The Cincinnati Bengals offered supporters an opportunity to carry their Ring of Honour into a new generation. Instead, voters reached back across two formative eras to recognise a pair of players whose influence can be seen throughout the modern NFL.

Running back James Brooks and the late Bob Trumpy will become the latest additions to Cincinnati’s Ring of Honour during the Bengals’ home game against the Tennessee Titans on November 1st. Both were selected by season-ticket members from a ballot newly expanded to include prominent recent players Geno Atkins, Carlos Dunlap, A.J. Green, Leon Hall and Andrew Whitworth.

Their election was therefore more than an exercise in nostalgia. Given a choice between some of the most recognisable Bengals of the 21st century and seven longer-serving candidates, voters chose two players who challenged conventional expectations at their respective positions. Trumpy helped Cincinnati discover how a tight end could be deployed as a downfield receiving threat during the franchise’s earliest seasons. Almost two decades later, Brooks became the interchangeable runner and receiver at the heart of Sam Wyche’s no-huddle offense. Neither, however, looked particularly well suited to the role he would eventually help redefine.

“The thing that most stands out about them is that neither had the entire physical package to be a great player,” Bengals president Mike Brown told the Bengals’ official website. “Bob was too slender to be a tight end, wasn’t he? James was too small to be an NFL back, wasn’t he?

“But they had something within them that drove them to be good. They didn’t think of themselves as limited. They thought they could, and they did, and they became great players.”

Brooks had already spent three largely frustrating seasons with the San Diego Chargers when Cincinnati acquired him in exchange for Pete Johnson in May 1984. The first-round pick had been confined mostly to third-down and return duties behind Chuck Muncie, despite showing flashes of the multi-dimensional game that would later flourish with the Bengals. Cincinnati was hardly Brooks’ preferred destination, especially as his first visit had come as a Chargers rookie for the 1981 AFC Championship Game played in the coldest wind chill temperature in NFL history at −59 °F (−51 °C) under the calculation method used at the time.

“The only time I had played in Cincinnati was in ‘The Freezer Bowl’,” Brooks reflected. “That’s the last place I wanted to go.”

The reluctance did not last. Under Wyche, Brooks became a central piece of an offense capable of changing personnel presentations without making substitutions, moving between the backfield and receiver alignments to expose mismatches before defenses could adjust.

“Sam knew how to use my talents,” Brooks said. “I could go inside. I could go outside. It was the opportunity. Look at all the weapons we had. Eddie [Brown]. Tim McGee. The offensive line. Anthony [Muñoz]. Max [Montoya]. I probably had the best offensive line that played with the Bengals.”

Brooks made four Pro Bowls during eight seasons in Cincinnati and helped the Bengals reach Super Bowl XXIII. By the time he departed after the 1991 season, he had overtaken Johnson as the franchise’s career rushing leader. His 6,447 yards have since been surpassed only by Corey Dillon, while Brooks remains Cincinnati’s record holder with an average of 4.8 yards per carry among players with at least 500 attempts. His 3,012 receiving yards lifted his Bengals total to 9,459 yards from scrimmage, good for fourth in franchise history.

The numbers become more revealing when placed against his contemporaries. Between 1984 and 1991, only Eric Dickerson, Roger Craig and Marcus Allen accumulated more yards from scrimmage, and each required considerably more touches. Brooks’ 27 touchdown receptions during that span were almost double the total of any other NFL running back. His contribution extended beyond carrying and catching too as, despite playing at approximately 180 pounds, Brooks was trusted to confront much larger pass-rushers in protection.

“He was a good receiver, a good runner, but the thing the numbers don’t say that needs being said is he was an exceptional pass protector,” Brown said. “Even at his size, he was fully effective. He did it with just the right form every time. He was very quick. He would explode into the guy. He might have weighed half of what the other guy weighed. He got him just right. He could block good rushers even at his size. Brooks was a very fine player. It’s good he’s recognised. He deserves it. He earned it.”

Trumpy’s career carried many of the same themes. Cincinnati selected the 6ft 6in, 215-pound Utah product with the 301st pick of the 1968 draft, during preparations for the franchise’s inaugural AFL season. Too lean for the accepted image of a tight end, he increased his chances of surviving training camp by learning two positions.

“I was sitting in the back of the meeting room counting numbers,” Trumpy recalled in 2018. “There were 23 guys vying for the receiver and tight end position. I figured I’d double my chances to make it if I played both.”

Paul Brown and assistant Bill Walsh soon recognised that Trumpy was most dangerous when released from the traditional confines of the position. They split him wide, put him in motion and asked linebackers and defensive backs to account for a player whose combination of size and speed did not fit their established coverage rules.

“I give all the credit in the world to Bill Walsh for recognising and realising that I shouldn’t just line up next to a tackle on every down,” Trumpy once said. “I followed his orders; he moved me all over the place and it blew up defenses all over the American Football League.”

Trumpy reached four Pro Bowls during his first six seasons. Over that period, only Hall-of-Famer Jackie Smith caught more passes among NFL tight ends — and then by a single reception. Trumpy completed his ten-year Bengals career with 298 catches for 4,600 yards and 35 touchdowns, while his average of 15.4 yards per reception remains the highest in franchise history.

“In my opinion, during his time, he was the best receiving tight end in the league,” Brown said. “He was a top-level player. He had a long stride. He had good hands. Because the safeties couldn’t stay with him, he became a productive downfield threat for us.”

Trumpy later became almost as closely associated with broadcasting as football. His career behind the microphone included four Super Bowls, three Olympic Games and three Ryder Cups, earning him the Pro Football Hall of Fame’s Pete Rozelle Radio-Television Award in 2014. He died last November at the age of 80 and will enter the Bengals’ Ring of Honour posthumously as its first player drawn from the original 1968 team.

Brooks, now 67, will be present to receive an accolade he distilled with the same economy that characterised his touchdown ‘celebration’.

“I would say it’s an honour, and I just want everyone to know I was a good player,” he said. “No dancing. Just go to the sidelines and rest.”

The 2026 class will be the last to contain two inductees before Cincinnati reduces its annual selection to one from next year. That impending restriction made the arrival of several modern candidates more pressing, yet voters chose to settle two older claims first. In Brooks and Trumpy, they also chose a coherent piece of Bengals history.