Bengals Booth Heartache Tonight

wide receiver Mike Thomas. If you're still grumpy from Sunday's final score, I promise you my conversation with Mike Thomas will put a smile on your face. The Bengals Booth Podcast is presented by bud Light. Seltzer refreshed the game and here's a quick reminder that you can have the latest edition of this podcast deliver write to your phone, tablet, or computer by subscribing on iTunes, Stitch, your Google Play, Spotify, or pod Bean. It's the greatest thing since the Bengals

media relations staff before the pandemic. I was pretty self sufficient when it came to doing my job. The Bengals locker room was opened several days a week so I would get to know the players, set up my interviews, and gather the material I need for broadcasting the games and hosting our weekly radio shows. Well that's not possible this year. Reporters are not allowed inside of NFL locker

rooms because of COVID nineteen. So everybody that covers the Bengals has been relying on the team's media relations staff of Emily Parker, PJ Combs, Pete Shram, and Laura top and they have been doing an amazing job of helping us as we try to inform you. So Emily, PJ, Pete, and Laura, thanks a million from everybody on the Bengals beat. Your hard work is truly appreciated. Now let's get to

Sunday's game. It certainly started well for the Bengals as they opened the game with a seventy yard drive that's set up first and goal at the two yard line. Burrowing the shotgun Bernard to his left, Burrow fakes a handoff throws into the end zone. It's patted in the year and intercepted in the end zone. That's the second time this year that Burrow has been intercepted in the

end zone. It happened from the one yard line against Jacksonville when Miles jack ripped the ball away from Drew Sample, But two plays after the Brown's interception, Baker Mayfield returned the favor. Now he takes the snap, drops back five steps. He's gonna throw it down field for Odell back two. It's intercepted by Darius Phillips, running it back to the thirty, the twenty five, and he'll be drigged down at the

twenty four yard line. So Baker Mayfield, who has picked off twice in the regular season finale last year by Darius Phillips, is picked off on his first throw today by the Bengals on her back, and that led to the game's first score. Second and goal inside the one. Burrow is under center again, takes the snap, runs another quarterback ban Joe Burrow should be in here. Come the officials to check it out, and there's the touchdown signal.

The Bengals had an early lead, but the Browns have Miles Garrett Burrow back to pass being chased by Miles gard who pokes the ball away Cleveland and Cincinnati scrambling after the loose ball, it goes out of bounds. Miles Garrett with a strip sack and the Browns recovered before it went out of bounds, apparently one of two sacks for Miles Garrett, who is up to nine for the season. The forced fumble was his fourth. It led to a

field goal that made it seven to three. The Bengals answered with a Randy bullockfield goal four minutes into the second quarter that made it ten to three. At that point, Burrow had one hundred and fifty two passing yards and Baker Mayfield had zero. He was over five with an interception, but the Browns quarterback would not throw another incomplete pass until there were sixteen seconds left in the game. Cincinnati creeping up on the defensive line, Mayfield with time his

pass caught for a touchdown by Bryants. That three yard grabbed by rookie tight end Harrison Bryant tied the game at ten with three forty two left in the half, and Burrow went to work, orchestrating a seventy five yard drive that not only ended with a touchdown but showed up the clock. Second and goal from the eleven twenty two seconds left. The Bengals are out of timeouts. Burrow back to pass, good pocket throws into the end zone. Yeah, it's intended for touchdown Bengals as Tyler Boy caught it

right on the white stripe. The ball passed the white stripe, Betty was driven back out onto the playing field, but the touchdown signal was given with fifteen seconds left in the half seventeen ten. Bengals. His Burrow through for two hundred thirty four yards in the first half. Here's Aj Green being out there with him and then watching his demeter in the huddle that he never flinches. He never had any doubt in his mind that we wasn't going out down there and score. And he's special man. That

guy gonna be a great one. So I'm glad we got him here. Aj by the way, had another solid game, finishing with seven catches for eighty two yards. The second half became a Burrow versus Baker shootout. There were no punts and no turnovers, just a bunch of points. After Mayfield threw his second touchdown pass to Harrison Bryant to tie the score at seventeen, the Bengals drove to the Cleveland four before settling for a Randy Bullock field goal.

It gave Cincinnati a twenty to seventeen league going to the fourth quarter, but getting three instead of seven proved costly because the Bengals could not stop Baker Mayfield. Second and seven, Mayfield drops back to throw into the end zone. It is caught for the Cleveland Browns touchdown. David Najoku with the catch, and the Browns have taken the lead in the first two minutes of the fourth quarter. Good throw.

