More than 20 years after playing his final game with the team, former Cincinnati Bengals running back Corey Dillon will be inducted into the team’s Ring of Fame. The Bengals announced that Dillon, along with former nose tackle Tim Krumrie, will be inducted during the team’s Week 3 game against the Washington Commanders, a game that gets primetime billing on “Monday Night Football”.
Dillon was a mainstay at running back for the Bengals during the late 90s and early 2000s, after years of struggles at the position for the franchise. Dillon was able to come in and almost immediately take hold of the position and quickly became one of the league’s best running backs for the Bengals. From Dillon’s rookie season of 1997 to the 2002 season, he piled up over 7500 rushing yards and 43 touchdowns, on his way to a second-place finish in Rookie of the Year voting and three Pro Bowl nods.
After 2002, things fell apart for Dillon in Cincinnati. He started just 11 games in the 2003 season, after missing only two starts total in the previous five seasons. Tensions between Dillon and the team had been high, and they came to a head after Dillon’s final game, where he tossed his equipment into the stands and made his unceremonious exit from the team.
It’s that final blemish on Dillon’s time in Cincinnati that is likely the driving force behind why it has taken more than two decades for his induction into the Ring of Honor, but Dillon says that both sides have “healed”, saying:
"I think time heals everything." "We had our due process of healing in our different ways. It's been long enough. I don't think the antics outweighed the production on the field, you know what I mean? I think what I presented to the organization outweighed the little antics that went on."
The honors may be long overdue, but it’s clear that even after everything that went down between the two sides, it means a lot to both for this honor to finally come for Dillon.
