Bengals tight end busts out perfect 'Ickey Shuffle' on opening TD vs. Raiders
The Cincinnati Bengals last won a playoff game more than 32 years ago.
This season's Bengals paid early homage to a celebrated member of that 1990 squad on their first drive of Saturday's wild-card game against the Las Vegas Raiders.
The Bengals fell behind 3-0 but drove quickly down the field on their first possession and took the lead on a C.J. Uzomah touchdown catch.
And Uzomah knew exactly what to do.
The tight end immediately busted out the Ickey Shuffle — the famous dance of the late 1980s and early '90s, created by former Bengals running back Ickey Woods.
Joe Burrow's first playoff TD goes to CJ Uzomah!#RuleTheJungle #SuperWildCard
📺: #LVvsCIN on NBC
📱: NFL app pic.twitter.com/PfH6UIf5zC— NFL (@NFL) January 15, 2022
(To the younger set out there: It was a big deal back then.)
The 55-year-old Woods actually is attending Saturday's game and led a pre-game Ickey Shuffle celebration, which fans appeared pretty jacked up about.
Woods debuted the dance during the 1988 Bengals' Week 6 game against the Jets, first unveiling it after a touchdown run. He became a star almost immediately after that, and the Bengals rode Woods all the way to the Super Bowl that season.
How did Uzomah, who was born two years after Woods last played in the NFL, know about the Shuffle? We're guessing pre-game hype and social media could have helped.
Or perhaps some long-tenured Bengals staffer made sure to get the message to the team before kickoff: The Shuffle needs to come back.
It did. In all its vintage splendor.