The coverage by Von Bell was good, but it was a perfect throw by Baker Mayfield, and former first round draft pick David Njoku hauled it in. After starting the game over five, Baker Mayfield set a Brown's record by completing twenty one consecutive passes. The NFL record is twenty five. Here's Zach Taylor. He was hot. He was hot, you know, and you gotta give credit to him. And we gotta make some plays. There was a bunch of snaps a man covers there where they made the plays and we

did not. And yet Joe Burrow kept bringing the Bengals bad second and ten at the Cleveland sixteen yard line, empty backfield for Joe Burrow. He catches the shotgun snap Burrow bouncing in the pocket. His throw, caught at the ten yard line, breaks it the five yeah and runs in straight into the end zone. Touchdown Bengals. It's a tee him. The Bengals have the lead in the fourth quarter with eight forty five to go. That lead lasted

for roughly four minutes. Mayfield swings it out to the left, caught by Kareem Hunt, and he will cruise into the end zone with nobody within five yards. The Browns have the lead again with four minutes and fifty three seconds left. Touchdown past number four for Mayfield. The Browns up by four.

In the fourth quarter. Once again, Burrow calmly marched the Bengals down the field like a ten year veteran, twelve yards to t Higgins, fifteen to Tyler Boyd, twenty five to Mike Thomas, and a twelve yard quarterback draw for a first down on third and eleven. After nine plays, the Bengals faced a critical decision with time winding down one o nine left in regulation. The Bengals trailed by four points. They have it fourth and inches near the

Cleveland Browns two yard line. Burrow is under center, the running back is p Rhine. Burrow with a long count, stops the right foot. Te Higgins goes in motion notes actually Giovanni Bernard gotta. Burrow throws for Bernard, he catches the touchdown. Bengals gutsie call and the Bengals capitalized as they throw it on fourth and inches and Burrow throws that touchdown pass to Giovanni Bernard. I'll tell you what, Joe Burrow, you talk about, Joe cool, here's Giovanni Bernard

on the go ahead score. It was just a good call, Um, And I think one of the things that I appreciate is a coach, Hay, They're giving me that opportunity to be able to, you know, to do the play you know, um, and to have called it. You know, it's just one of those situations and UM and a play that you know, you work on for a while and you know you bring it out when you need it most, and it worked. Burrow finished with a career high four hundred six passing

yards with three touchdown throws and one touchdown run. Most impressively, he directed too long to drives in the fourth quarter that turned deficits into leads. You know, it is exciting, but you know, I expect myself to do that every week. On my hand, at the end of the game, I'm comfortable and confident that I'm going to go down and make the play to win. Unfortunately, Baker was playing, playing out of his mind and led that that two minute

drive after us. The Bengals left sixty six seconds on the clock after their go ahead touchdown, and that was more than enough time for Mayfield. He's going to throw it for the end zone, and Donovan People's jones, he comes down with a ball for a touchdown. Are you kidding? With eleven seconds to go? Are you kidding me? Unbelievable touchdown pass number five, a new career high for Baker Mayfield,

topping his previous mark of four, also against Cincinnati. The Bengals returned the subsequent kickoff to the forty two, giving Burrow a chance for a last play miracle. The Browns have four defenders about forty yards down field, four seconds on the cl the Bengals at their own forty two. No pass rush at all from the Cleveland Browns, so Burrow waits for the receivers to get down There here comes the high hail Mary down toward the goal line

at the end zone and didn't complete man. The final score Cleveland thirty seven, Cincinnati thirty four, another heartbreaker in a seven week stretch filled with them. What did Zach Taylor say to his team stick together? It's obviously in an emotional locker room and for the right reasons. And it is guys that in that moment after locker room that that's tough to find those words because you felt in control, you felt like you're gonna win, and then

you don't. And that's happened to us a couple of times. And this is a team that well leaves that we can put together a winning streak, a one game, winning, two game, three game, four, game, five game like we believe in it, and we just we just haven't done it. We haven't proven it to the outside world. But we're gonna stick together. I can promise you that it's a it's it's a it's a group of men on proud

