Culture
Why Bengals’ win Saturday was about much more than one game for Tee Higgins
CINCINNATI — The moment Tee Higgins caught the game-winning 3-yard touchdown pass from Joe Burrow in overtime, he heaved his third touchdown reception high into the air as a cathartic release.
For Higgins, however, as he was surrounded by his teammates, flashing a confident glare with diamonds on his teeth shining off the flashing Paycor Stadium lights, this moment wasn’t merely about Bengals 30, Broncos 24.
No, this moment was about so much more. It was about everything.
“It’s the best feeling ever,” Higgins said.
GO DEEPER
Burrow keeps Bengals playoff hopes alive in wild 30-24 OT win over Broncos: Takeaways
This feeling was about a year in which the Bengals placed the franchise tag on him rather than offer a long-term contract. And rather than complain, he leaned into the work, showed up on time and dedicated himself to producing a contract year that would prove his worth while making a run for a title.
The feeling was about the inferred devaluing of his skills that came along with offers made to Higgins in each negotiation along the way.
About five years spent building a connection and deep-rooted respect among teammates that lifted this franchise from dregs to the top and back down, building bonds that regularly move his emotions.
About politely playing in the shadows of Burrow and Ja’Marr Chase, one of the great tandems in the NFL, never complaining or selfishly petitioning for the football.
Joe and Tee did that.@JoeyB @teehiggins5 pic.twitter.com/cw3HFF2p2q
— NFL (@NFL) December 29, 2024
About his conscious decision to shy away from the drama and spotlight at nearly every turn.
About hearing the words “injury prone” thrown around all year, calling his toughness into question, yet playing through knee and ankle injuries when everyone would understand a decision to shut it down.
About a city he never expected to grow attached to loving him back, one “Teeee!” chant at time, one final chorus cutting through the victorious pandemonium.
About a game where he walked in the building, through the tunnel and into franchise lore knowing this might be his last at home in Cincinnati.
“Emotions are just everywhere,” Higgins said, feeling reflective following his 11-reception, 131-yard, three-touchdown emphatic statement to the entire NFL. “You don’t know what to feel. It’s a surreal feeling.”
Surreal for everyone. Could this really be it in Cincinnati? The financials are challenging, the philosophy is worth debate. In that moment, smoke from the fireworks still hovering over the celebration, it was surreal, indeed, to think this could mark the final image for fans of one of the most electric trios in team history.
“I hope not, but that could have been my last game in the stripes here,” he said. “This game meant a lot more to me coming into it. Just walking into the stadium, that’s what I was thinking. It’s a possibility. You never know what happens in the future.”
“Who Dey! Love you!” – @teehiggins5 pic.twitter.com/yWktRagrhD
— Cincinnati Bengals (@Bengals) December 29, 2024
The path to this moment started with a text. With Higgins battling knee and ankle injuries, the first meeting of the week Tuesday included contingency plans in which he wasn’t on the field. Higgins pulled out his phone and sent a text to head coach Zac Taylor.
“I was in the back of the room and he texted me, ‘I’m playing,’” Taylor said. “So, you know, it’s early in the week, so I just let those guys get their space, really, to get right. But he was sending a pretty clear message that he saw personnel on the screen and said, ‘No, I’m playing.’”
There was no way he would miss this one. And no way the Bengals would win if he did.
In nearly every critical spot Saturday with the season on the line, Burrow turned to Higgins. When the offense scuffled through multiple failed short-yardage and red zone opportunities, it turned to Higgins as a mismatch. Once he motioned into a slot matchup with Ja’Quan McMillian, he instantly shook him inside for a pitch-and-catch 2-yard touchdown pass.
As Pat Surtain II slowed Chase, the Bengals sought matchups with Higgins. That included three receptions on three third-down targets.
With a tie game in the fourth quarter, Burrow saw Higgins matched up with corner Riley Moss, whom he targeted all night, and counted on his guy to go win. The 6-foot-4 athletic specimen took over with the type of high-point and toe-drag catch you just can’t teach.
