National Football League

Bengals near the bottom of NFL cheating franchise rankings

Published May. 19, 2015 1:57 a.m. ET

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Just when you thought you were sick of all the 'gate' scandals in the NFL, a new site has graded the cheating history of all 32 franchises. 

The Bengals were deemed well below average cheaters, landing them 27th according to the site's formula. In case you were wondering, the Steelers were rated No. 2 while the Ravens were seventh. The Browns were the 'cleanest' team in the division at No. 30. 

Cincinnati's own mini-Deflategate accounted for the team's most egregious offense, but even that only warranted 1 1/2 video cameras out of 5 on the site's severity scale. Former Bengals QB Jeff Blake admitted back in January during New England's Deflategate saga that he ordered ball boys to deflate footballs during his time in Cincinnati. 

Coming in at one video camera was Marvin Lewis' illegal toss of a challenge flag last year in Tampa Bay when the Buccaneers had 12 men on the field on their final drive. You may remember that the illegal challenge allowed the referees to review and correct the play in the Bengals' favor, but Lewis was correcting a wrong, nonetheless. 

Besides that, it was slim pickings when looking back at the Bengals' history. A few cheapshots here and a couple PED suspensions there was all that could be found on their minimal rap sheet.

Check Your Team Cheats for the full rankings. 

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