In the words of one Longworth Hall employee, "The floodgate of tailgaters" began at 2:00 Monday, six and a half hours before kickoff between the Cincinnati Bengals and Houston Texans.
Everything from Bengals decorated buses, to campers, to trucks with heavy-duty grills streamed into 700 West Pete Rose Way all afternoon.
Jake Murray, Mike Steirs and friends have one of the flashiest set-ups complete with Bengal-themed cornhole competitions and a big spread of food.
Michael Holten, general manager of a sports bar in Loveland, usually doesn't get to games because he has to work weekends. But Monday is his off day and he showed up with orange and black spiked hair and tiger pants. "We've got beer, cold beer on ice, buffalo chicken dip, queso dip, burgers, brats, chili. We've got it all!"
One aisle over Drew Toles was convinced he didn't show up too early to tailgate.
"For the Thursday night game we were here at noon, so no, it's not too early. You've pretty much got to make it a whole day event!"
It was Jay Hunter's fraternity anniversary, so he was expecting plenty of fraternity brothers. While he thinks the Bengals are doing great, he wants to see them get over that playoff hump.
According to Hunter, "We've got to win that first playoff game so we can get to the Super Bowl."