.@joeyb x @teehiggins5 TOUGHHHH 😤#EasyToCelebrate | @budlight pic.twitter.com/rOiEIoSHvN
— Cincinnati Bengals (@Bengals) December 28, 2024
“Everybody can see what kind of player he is,” said Burrow, who stated following the first of these four consecutive wins he had a plan to keep himself, Chase and Higgins together for the long term. “He elevates us to a different level when he’s playing like that. Lucky to be a part of what we have going on right now.”
Even when Higgins made a mistake, fumbling in the fourth quarter as Cincinnati yet again crossed into Denver territory, his resiliency showed as his best moments would still be in front of him.
So, when the night went haywire from game-management debacles to fourth-down heaves to doinked game-winning attempts, Burrow and the Bengals were done screwing around when the defense gifted them one final chance at salvation from an 0-7 record against teams with winning records.
Get the ball to Higgins.
Burrow was beating the Broncos on slants all night. The move to keep them off-balance was over the top. Only, to make that throw, in that situation, you must have a ball-winner capable of snagging a 31-yarder over the shoulder and toe-tapping to seal the game. A game he would finish off one play later.
“I was waiting for the right moment to take our shot there,” Burrow said. “What a great catch by Tee. Tee came up big. He was unbelievable today.”
The owners’ suite didn’t need a reminder of why you would just pay the price and keep Higgins, but on Saturday night it sure got slapped in the face with one. Right along with the rapidly increasing cost of doing so.
Chase stood 10 feet away from Higgins as he spoke into a bevy of microphones after the game and interjected a simple message: “Pay that man!”
Maybe they will, maybe they won’t. The challenging nature of the decision didn’t make the reality of the moment any easier to digest.
“I grew so many relationships within the building, outside the building, in the city,” Higgins said, when asked about contemplating the concept that money could take him elsewhere. “It’ll definitely hurt. But there’s business, and if that’s where life takes me, God got me and I’ll just follow his lead.”
He admitted the emotions of the night returned as the celebration went on. Players so often say there’s no time for reflection during the season. But there was no avoiding it Saturday night.
“At the end of the game when I scored the game winner,” he said, smiling and looking off into the distance, “I was like, ‘Man, shout out to Cincy.’”
A surreal, emotional conclusion, without question, to a game that was about so much more. A night that might be Higgins’ final, brightest moment in Cincinnati.
“If it is,” he said, “go out with a bang, you know what I mean?”
Everyone very clearly knows what he means.
(Photo: Andy Lyons / Getty Images)
new video loaded: 250 Years of Jane Austen, in Objects
By Jennifer Harlan, Sadie Stein, Claire Hogan, Laura Salaberry and Edward Vega
December 18, 2025
“Window seat with garden view / A perfect nook to read a book / I’m lost in my Jane Austen…” sings Kristin Chenoweth in “The Girl in 14G” — what could be more ideal? Well, perhaps showing off your literary knowledge and getting a perfect score on this week’s super-size Book Review Quiz Bowl honoring the life, work and global influence of Jane Austen, who turns 250 today. In the 12 questions below, tap or click your answers to the questions. And no matter how you do, scroll on to the end, where you’ll find links to free e-book versions of her novels — and more.
On Dec. 16, 1775, a girl was born in Steventon, England — the seventh of eight children — to a clergyman and his wife. She was an avid reader, never married and died in 1817, at the age of 41. But in just those few decades, Jane Austen changed the world.
Her novels have had an outsize influence in the centuries since her death. Not only are the books themselves beloved — as sharply observed portraits of British society, revolutionary narrative projects and deliciously satisfying romances — but the stories she created have so permeated culture that people around the world care deeply about Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy, even if they’ve never actually read “Pride and Prejudice.”
With her 250th birthday this year, the Austen Industrial Complex has kicked into high gear with festivals, parades, museum exhibits, concerts and all manner of merch, ranging from the classily apt to the flamboyantly absurd. The words “Jane mania” have been used; so has “exh-Aust-ion.”
How to capture this brief life, and the blazing impact that has spread across the globe in her wake? Without further ado: a mere sampling of the wealth, wonder and weirdness Austen has brought to our lives. After all, your semiquincentennial doesn’t come around every day.
