So much changed with the Cincinnati Bengals in 2020.
Elizabeth Blackburn, the daughter of Katie and Troy Blackburn and the granddaughter of Mike Brown, formally joined the team in February of 2020 as the director of strategy and engagement. A few months later, the team drafted their franchise-altering quarterback, Joe Burrow, with the No. 1 overall pick in the NFL draft.
Blackburn has changed the Bengals’ strategy off the field from a marketing perspective and Burrow has changed the team’s success on the field. Since 2021, the team has enjoyed its most successful run in franchise history with 36 wins, including the postseason, which saw a Super Bowl appearance and consecutive AFC championship game appearances.
There’s palpable energy around the Bengals and everything new that’s going on at Paycor Stadium and Blackburn’s fingerprints are all over it. There’s also now a connection between the old and new Bengals with the design of the Ring of Honor.
And here’s the backstory of how it was created in 2021.
Creating the Cincinnati Bengals Ring of Honor
The Bengals had long discussed creating a Ring of Honor to celebrate the legends of the franchise. They just didn’t know how they wanted to go about implementing one. When Blackburn got to Cincinnati after moving from New York, she spearheaded the process as one of the many tasks of which she took on.
“My No. 1 priority and objective that I was tasked with was to drive engagement across our stakeholders and do so in a way that really drove value for the organization,” Blackburn said in an interview with The Enquirer. “That’s driving fan engagement and Bengals’ legends and alumni engagement.”
Blackburn started the process of creating the Ring of Honor by having conversations with her family and fellow department heads within the organization. Together, they created the plan of how they would execute bringing to life the concept of a Ring of Honor that honored their alumni in a unique way.
The process took over a year and a half to bring to life and on Sept. 30, 2021, the franchise created a new tradition by honoring their inaugural Ring of Honor class during halftime of the Bengals’ Week 4 matchup against the Jaguars.
Collaboration, creativity brought Bengals Ring of Honor
“The Ring of Honor is very much a collaborative initiative,” Blackburn said. “When I came back, it made a lot of sense to bring back the conversation of should we do a Ring of Honor because it would drive great engagement with our fans, season ticket holders and with our alumni. The question I think we always got hung up on was how to do it? How to do it well, creatively and in an authentic way to us?”
It was important to the ownership group that if the team was going to do this, it be done the right way that included more than just a name on a façade in the bowl of the stadium. Blackburn’s process then shifted to studying how other NFL teams honored their legends.
The smallest of details went into the Blackburn’s benchmarking process as she studied how other NFL teams used their Ring of Honor to celebrate their alumni.
How to present the Ring of Honor
One of first decisions she made was centered around the visual presentation inside Paycor Stadium. Blackburn said they debated if the design should include the players’ position, first and last name and or if the player was in the Hall of Fame.
Ultimately, they decided the last name and number of the player was what they would go forward with. The Ring of Honor is displayed on theEast façade inside Paycor Stadium.
Next on the agenda for Blackburn and the organization was the announcement process and the halftime ceremony.
Bengals expand internal workforce
One of the other major changes that took place when Blackburn took over was the team would bring their content team in house. This meant hiring employees to run their social media channels, including videographers, photographers, and graphic designers.
This would be especially important with the Ring of Honor announcement because of the importance the team places on the presentation of the halftime ceremony and recognizing team history.
At halftime of a specific game each year, the Bengals host a ceremony where they unveil their two honorees’ façade inside Paycor Stadium with a corresponding tribute.
After that came the voting process and the initial ballot on the how to create a Ring of Honor to-do list. The voting process is limited to season ticket members and suite holders as a way for the Bengals to show how important these select fans are to the organization.
“We kind of thought about it as having a Ring of Honor was a great touchpoint with all of our alumni,” Blackburn said. “The in-game halftime ceremony was engaging for all of our fans as well as all of the content online. The voting process specifically because it is so prestigious and impactful, we wanted to make that specific for our most prestigious fans and those are our season ticket members and our suite holders who come to all 10 games. We wanted them to have a voice in the process.”
How to create the Ring of Honor ballot
Creating the ballot of the first 17 names was by careful design.
Blackburn, an avid Microsoft Excel user, said she created a spreadsheet to house all of the information she collected.
The Bengals were fortunate they had a lot of useful data available to them at the time because they had recently celebrated their 50th anniversary by creating the Bengals First 50.
This list recognized the top 50 retired Bengals players that was voted on by fans and media.
That was the starting point for the ballot and from there Blackburn studied who made Pro Bowl appearances and what additional awards players were given. The only rule the team has in place to qualify for their Ring of Honor is the player must be retired.
From there, Blackburn presented the information and she discussed again with her family and other prominent members of the organization to create the first ballot. The group collectively decided to recognize the NFL’s decision to add a 17th game that season as the cut off for 17 names on the ballot.
“It’s a list of players with unanimous support and clear distinguished achievements in their career and then it’s up to the season ticket holders and suite members to finalize and get them into the end zone with the vote,” Blackburn said of the process.
The Bengals' first Ring of Honor ballot
The following players, in addition to Paul Brown and Anthony Muñoz (the pre-determined first two members), earned a spot on the Bengals’ inaugural Ring of Honor ballot:
Ken Anderson
Willie Anderson
Jim Breech
James Brooks
Cris Collinsworth
Isaac Curtis
Corey Dillon
Boomer Esiason
David Fulcher
Chad Johnson
Tim Krumrie
Dave Lapham
Max Montoya
Lemar Parrish
Ken Riley
Bob Trumpy
Reggie Williams
Ken Riley and Ken Anderson were the first two players selected to join Brown and Muñoz in the inaugural class in 2021. In 2022, Willie Anderson and Isaac Curtis were selected. Last year, it was time for Chad Johnson and Boomer Esiason to enter the Ring of Honor. The team recently opened up the voting process for the 2024 class and the two new members will be honored during halftime of the Bengals’ Week 3 home game against the Washington Commanders on Sept. 23.
The ballot is going to stay the same for the next few years before the team decides to add newly retired players to it. And as for if the team plans to do more with the Ring of Honor, Blackburn pointed to the most recent display created to showcase the Ring of Honor members that was installed at Paycor Stadium last year right inside of Gate D for fans to view.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: How the Bengals' Ring of Honor was created
