Bengals president Mike Brown to miss first-ever regular-season game

Cincinnati Bengals president Mike Brown will see his streak of attending 824 consecutive regular-season and playoff games end when Cincinnati faces the Cleveland Browns at FirstEnergy Stadium on Thursday evening. 

The 85-year-old told the club's website on Wednesday that he isn't traveling from Cincinnati to Northeast Ohio due to concerns related to the coronavirus pandemic. 

"Wrenching," Brown called his decision. "I miss not going. I want to go."

He added that he understands traveling through Ohio to attend Thursday's fixture is far too risky. 

"I'm the age I am and I check all the boxes and I'm told it's foolish to do it," he said. "It comes down to a decision and maybe it's time to start doing stuff like this. I'm just at the age I have to go about life a little differently."

The only game Brown has ever missed was a preseason contest in August 1991 when his legendary father, Paul Brown, was dying. 

Paul was co-founder of the Browns and the architect of the club's dynasties of the 1940s and 1950s. He later founded the Bengals franchise that began play as an expansion team in 1968.