Cincinnati Bengals great Willie Anderson played his last snap with the team in 2007 but says he didn’t really start to repair his relationship with the team until around 2016.
And that only happened because of the fans.
As Bengals fans will surely never forget, after an illustrious career with the Bengals, Anderson played just a single season with the Baltimore Ravens before retiring.
Anderson admits his main motivation that season was proving the Bengals wrong — but he says it was fans online who brought him back over.
“I’m gonna tell you what happened with me — the fans on Twitter and social media changed my mind,” Anderson told The Athletic’s Jay Morrison. “I let that go because the fans showed me so much love and appreciation. There was no social media around when I got cut, so you didn’t see the reactions of the fans when that happened. Like when Whit left, we all saw it and saw they were ready to riot and tear the damn town down. But when I left, I didn’t see any of that.”
Anderson went on to say he wishes some of his former teammates — like Corey Dillon — could feel the love on social media to understand just how much fans embraced them and still do.
It’s a fun anecdote from Anderson, the Bengals Ring of Honor member and Pro Football Hall of Fame finalist, as well as an illustration of just how much voice and sway fanbases can have in this online era.
