The Bengals benched Andy Dalton on his birthday. Happy birthday, Andy Dalton!

The Cincinnati Bengals are having a rough go at it this season. They’re now 0-8 on the year, and it was reported by the NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero that after the bye week they’d be benching quarterback Andy Dalton for rookie Ryan Finley.

You hear all the time about how sports are “a business”, which is probably the team’s reasoning for benching Dalton ... on his birthday.

Pro Football Reference

Dalton honestly might not care one way or another. There’s no way he’s having a great time out there on the field this season given how bad the Bengals have been. I mean, it’s one thing to not have a good season, but it’s another thing altogether to be worse than the Browns. Also, birthdays just mean less and less as you get older for obvious reasons (our impending death! LOL).

But it’s still pretty cold. They could have waited to leak this information for another 12 hours or something. Now the internet gets to have fun at Dalton’s expense, as if he’s not having a rough enough year.

Dalton’s thrown nine touchdowns and eight picks this season, completing 60 percent of his passes. Benching him makes sense so the team could see what their rookie quarterback has. It’s also a good excuse for not trading A.J. Green, so Finley at least has somebody to throw to.

Sports can be cold. I hope Dalton gets the best birthday cake he’s ever had.