99th Street Bengals Fan Stoked For AFC Championship Game

EVERGREEN PARK, IL – Anyone who regularly drives down 99th Street in Evergreen Park knows the house. It’s the one decked out in Cincinnati Bengals black and orange all year-round.

The house, usually accompanied in the driveway by a truck with a big Bengals decal on it and oversized cutouts of Bengals players on the front lawn, stands out about as much as a Cincinnati Bengals fan from Chicago. Which is exactly what homeowner and Evergreen Park Community High School parent Keith Maciaszek is.

“People know me as the Bengals guy, but nobody around here likes my team,” said Maciaszek, the dad of six EPCHS alums and his son, Keith, who is now a junior at the school. “But now, some are starting to jump on the bandwagon.”

Now is indeed a good time to be a Bengals fan. Even if that hasn’t been the case at all over the last three decades.

The Bengals have advanced to the AFC Championship Game against the Kansas City Chiefs this Sunday. Playoff wins over the Las Vegas Raiders and Tennessee Titans, the franchise’s first postseason victories in 31 years, have the Bengals one game away from the Super Bowl.

Maciaszek has lived in the 99th Street house between EPCHS and Francisco Avenue for 22 years, and his family’s Bengal fandom has been prominently on display the entire time. It’s a fandom that dates back to the late 1980s for Maciaszek, a Chicago native and St. Rita High School graduate.

“I always saw the comedy, the entertainment side, of football,” Maciaszek said. “I remember the Ickey shuffle (the 1980s end zone dance made famous by Bengals running back Ickey Woods), and when the Bengals drafted my favorite player, Chad Johnson, that’s when I was fully on. He’s the guy who started all the end zone celebrations.”

Calling himself a longtime fan of the underdog, Maciaszek makes several trips to Cincinnati for Bengals games every year.

“It’s very expensive to go to a Bears game in Chicago, so I like my 5-hour road trip, when I can clear my mind and have a great time, win or lose,” he said. “Cincinnati is a town you can drive through in a few minutes, with a friendly atmosphere you don’t see in bigger cities.”

Losing is something Maciaszek and Bengals fans everywhere have gotten used to over the years. The team has lost 10 or more games 14 times since 1990, and, until a couple weeks ago, went 0-7 in the playoffs during that stretch.

“We’re like that last horse that never wins,” Maciaszek said. “There’s always been that heartbreak. Something always happens. It’s like there’s a curse of being a Bengals fan.”

Like after the 2005 season, when Bengals star quarterback Carson Palmer got injured during a home playoff game against the archrival Pittsburgh Steelers. Or in 2014, when star Bengals wide receiver A.J. Greene was sidelined before a playoff loss to the Indianapolis Colts. And a year later, in 2015, when a costly penalty led to the Bengals giving up a late lead in another postseason loss to the Steelers.

As one of the smaller markets in the NFL, Maciaszek says Cincinnati offers a friendly atmosphere and small town feel, even for visiting fans. His Bengals truck is recognized during each visit, with Cincy faithful often in disbelief that one of their biggest fans is from Chicagoland.

“Even there, people know my house, too. And I tell them I drive like this every day of the year,” he said.

Maciaszek works for a graphics company that’s based in Cincinnati, of all places. He switches up the design on his truck every so often to show off his talent.

It’s not only the truck and home that’s decked out in the Bengals colors. He’s got Bengal tattoos across half his body, and a Bengals man cave that has caught the attention of several NFL players over the years.

“I represent every single day of my life,” Maciaszek said. “People can’t believe a Chicago (area) person does this.”

“When people say they bleed for their team, I literally bleed for my team,” he added, referring to the tattoos.

With the Bengals appearing in their first AFC Championship Game since the 1988 season, Maciaszek calls Sunday’s game in Kansas City “the game of my life.”

“We’re used to being the underdog, and love the fact that we finally have a team like this,” he said. “I’ve always liked sticking up for the little guy.”

The Bengals are indeed the underdog in the game, with the Chiefs favored by seven points. While hopeful, and confident due to the stellar play of quarterback Joe Burrow and wide receiver Ja’Marr Chase, Maciaszek is a realist in his expectations.

“It’s David vs. Goliath right now,” he said. “I have some good belief on how we could beat them, but they got Andy Reid, one of the best coaches of all-time, and we’re going into one of the loudest stadiums at Arrowhead (the Chiefs’ home field). It feels a lot like a movie script.”

Maciaszek says his Bengals support is getting noticed in Evergreen Park now more than ever.

“People have been nice, going by the house and beeping their horn, wishing us the best,” he said. “We’ve never had that the entire time we’ve lived in E.P.”

With much of Evergreen Park, and a nation of football fans who may be getting a bit weary of the Chiefs’ recent dominance, behind the Bengals this week, Maciaszek is enjoying the ride.

“Maybe the man upstairs is wearing black and orange this year,” he said.