By ‘A Lady’
Austen published just four novels in her lifetime: “Sense and Sensibility” (1811), “Pride and Prejudice” (1813), “Mansfield Park” (1814) and “Emma” (1815). All of them were published anonymously, with the author credited simply as “A Lady.” (If you’re in New York, you can see this first edition for yourself at the Grolier Club through Feb. 14.)
Where the Magic Happened
Placed near a window for light, this diminutive walnut table was, according to family lore, where the author did much of her writing. It is now in the possession of the Jane Austen Society.
An Iconic Accessory
Few of Austen’s personal artifacts remain, contributing to the author’s mystique. One of them is this turquoise ring, which passed to her sister-in-law and then her niece after her death. In 2012, the ring was put up for auction and bought by the “American Idol” champion Kelly Clarkson. This caused quite a stir in England; British officials were loath to let such an important cultural artifact leave the country’s borders. Jane Austen’s House, the museum now based in the writer’s Hampshire home, launched a crowdfunding campaign to Bring the Ring Home and bought the piece from Clarkson. The real ring now lives at the museum; the singer has a replica.
Austen Onscreen
Since 1940, when Austen had a bit of a moment and Greer Garson and Laurence Olivier starred in MGM’s rather liberally reinterpreted “Pride and Prejudice,” there have been more than 20 international adaptations of Austen’s work made for film and TV (to say nothing of radio). From the sublime (Emma Thompson’s Oscar-winning “Sense and Sensibility”) to the ridiculous (the wholly gratuitous 2022 remake of “Persuasion”), the high waists, flickering firelight and double weddings continue to provide an endless stream of debate fodder — and work for a queen’s regiment of British stars.
Jane Goes X-Rated
The rumors are true: XXX Austen is a thing. “Jane Austen Kama Sutra,” “Pride and Promiscuity: The Lost Sex Scenes of Jane Austen” and enough slash fic and amateur porn to fill Bath’s Assembly Rooms are just the start. Purists may never recover.
A Lady Unmasked
Austen’s final two completed novels, “Northanger Abbey” and “Persuasion,” were published after her death. Her brother Henry, who oversaw their publication, took the opportunity to give his sister the recognition he felt she deserved, revealing the true identity of the “Lady” behind “Pride and Prejudice,” “Emma,” etc. in a biographical note. “The following pages are the production of a pen which has already contributed in no small degree to the entertainment of the public,” he wrote, extolling his sister’s imagination, good humor and love of dancing. Still, “no accumulation of fame would have induced her, had she lived, to affix her name to any productions of her pen.”
Wearable Tributes
It is a truth universally acknowledged that a Jane Austen fan wants to find other Jane Austen fans, and what better way to advertise your membership in that all-inclusive club than with a bit of merch — from the subtle and classy to the gloriously obscene.
The Austen Literary Universe
On the page, there is no end to the adventures Austen and her characters have been on. There are Jane Austen mysteries, Jane Austen vampire series, Jane Austen fantasy adventures, Jane Austen Y.A. novels and, of course, Jane Austen romances, which transpose her plots to a remote Maine inn, a Greenwich Village penthouse and the Bay Area Indian American community, to name just a few. You can read about Austen-inspired zombie hunters, time-traveling hockey players, Long Island matchmakers and reality TV stars, or imagine further adventures for some of your favorite characters. (Even the obsequious Mr. Collins gets his day in the sun.)
A Botanical Homage
Created in 2017 to mark the 200th anniversary of Austen’s death, the “Jane Austen” rose is characterized by its intense orange color and light, sweet perfume. It is bushy, healthy and easy to grow.
Aunt Jane
Hoping to cement his beloved aunt’s legacy, Austen’s nephew James Edward Austen-Leigh published this biography — a rather rosy portrait based on interviews with family members — five decades after her death. The book is notable not only as the source (biased though it may be) of many of the scant facts we know about her life, but also for the watercolor portrait by James Andrews that serves as its frontispiece. Based on a sketch by Cassandra, this depiction of Jane is softer and far more winsome than the original: Whether that is due to a lack of skill on her sister’s part or overly enthusiastic artistic license on Andrews’s, this is the version of Austen most familiar to people today.
