Bengals cave, pull Katy Perry from stadium playlist

Monday night, I was pleasantly surprised to see that when the clock hit zero in a Bengals win over the Browns, a certain pop song started playing;

You get it? Because she sings about having the eye of a tiger and roaring, and Bengals are tigers and roar and stuff.

However, as the Wall Street Journal reports, fans complained so virulently about the insertion of Katy Perry into their football evening that the song won’t be featured as prominently:

“I think some fans proved that there’s an expectation that when the team takes the field, there should be more of a hard-rock, classic-rock song and I know that’s what we’re going to do this game,” said Jeff Berding, the Bengals’ director of sales and public affairs. “Katy Perry is not going to be the last song you hear before the team takes the field.“The song still may be played after wins, but for the most part will be taken out of the team’s in-game playlist.

As an unabashed fan of Katy Perry and pretty much all alarmingly catchy female pop vocalists, as well as a sports enjoyer, I think this is dumb. Those two things aren’t mutually exclusive, and furthermore, it was really enjoyable watching Cincinnati’s players awkwardly celebrate a win with a completely incongruous Katy Perry song playing in the background.

The Detroit Tigers also have Katy Perry on their stadium playlist, and they’re about to clinch their division. Bengals fans need to wake up from their teenage dream in which sports is only associated with jock jams. They’ve been hot, going 1-0 with Katy Perry blasting on the Paul Brown speakers, and if they now become cold, they’ll only have their outdated musical preferences to blame for turning this season into the one that got away.

I guess my point is I really like Katy Perry and football.