to coach, and we're gonna stick together. We're gonna get through this and the uh, there's much better days ahead. The Bengals are one five and one, including two losses by three points one by four, another by five, and a tie where they gave up a seven point lead with twenty one seconds left in regulation. Excruciating. Here are Joe Burrow and Giovanni Bernard, and we got a bunch of great guys in this locker room and great Collagy staff. You know, Zach's gonna get us to where we want

to go. Um. You know, I know everyone is down in the dumps right now. The fan base is is frustrated just as we are. We're one five, but you know we got we got a great guy at the helm and Zach who who called a great game today, he really did. And you know he's he's gonna keep us together. He's the leader of our team, the leader of our own organization. UM, and he's gonna keep us together. We freaking want to win, Mike, We just want to win. In that's it. Obviously, we've come up short. We know it.

It sucks, we hate the feeling. But all we can do is just continue to keep working. Unfortunately the same

cannot be said of Carlos Dunlap. After another Instagram post on Saturday complaining about his role on defense, Dunlap appeared to argue with coaches on the sideline after the game, and then chose Twitter to Ariis Grievance's moments later with a snarky post about putting his house up for sale that put Boyd and Bernard in the uncomfortable position of having to answer numerous questions about their long time teammates

behavior after a difficult loss. We're a team and we hold each other accountable, no matter what coach it is, no matter what fan it is, we are in it together as players. So for him to do down the style and I don't agree with it, but I mean I ain't trying to get into it. So I'm gonna just continue to practice and trying to get one. It's tough to talk about. You know, it's a situation that

he's going to have to handle. But you know, I've always been the type of person then you know a lot of the guys in the locker room have been this way. Is you know, we can only worry about, you know, the guys that want to be here, the guys that want to take care of business and do it the right way. Um. We know what coach Taylor, you know, has preached since day one is protecting the team, and um, you know It's just one of those things

that we got to continue to do that. UM. We can't worry about the guys that you know that don't follow that. You know that that idea, UM. But you know, I've always been a firm believer and you know everything that Coach Taylor has really been doing around this UM, this organization. UM, you know, it's it's just it breaks my heart, man, to just to know that, you know, he's had to deal with a lot of different things.

A lot of people don't see, you know, these things that have happened, but he not only deals with you know, the offense and you know, being the head coach, but there's so much other crap that he has to deal with. And UM, you know it's one of those things that Rich shoot, man, I just want to win for him. You know. It's it's just a difficult situation, and UM,

it's obviously frustrating. We all know it's frustrating, but we know the type of team that we have, and we just have to worry about the guys that better here day in and day out put in the work. We can't focus on things that we don't have control over. We just go in and just do our jobs period. Up next the home game against the Tennessee Titans, who are five and one after a three point lass to the six and o Pittsburgh Steelers. The Bengals Booth Podcast

is presented by Bud Light Seltzer. It's light and refreshing with a hint of fruit flavor. Now, let's get some postgame analysis from my broadcast partner Dave Lapham Lap Joe Burrow summed it up pretty well at the end of a four hundred and six yard passing performance. Quote. Football is not a game of numbers. It is a game of letters, W and L. Well done, rookie QB. Well he's got one W, five l's and one T for

a tie. This team has had the lead in the fourth quarter five times in seven games and has one win, three losses In the tie. It's almost it's almost incredible the last two weeks for them to lose games the way they did, have a twenty one point lead, give it all back and lose. To have a fourth quarter lead, take it to lead back, lose the lead, take it back again, lose the game is just I mean, it's

gut wrenching. It's a gut punch It's like they're, you know, manufacturing ways to lose football games, and losing teams figure out ways to lose football games, and winning teams figure out ways to win football games. And Cleveland's now five and two and the Bengals are won five and one.

Baker mayfield first pass of the game was intercepted oh for five in the first quarter, and then he completed twenty one in a row before a spike, and then through the game winning touchdown pass, five touchdown passes in the game five and one and six starts against the Bengals. They have no answers for the guy. It's amazing. Seventeen touchdowns,

seven interceptions now in his career against the Bengals. If he played against the Bengals every week, he'd be a consensus All Pro and a unanimous Hall of Fame electoral vote. I mean, it is, it's ludicrous. And the thing is when he got hot, I'm telling you, he put the ball in spots that they were they were as tight a window. When he gets going, he throws the ball

as well as anybody. And if you need to have your career resurrected in media and fans to get off your back, like Philip Rivers and Baker Mayfield did come to Cincinnati schedule the Bengals, I mean, all is forgiven, all is healed because you have almost perfect quarterback rating games when you play against his football team. To think where they were as a past defense a month into the season and to think where they are now, it's frightening.

