Jim Richards, a Cincinnati Bengals fan for more than 30 years, has one rule when traveling to watch his Bengals play in a rival city.
“The thing to do is always buy the guy behind me a beer,” Richards said while tailgating in the parking lot Sunday morning before the Bengals opened their season against the Ravens at M&T Bank Stadium.
Richards, wearing a black Carson Palmer jersey and a Bengals hat, arrived from Cincinnati to attend the game with friend and fellow Bengals fan Randy Mitchell.
Richards and Mitchell, who wore a bright orange Bengals polo and sported a tattoo of a Bengals logo on his right leg, stood out in the group of about 10 purple Ravens tailgaters. The two have seen the Bengals play in Baltimore several times in recent years, coming to town to visit friends they met through work.
“It depends on where you go, because some places are better than others,” Richards said. “If you treat them right, they’ll treat you right.”
Mitchell said: ““When I’ve sat in the upper deck, there’s been some verbal abuse. Overall, the people here are good. I’ve been to Pittsburgh, and they’re not very nice there.”
The hot topic on the sunny afternoon before kickoff revolved around Bengals receiver Chad Johnson changing his last name to “Ocho Cinco,” a Spanish reference to his No. 85 jersey.
“He’s a marketing wizard,” said Mitchell, adding the Ocho Cinco jersey was a big seller in the Queen City. “You know he’s doing it just to sell jerseys.”
Richards cared more about Johnson’s performance than his last name.
“As long as he catches footballs,” he said, “I don’t care what they call him.”
John Rosskopf, a Ravens fan who has been tailgating before games for seven years, said he hadn’t seen many Bengals fans before kickoff.
“We don’t really mess with them,” he said. “We let them go about their business, as long as they don’t bother us.”
