Former Cleveland Browns coach Paul Brown, along with a group of associates, founded the Cincinnati Bengals in 1967, and the team participated in its first championship in 1968. According to Brown, the state of Ohio was ready for another football team that could attract fans from the surrounding major cities. With the merger of the NFL and AFL already agreed upon, the Bengals agreed to join the latter as the tenth team. The Bengals made it to the playoffs only three times in the 1970s, but the following decade was a successful period for them, winning two division titles (1981, 1988) without, however, winning the Super Bowl. The next two decades were particularly challenging for the franchise, and it was not until 2021 that the Cincinnati Bengals reached the Super Bowl, but once again left empty-handed.