Receivers aren't just open. They're open by country Miles. I mean, they're not supposed to be as open as they're open in the National Football League. It's just not supposed to have And it's happening too many times in football games. It's happening with too much, too much regularity. It's it's mind boggling, it really is, you know. And once players get their confidence, you know, Baker Mayfield thinks I can make any thrown, as receivers think I can make any catch.

I mean, it gets to be a contagious thing. And when they had to make plays, when they at crucial moments, when they had to make plays, they made plays. And a lot of times the Bengals did too, but they made mistakes again, you know, at pivotal crucial times too. You know, it kills me that people are saying Zach, what are the four plays that could have been the four plays that there's more than four plays in every game. Zach didn't mean he couldn't think of a play. He couldn't.

He couldn't put his finger on which one of multiple plays in every single game that they've lost, when they've gone into the fourth quarter with the lead. It's not just one play every game. It's a myriad of plays every game that if one of them went the other way, it's a different outcome. That's what people are talking about when you're losing all these football games by one scoreless. Now they're what one, twelve and one in games to side a by eight points or less. Unbelievable. Here's what

I find staggering. Odell Beckham Junior left the game early with a knee injury. It's feared to be serious. I hope that's not the case for his sake. Jarvis Landry is playing with a broken rib. But he played okay. But he's not, you know, the Pro Bowl type wide receiver.

He would normally be Austin Hooper, their best receiving tight end, had an emergency appen decked to me on Friday, he wasn't available Rashad Higgins, Harrison Bryant, rookie tight end Donovan People's Jones, who normally wouldn't even get on the field had the game winning touchdown catch. You've got to get some pressure on Baker Mayfield or guys like that become

good players. Yeah, there's no doubt it's a compounding effect. Negatively, they're playing complimentary football the worst way you can no pass rush, horsepucky coverage. That's going to lead to guys that who guys that didn't have any NFL catches. They've had guys this year with no NFL catches and statute have career games. They've had guys that you know are just basically the last receiver actor for the game, don't really have a big role because of injury. Their role increases,

have big games. But if you're not rushing the passer and you're have an assignment are on the back end and technique problems on the back end. I mean, they can pull guys off the street and line up and beat the Bengals. I mean, it is unbelievably gruesome to watch at this stage. It really is. One of the reasons why Baker Mayfield was so effective was the absence of Will Jackson. He's played great at corner this year. Pro Football Focus has him as the eighteenth highest rated

cornerback in the NFL. They dearly missed him when Baker Mayfield was carving people up. I remember Dan when we did our Friday show talking about Joe Mixon's a huge blow, but you have a true professional in Givn't even hard and other running backs that might be able to kind of lessen that load, and that Jackson was probably a bigger loss as the game unfolded. That's exactly how it played out. Not having Will Jackson as a guy that could run with the best receiver or covered his half

of the football field. The ripple effected, that the trickle down effected. That was enormous, enormous, and guys were out there, you know, doing the best they could, but not good enough to make the plays that Will Jackson would have made during the course of this football game. And you got a quarterback that goes twenty two out of twenty three with five touchdown passes in the final three quarters

of the game. Tell me having number twenty two out there to line up at corner on the wide side of the field wouldn't have been helpful, absolutely would have. And the other sad thing is this would have been quite a feel good story for the offensive line, the much maligned offensive line. Jonah Williams exit in the first half with a neck injury. Trey Hopkins exits in the first half with a concussion. Billy Price plays the entire second half at center. Fred Johnson plays the entire second

half at tackle. With three plays to go, Bobby Hart apparently hurt his knee. Hacam identage is thrown in there the rookie out of Kansas, and those three guys are on the field when they score the go ahead touchdown with the one oh six to go. I'm telling you, in the second half the shuffle me offensive line. Eight offensive line were active for the football game. All eight saw snaps, not as the extra lineman in a you know,

big tight end formation. I'm talking about snaps. Like you said in the in the offensive schematic at tackle or center. Everybody had to step up and make plays, you know, in the football game. And it is said, it's sad to see they overcame it. I mean the entire second half, you know, Billy Price and Fred were you know, they're going there, they have no option. So it's sad when

