ago, winning just two of their 16 games.
Nelson, who was previously general manager of the National Basketball League, has relished every minute of the team’s stunning playoff run, which has included back-to-back gamewinning field goals from kicker Evan McPherson.
‘‘I don’t know how many Bengals’ fans there are in New Zealand, but I don’t think there’s many,’’ Nelson said.
‘‘I’ve been a bit of a lone wolf wearing my Bengals t-shirts for the best part of four weeks [in the playoffs]. I’ve got three of them here and they’ve all had a fair work out.’’
Wellington-based Nelson has been a Bengals supporter for 10 years, falling in love with the team when he’d go on sports tour groups to the US, while working in Australia. High school basketball teams would travel Stateside to play American opposition and they’d stop in Cincinnati, Ohio, among other locations.
He has watched the Bengals at their Paul Brown Stadium home seven times, shivering through arctic-like temperatures when they beat the Indianapolis Colts there in 2013.
‘‘The wind chill factor on the day was -27 and I think at times on the day it got to as bad as -13 [degrees] and that particular day we were covered head to toe. The only thing you could see was our eyes. They literally kept music going in the background the whole game. All the fans to keep warm, you couldn’t sit down, you had to stand the whole game. Everyone was dancing the whole game just to get body movement.’’
Nelson’s all-time favourite NFL player and Bengal is wide receiver AJ Green, owning two of his jerseys. Green moved to the Arizona Cardinals this season after 10 years in Cincinnati, missing the team’s stellar Super Bowl journey.
He was gutted to see Green go and not be a part of the Super Bowl after plenty of tough losing seasons.
Quarterback Joe Burrow has been integral to changing the Bengals’ fortunes. Cincinnati selected Burrow with the top pick in the 2020 NFL Draft after finishing with the worst record the previous season.
They also struck gold, landing wide receiver Ja’Marr Chase, Burrow’s former Louisiana State college team-mate, with the fifth pick in last year’s draft. Chase has taken the league by storm, scoring 13 touchdowns during
the regular season – tied for the second most by a rookie wideout after Randy Moss.
Nelson hoped the Bengals would prove more competitive this season and pick up the odd victory against AFC North foes Pittsburgh, Cleveland, and Baltimore. Winning the AFC and making the Super Bowl had surpassed his wildest
expectations.
If the Bengals could upset the Rams, who will be playing at their SoFi Stadium home in LA, it would cap a rags-to-riches turnaround.
‘‘It has the makings of a fairytale. It has the makings of a future 30 for 30 [documentary film] on ESPN. It just has all the ingredients for this unbelievable story, but they’ve just got to get one more win.
‘‘Never in a million years did I
think we’d be in the Super Bowl.’’
Nelson has to work tomorrow, but TV screens with the Super Bowl won’t be hard to find in the Sky office. He’ll be chomping on chicken wings for lunch and blasting out the Bengals’ entrance song, Guns N’ Roses anthem, Welcome to the Jungle.
Reuniting online with old friends and colleagues from his Cincinnati trips during the Bengals’ playoff run, which has included wins over the Las Vegas Raiders, then last-gasp victories over the Tennessee Titans and Kansas City Chiefs, had been special.
‘‘All of those people from the tours they’re all Bengals’ fans as well. What’s been magic for me is a lot of people I travelled to the States with, we’ve all reconnected in the last month because of what the Bengals have done.’’
While the Rams are favourites, Nelson said the past few weeks had shown what the Bengals were capable of.