Sam Wyche is probably best known for helping to put together some of the best years in Cincinnati Bengals history as the team's head coach. He actually began his professional football career as a quarterback with the AFL expansion Bengals in 1968, but couldn't find work as a player after being cut by the St. Louis Cardinals in 1976.

He returned as a coach with the San Francisco 49ers and helped them to beat the Bengals in Super Bowl XVI, and after spending a year with the Indiana Hoosiers, was hired as the Bengals' head coach in 1984. He coached for the next seven years with the team, sporting a record of 61-66 in the regular season. But, he was part of all of the Bengals' last three playoff wins (two in 1988 and one in 1991). Had it not been for a dropped interception in the endzone from Bengals' cornerback Lewis Billups, he also would have brought the Bengals their first and only Lombardi trophy.

But, it was how he chose to pacify a crowd of ravenous Bengals fans on December 10, 1989 against the Seattle Seahawks that is forever embedded in NFL history. On that day, Bengals fans were not happy with the referees and chose to pelt them with snowballs. In response, Wyche he chose to say this:

"Will the next person that sees anybody throw anything onto this field, point them out, and get them out of here. You don't live in Cleveland, you live in Cincinnati!"

Bengals fans always love a good jab at their most hated rivals and, at the time, that was the Cleveland Browns. Their fans were known for being particularly rowdy and, as Wyche pointed out to Joe Scalzo at cantonrep.com, had a particularly notable history of pelting Bengals players with objects when they traveled to Cleveland for road games.

"Cleveland had the reputation for throwing the dog bones — and they did — and sometimes they'd throw Double-A batteries and half-filled beer cans. Those hurt when they hit you," Wyche said. "We'd warm up right in front of the Dawg Pound and my players were getting pounded."

Wyche's speech worked. The stadium erupted after hearing his now-classic line and fans obliged his request. Notably, he was prepared to make a speech to stop the snowball assault from fans. After an incident between the San Francisco 49ers and Denver Broncos four years earlier, commissioner Pete Rozelle sent out a memo saying 'Don't let this get started' in reference to fans throwing snow balls onto the field. But, Wyche insists that his memorable shot at Cleveland fans was just a spur of the moment thing that ended up working really well.

"I go jogging across the field and I had no idea what I was going to say. Literally none," Wyche said. "So, [Jerry Seeman] handed me the mic and I said, ‘If you see anybody throwing anything on this field, point him out, we'll get him out of here.' And that's when it just came out: ‘You don't live in Cleveland, you live in Cincinnati.'"

Unfortunately, the intensity of the rivalry didn't last much longer to produce more fun, memorable moments like this. 1989 was the last year that the original Cleveland Browns managed to win the AFC Central before moving to Baltimore in 1996. Even if they had stayed relevant, Wyche was fired by the Bengals' new owner, Mike Brown, two days after his squad beat the New England Patriots to cap off an abysmal 3-13 season that, at the time, qualified for the worst record in franchise history. The Bengals haven't had a head coach quite so animated and energetic since.

Today, the Bengals-Browns rivalry is not the same as it once was. Sure, as division rivals in the same state the two parties don't tend to get along. But, the hatred has receded somewhat as the Browns lost their team in 1996 only to have it replaced by an incarnation that has only made the playoffs once (2002) in the 20 years that they have been back. If the Bengals had an animated coach like Wyche these days and that coach had to joke about a rival team to get the attention of some rowdy fans, they would probably take an equally funny shot at the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Even without the intense rivalry to back it up, Bengals fans still remember the quote fondly and love hearing it from perhaps their most beloved coach. In fact, Wyche says that, 26 and a half years later, he still can't seem to live it down.

"That quote haunts me to this day," Wyche said. "Every time I'm introduced, it's usually with that."