you a performance like that is wasted. I thought that Zach had probably the best game plan and the best play calling execution of that game plan in terms of play caller he had all season long. They still couldn't run the ball. But he went to the screen game as an extension of the running game. It's like a long ladderal out there. It's like a long pitch. And he screened every way you can screen. I mean, you know, he had more screens today than a door has in

their warehouse screen doors. I mean, he went to running backs, he went to wide receivers, he went to tight ends, he went to a gadget gimmick Tyler Boyd throws a screen to Giovanni Bernard. He screened every way you can screen, and those are literally, you know, like a wide run in the running game. So I thought that he was very very creative with his game plan and very very

creative with his play calling. And unfortunately this is the most non complimentary or uncomplimentary football team in the National Football League. Now, when the offense plays well, the defense sucked. When the defense plays well, the offense sucks. When the run defense plays well, the past defense sucks. When the Bengals can't run the football, the passing game is good. I mean, it's it's like, you know, what am I going to have this week? Which phase is going to

show up for me this week? Position groups? Defensive line plays well, secondary doesn't. Defensive line doesn't play well, secondary plays better, I mean, and then when they don't don't both don't play well, you get smoked like Baker Meadfield smoked you. So it's a very frustrating football team to watch. And they, again, like I said before, continue to find

ways to lose football games. All right. Last thing, I hate to second guess a play on fourth down that gives you the lead with sixty six seconds to go, But as badly as the defense was struggling, should they have tried to run on fourth and inches to keep that clock winding down? You can't second guess it. But well that's what you are doing. That's what I am doing. I'm second guessing it because it didn't work, I know.

But we were talking about it first guessing, you know, really during the course of the game, and it was it was, you know, unfolding as man two hot quarterbacks, two first pick of the drafts that are living up to expectations, that are hot as the firecrackers, that are both doing unbelievable things leading their football team. The one that has the football last, no fault to the other, it's probably gonna win the football game. And that's the

way it worked out. Like you said, Dan, Hindsight's twenty twenty. But you know, we're hopeful that you go on that uh what three minute and fifty some odd second drive and take every single three of them fifty three seconds or whatever, take every single one of them off the clock and score. And we said it during the course of the game, so it wasn't second guess, it was first guests and it just didn't unfold that way. But I'll tell you a hell of an offensive performance wasted,

and there have been good defensive performances wasted. And like I said, it's the it's the most bizarre, uncomplimentary, non complimentary season a date that I've seen in the National Football League by the Bengals. It's unbelievable to watch unfold on a weekly basis. It really is. You know, you think what next. It's amazing. Now, as promised, I am going to put a smile on your face with the

help of Bengals wide receiver Mike Thomas. It's an all time classic edition of fantastic fun Facts where you get to know the person under the pads. Time for some fun facts with wide Receiver Mike Thomas from the Windy City, Chicago, Illinois, more specifically the South Side of Chicago. Mike tell us a little bit about growing up in Chicago and what

you like to do as a kid. Growing up in Chicago Southside, I'd pretty much like to hang around friends, be outside, just hanging out, having fun, doing what kids do. Pretty much. It was cool. It was always cold winters four seasons, so when it was cold outside in the house, cancel school, just trying to stay bungled up. Cozy weather. So it was cool, you know what I'm saying. Just growing up in the Windy City. Do you see yourself

winding up back in Chicago someday? Yeah, just because I have most of my family back there, So yeah, I do find myself back there, you know, planning on being back there Austin we're visiting with Mike Thomas. Speaking of family, your Instagram page includes several tributes to your mom. What do you appreciate and respect about her? The most I appreciate is that she was a single parent and that she got the job done no matter what whenever it

came to us. I have an older brother. She made sure that we was on top of everything and made sure that we were straight as far as dealing with school financial wise, is making sure that we didn't need for anything. So that's that's what I mostly appreciate about my mom. She made it happening regardless of the situation, and she's still gonna make it happen. She still tell them to this day, Mike, I don't care. I care about your mentor I care about your health. So she's

gonna be with me when through it all. You attended DuSable High School, alma mater of Nat King Cole and Red Fox for older folks. But it's not exactly a football powerhouse, is it. Nah, not at all? Pretty much at basketball school, a lot of a lot of guys that that hooped out of Chicago went there or played against DuSable, Like Anthony Davis was one of the guys

