I don’t know whether it’s somehow necessary, or simply the byproduct of drive, but professional athletes tend to have a revenge streak. Players will choose a jersey number to represent the number of teams that passed them in the draft. Any slight is used as fuel to get better.
And there may be no better fuel than a team telling you they don’t need you anymore, in one way or another. Like the Cincinnati Bengals’ Jake Browning, who has started the past four games at quarterback. He has been playing some impressive football under the circumstances after years of having no opportunity to play.
Their last win came over the Minnesota Vikings, the team that signed him as a college free agent and kept him on the practice squad for two years before deciding to move on. He made the game-winning play with a 44-yard completion on 3rd and 9 in overtime to get the Bengals into field goal range. After the kick, he ran off the field and screamed into a camera that they “shoulda never fuckin cut me”.
While it was an in-the-moment reaction, he did admit to it being somewhat personal, and countless players around the league could relate. That includes teammate Mike Hilton, the cornerback who was also a former college free agent cut by his original team.
“You know what? From a guy with experience like that, I understand where he’s coming from and how much that win meant to him so we wanted to get him that one”, he told reporters yesterday, via Mike Petraglia on Twitter.
A college free agent out of Ole Miss in 2016, Hilton signed with the Jacksonville Jaguars before they cut him at the end of August. Then he spent a brief period of time on the New England Patriots’ practice squad, about a week. Months later, late in the year, he signed to the Steelers’ practice squad and emerged as a starter in 2017.
His career blossomed, but the team opted not to prioritize him in free agency. Instead, he signed a four-year, $24 million contract with the rival Bengals, and he hasn’t made it a secret that there were some initial hard feelings.
Bengals WR Tyler Boyd told reporters prior to Hilton’s first game against his former team that he “didn’t feel valued by them” and that “for them not to invest in a guy like him is kind of insulting”.
Even yesterday, Hilton admitted that first game was personal for him, saying it was his “first time having some get-back against those guys”. But he also had plenty of complimentary things to say and added that now it’s all about getting a win. He currently owns a 3-2 record against his former team, including a loss several weeks ago.
Saturday will mark the sixth game, and the fifth start for Browning. That previous Steelers game was Browning’s first start, and he has played much better since. So perhaps this time he can help Hilton get just a little more get-back against his former team and help bury its playoff chances entirely while vastly improving his own team’s.
