Willie Anderson is making his case again, and this time he’s aiming straight at Bengals ownership.
After Cincinnati announced Bob Trumpy and James Brooks as its 2026 Ring of Honor inductees, the former Bengals standout took to Twitter/X to congratulate both men while also pushing the team to rethink its future plans for the honor. Anderson said the franchise should not move to a one-player-per-year model.
"Congratulations to these two legends who gave their all to @Bengals," Anderson tweeted. "I still wanna use this time to say to our Bengals owners, 'Please reconsider next year's plan of only putting one player per year in the Ring of Honor!' So many men are deserving and we want them to be here to receive this great honor you have created for former guys!"
He kept the message going in the same post, calling on fans and anyone with access to the team to pass it along.
"Let's start a petition to the organization!" Anderson continued in his tweet.
"Send this message to ownership please if you know them! They're doing a great job with this, but we need more than one.
#Whodey"
The push comes after the Bengals changed their Ring of Honor voting process in May. Starting in 2027, the team will add just one new member each year, which makes 2026 the last season in which multiple former players can be inducted.
Anderson has been saying for a while that the current pace is too slow. On June 1, he tweeted that the Bengals should have been putting in three to five players per class during the first two or three Ring of Honor classes.
"We are so many years behind," Anderson added June 1.
The timing is notable for Anderson, who underwent a successful kidney transplant in March. He was also among the 15 modern-era player finalists for the Pro Football Hall of Fame class of 2026, though neither he nor former Bengals quarterback Ken Anderson got enough votes to be elected in February.
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