that played against our high school. And I've actually seen him play against us and didn't know he was gonna grow that tall and now you see where yet now? So it's best. Chicago's just a basketball city, just a powerhouse on basketball. So yeah, that was kind of like tough trying to make it out of there playing football. You told reporters recently that you would not be playing football if not for former Bengals wide receiver Chad Johnson. Who was Chad Ochocinco when you were a kid. How

did Chad inspire you? Honestly, it started with the hard knocks, the fact that he was making people look bad at the corner and the fact that he was like bringing comedy out of it, like making people laugh and two. And I was like, yo, whoever that is, I'm going to try to impersonate him to the tea from top

to bottom. And that's how it all started. Man, just watching him on hard Knocks and wearing eighty five and that just that just inspired me to play this game period, just watching him to I mean, it was a couple more guys, but he was the main person that I wanted to be, like rocking eighty five, calling my name Ocho Sinko, Just trying to impersonate him, his footwork, all his YouTube videos, workouts. It's just so much. I can just go on and on about. But he was the

main guy as far as character playing football. Did you actually call yourself Mike Ocho Senko, Yes, I did. I actually I had my name on There's Mike Ocho Sinko eighty five on Facebook. I was just eighty five crazy back then, Like I just thought I was him. Describe the time you approach Chad and told him what he meant to you. Yeah. I think this was pregame Cleveland last year, the Rams versus Cleveland, and I think Chad

had the cameras around him following. I think he was doing like a special that week, and I just basically I'm like, I was just looking at him like yo, I gotta go say something like I'm just thinking to my head like how I'm about the approach him, Like all right, I don't know, I'm finna just tell him how I feel at this point. So I just talked went up to him and told him basically like man, I just want to thank you for, you know, inspiring

a kid from Chicago to even play this game today. Man, you don't even know what you have done for me. But I just want to say thank you. I didn't really give him too much of a rundown. I just just kept it short and simple and just told him, thank you, man, I appreciate you for inspiring me to even play this game. Today. We're doing fun factored Mike Thomas, you left Chicago to play for Dodge City Community College and Dodge City, Kansas population twenty seven thousand. Was it

tough to adjust to growing up in Chicago? Yes, I honestly, I'm gonna keep it real. The whole slogan when they say get out of Dodge, that's that's what I knew, exactly what that means. Like, it was nothing there like Tommy weeds, tumbling everything. It would just dry, just dry weather, open space, fields, crops, everything, just a whole bunch of nothing. Man. They're just just that just helped me stay focused, honestly and get the job done. And my whole goal why

why I was there? So I just had to stay locked in and and and focus and get the job done. And now I know the origin of get out of Dodge. Get out of Dodge, man, it was crazy from there. It was on the Southern miss where your career really took off. You set the all time record for receiving yards in a season. There, When did you start to

think that you might have an NFL future? That's a good question, because honestly, I never had my mind on the NFL just playing league ball, like I never just had I just like playing just the passion in me, just like playing back. I mean football. I played basketball too, but my whole mind was just playing football and just hopefully some coming out of it. I never had in my mind that I was gonna go to the NFL.

But I'm not gonna lie. I would say after that Washington game, that Bowl game, when we played Washington and I had like them, they're close to two hundred yards, two touchdown, about ten plus catches, I knew like, oh, and this is a powerhouse defense team too. And that's when I knew, like, oh, I might have a real chance that really going to you know, the league and making it happen. And that's when I knew like I might have a good shot. Then that's when agents was

splawing my phone up and that's when it happened. After that, for chatting with Mike Thomas, she got drafted by the Rams in two sixteen. Former head coach Jeff Fisher was the guy that made the phone call. Can you describe what that moment meant? I remember, like it was yesterday. My family was right there, Mom was right there Dad, And honestly, before he called me, it was a lot of teams calling me saying, hey, if we don't drive for you, we're gonna pick you up. This and that.

I mean, who want to hear that? Like I wasn't trying to hear that. I'm trying to see if y'all gonna draft me. The long story short, Jeff Fisher called me right after and saying, hey, man, we're gonna pick you up. And I was just on the phone and my fam like kind of knew what was up and they were just going crazy. So after that did the phone, I couldn't even hear what he was saying. And I didn't even realize it. But my cousin had on the Los Angeles Rams jacket and I didn't even realize that, Wow,

like you really spoke this into existance. When is to the party, draft party and everything, it was just crazy, like it didn't even hit me yet, Like fam was still going crazy. It was just so unreal, Like damn, I thought I wasn't gonna get drafted, honestly, it was just it was frustrating at the same time, but it was kind of like cool to actually hear your name get called and see his name go on the screen

and all that. You spent four years in LA, including the twenty eighteen Super Bowl season, but unfortunately that year you got injured in Week one. It was a groin injury that required three surgeries. What happened Something didn't happen right in the the first surgery, and I had to go back to Saint Louis and I guess they didn't fix that. So that's when I had to get the second opinion with my agent, and that's when we went to Philly and got the second opinion and got everything together.