Cultural Currency
In 2017, the Bank of England released a new 10-pound note featuring Andrews’s portrait of Austen, as well as a line from “Pride and Prejudice”: “I declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading!” Austen is the third woman — other than the queen — to be featured on British currency, and the only one currently in circulation.
In the Trenches
During World War I and World War II, British soldiers were given copies of Austen’s works. In his 1924 story “The Janeites,” Rudyard Kipling invoked the grotesque contrasts — and the strange comfort — to be found in escaping to Austen’s well-ordered world amid the horrors of trench warfare. As one character observes, “There’s no one to touch Jane when you’re in a tight place.”
Baby Janes
You’re never too young to learn to love Austen — or that one’s good opinion, once lost, may be lost forever.
The Austen Industrial Complex
Maybe you’ve not so much as seen a Jane Austen meme, let alone read one of her novels. No matter! Need a Jane Austen finger puppet? Lego? Magnetic poetry set? Lingerie? Nameplate necklace? Plush book pillow? License plate frame? Bath bomb? Socks? Dog sweater? Whiskey glass? Tarot deck? Of course you do! And you’re in luck: What a time to be alive.
Around the Globe
Austen’s novels have been translated into more than 40 languages, including Polish, Finnish, Chinese and Farsi. There are active chapters of the Jane Austen Society, her 21st-century fan club, throughout the world.
Playable Persuasions
In Austen’s era, no afternoon tea was complete without a rousing round of whist, a trick-taking card game played in two teams of two. But should you not be up on your Regency amusements, you can find plenty of contemporary puzzles and games with which to fill a few pleasant hours, whether you’re piecing together her most beloved characters or using your cunning and wiles to land your very own Mr. Darcy.
#SoJaneAusten
The wild power of the internet means that many Austen moments have taken on lives of their own, from Colin Firth’s sopping wet shirt and Matthew Macfadyen’s flexing hand to Mr. Collins’s ode to superlative spuds and Mr. Knightley’s dramatic floor flop. The memes are fun, yes, but they also speak to the universality of Austen’s writing: More than two centuries after her books were published, the characters and stories she created are as relatable as ever.
Bonnets Fit for a Bennett
For this summer’s Grand Regency Costumed Promenade in Bath, England — as well as the myriad picnics, balls, house parties, dinners, luncheons, teas and fetes that marked the anniversary — seamstresses, milliners, mantua makers and costume warehouses did a brisk business, attiring the faithful in authentic Regency finery. And that’s a commitment: A bespoke, historically accurate bonnet can easily run to hundreds of dollars.
Most Ardently, Jane
Austen was prolific correspondent, believed to have written thousands of letters in her lifetime, many to her sister, Cassandra. But in an act that has frustrated biographers for centuries, upon Jane’s death, Cassandra protected her sister’s privacy — and reputation? — by burning almost all of them, leaving only about 160 intact, many heavily redacted. But what survives is filled with pithy one-liners. To wit: “I do not want people to be very agreeable, as it saves me the trouble of liking them a great deal.”
Stage and Sensibility
Austen’s works have been adapted numerous times for the stage. Some plays (and musicals) hew closely to the original text, while others — such as Emily Breeze’s comedic riff on “Pride and Prejudice,” “Are the Bennet Girls OK?”, which is running at New York City’s West End Theater through Dec. 21 — use creative license to explore ideas of gender, romance and rage through a contemporary lens.
Austen 101
Austen remains a reliable fount of academic scholarship; recent conference papers have focused on the author’s enduring global reach, the work’s relationship to modern intersectionality, digital humanities and “Jane Austen on the Cheap.” And as one professor told our colleague Sarah Lyall of the Austen amateur scholarship hive, “Woe betide the academic who doesn’t take them seriously.”
W.W.J.D.
When facing problems — of etiquette, romance, domestic or professional turmoil — sometimes the only thing to do is ask: What would Jane do?
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