Cincinnati coach Marvin Lewis suggested last summer that he might opt to walk off into the sunset if the Bengals were fortunate enough to win Super Bowl 50.
Speaking at the NFL Scouting Combine on Friday, Lewis made it clear that he has no thoughts of retirement following his team's gut-wrenching playoff loss to the Steelers.
"That's literally the first thing we talked about," Lewis said, via the Cincinnati Enquirer, regarding season-ending talks with owner Mike Brown. "There was no doubt. That's the first thing he always asks me, but no."
Lewis' seven postseason losses without a win have been counterbalanced by a streak of five consecutive playoff appearances. Embarking on an offseason of changes to the coaching staff and the roster, Lewis seems to have a refreshed outlook.
"Anytime you go out there there's an opportunity to fail," Lewis explained. "And you can't do this if you don't; you just have to detest losing, hate losing, and that's part of it. That's what drives you. It's not the winning part of it. It's the losing part of it."
Since the 1970 merger, Lewis and SteelersHall of Famer Chuck Noll are the only head coaches to last at least 12 consecutive seasons in one organization without a Super Bowl appearance.
Noll's four Lombardi Trophies in the 1970s provided bulletproof job security as he entered the 1980s. Lewis' long leash derives not just from "raising the Titanic" after the lost decade of the 1990s, but also from his standing as the centerpiece of the franchise.
Brown has ceded more and more control to a front office committee led by Lewis and rising director of player personnel Duke Tobin.
As Tobin stressed on Thursday, Lewis remains the "the focus and the voice of our football team." As long as that remains the case, Lewis will have as much job security as an NFL coach not named Bill Belichick.