But that was just a long, frustrated season, just knowing not supposed to have been back week six earlier than that, and it was just constant, you know, barriers in a way of me not even coming back. So I just wanted to be healthy at that point and fix the problem. We're doing fun facts with Mike time as she joined the Bengals this year and made your first touchdown catching Week two on Thursday Night Football versus Cleveland. Was that a huge moment for you to get that first TV

in prime time? Yeah? That was that was real huge because I felt like it was long overdue. Like I said, I mean, I've been in rooms with guys that I felt like I wasn't even supposed to be in, just competing with guys that have a huge household name for themselves, and I felt like, if I can compete with them, man, I know I'm doing something right. I know I'm just playing some type of talent out here. Man, where's my

time going to come in? And it came and I just felt good, like, man, I've finally been in the league them in five years and got my first touchdown. I know that's kind of like what what you doing your whole four years? Yeah, but you know, you you just go through things, man, and you just got to stay the course and stay positive and just know things gonna work out for you. So that was a mouthstone for sure. All Right, A few wild card questions to wrap things up with Mike Thomas, what do you like

to spend your money on them? I'm a huge, huge sneaker head man just growing up in Chicago. Jordan's that was the fashion statement back then. Man, I made sure, well, my mom kind of made sure I had some of them. I didn't have all of them, but the ones that I did wanted I had, But now I had to get them all. Man. So I'm a big, big sneaker head. Man, I love sneakers. How big is the collection? I had to get another closet, man, I had to use the guests around closet for one of us shoes have them.

So it's getting big. It's getting bigger. Mike. Is a true that you like to play brain games on your phone? I do Lumosity. It's called lou Monsiti's brain. Just like to work on things every day, Like as I think about it, Like when when I was going to school, sometimes I feel like I wasn't paying attention enough what I was supposed to. You know, you got classmates distracting you, planing and all that. So sometimes I like to, you know, go back to the app and you know, do little

mathematic games, reading games. It's all types of stuff you can, you know, work on your brain. You just it's just a fun game, just to you know that you're working on something, you ain't just playing just for fun. I'm gonna pass that along to my fourteen year old kid. Trust me. Hey, it's gonna work out. When you go home to Chicago, what local delicacy must you have? That's a good question, because I usually go back to the pizza, man. I don't. I'm not usually a delacy guy. I usually

do the pizza. I love Geral Donals. Yeah, deep this, you gotta get the deepest gerald Dono's pizza. Man. That's like the number one thing I have to get when I go back, and that's every time. All right, final fun fact for Mike Thomas. Obviously, you are not the only wide receiver named Mike Thomas in the NFL. Michael Thomas from the Saints was part of the same draft class. Do you ever get mail meant for him? Autograph requests, proposals, etc. I feel like they kind of know, like there's a

there's a difference, man. I feel like we have two different backgrounds who come from two different places. So they don't get me confused him at all. I mean, you might do it as far as like fantasy drafts, yeah, but I see Twitter comments about that, but nothing as far as like fan mail or signatures and nothing like that. I was hoping you were going to tell me you occasionally got his paycheck by mistake. I wish yeah, send it to me. Yeah, I act like them. Four day Mike,

this has been great. You're off the hot seat. Appreciate the time. Best of luck the rest of the year. Thank you, Dan, I appreciate it. Hi. Thanks to the charismatic Mike Thomas Head. Here's a quick reminder to join Lap and Lance McAlister for Bengals Line Monday night from six to nine on seven hundred WLW. Done. On Wednesday night, I'll join Lap for the Bengals Game Plan Show from six to eight on ESPN fifteen thirty. That's going to

do it. For this episode of the Bengals Booth Podcast, brought to you by bud Light Seltzer, refresh the game. If you haven't done so already, please subscribe, and if you have a minute, give it a rating or share a comment that helps more Bengals fans find this podcast. I'm Dan Horde, and thanks so much for listening to the Bengals Booth Podcast.