Bengals Booth Podcast: Ain't It Somethin'

analysis from my broadcast partner Dave Lapham. Then, in this week's fund Fact segment, you'll get to know the only Samaj in NFL history, Bengals running back Samaj p Ryan. The Bengals Booth Podcast is presented by Ultimate Bengals, the free to play Next Level Fantasy Football game downloaded now from the App Store and Google Play. And here's a quick reminder that you can have the latest edition of this podcast delivered right to your phone, tablet, or computer

by subscribing wherever you get your podcasts. It's the greatest thing since sneakers with suits. If you watch the NFL Network or football shows on ESPN, you'll notice that most of the analysts wear sneakers with their suits, not too long ago that would have been considered a total fashion faux paw, but not anymore. Now it looks cool and youthful. Take it from somebody who is neither. Now, let's get to Sunday's game. The first nineteen minutes and forty eight seconds,

we're a complete and total disaster. They are going for it on fourth and goal from the four. It's not at the one, it's at the four. Receiver goes in jet motion. Herbert catches the ball. He's back to throw, he's looking left, looks over the middle, throws over the middle, and it is caught in the end zone by Keenan Allen pretty well covered on the play and Herbert just delivered a perfect strike for the touchdown. Burrow with a play action fake in a deep drive, he gets hit

from behind. The ball is knocked out of Joe Burrow's hands and the Chargers begin celebrating and they recover it. At the Cincinnati thirty girl will look to pass from the pocket. He fires kick downfield for Chase on the run. The ball comes out and goes right to the Chargers for an interception. Michael Davis winds up with the ball as Chase dropped a perfectly thrown deep ball by Joe Burrow as he was trying to streak toward the end zone. He just dropped it right to the guy trailing him.

Second down and fourth at the Cincinnati eight. Herbert in the gun, the receiver goes in jet motion. Herbert throws into the end zone and the Bengals didn't even cover Keenan Allen. Herbert catches a shotgun snap, fakes a handoff, rolls out to the right, wants to throw it deep. He will firing it all the way toward the end zone. It is a fight for the ball. A penalty flag down hit his cuts for the touchdown. Jalen Guiton hauling

in the forty five yards strike from Justin Herbert. He beat Jesse Bates in the wrestling match for the football and her Bert already has three completions of forty plus in the first half. Herbert in the gun, Heckler to his right. They're going to flip it back to Alan, who throws to Herbert and he makes the catch on the Philly special for the two point conversion. Royal boy, tell you what Chargers look like. They're dominant football team

today in every phase. Offense, defense, special teams is clicking in some ation. The Bengals turned it over on their first two drives, and the Chargers scored on four of their first five possessions. It was twenty four nothing Los Angeles with more than ten minutes left in the half. The biggest come from behind victories in Bengals history are from twenty one point deficits in nineteen eighty one and nineteen ninety five. They have never rallied from twenty four down,

but they almost did it on Sunday block. Running seven forty six left in the second quarter, Burrow drops back to throw flings it deep down field from heads into the end. He got it touchdown. Bengals Burrow two Higgins as t used his height and his wing spanned to Houlda in. The Bengals lined up to go for two before calling a time out. After the time out, they got called for a delay of game penalty. In following the penalty, Evan McPherson missed the extra long extra point.

Here's Zach Taylor, horrific by me, horrific horrific um. You know, we were going for two, and so we were a little slow making sure we had the right personnel grouping on the field where I made that mistake. So then we called time out, put the ball in hash um waiting to see what personnel they were in, and then and then I called the play backwards, so I'm trying to correct it at the last second, and we end

up taking the delay game. So it just horrific management of a situation by me twice coming out of a time out and then having to ticket to lay the game, and then and then we missed the extra point on top of that. So um, that was that was all on me. I don't know about you, but I appreciate a coach explain his own mistake in that much detail. And it wasn't a backbreaker. Jermaine Pratt forced to fumble on the Charger's next drive and it was returned to

the LA nineteen yard line by Jesse Bates. Three plays later, the deficit was down to eleven. Second goal from the sixth Burrow will look to pass looking running ringing up the middle of the field, and he will go into the end zone, standing up touchdown Bengals as Burrow scores his second rushing touchdown in as many weeks. That made a twenty four to thirteen, but following the touchdown, Burrow

came to the sideline shaking his right hand. As it turned out, he had dislocated the little finger on his throwing hand way back on the Bengals fifth play of the game when he was hit from behind by o' chenna Nuosu. I don't I don't think I really noticed what happened at the beginning, and I think my drone was pumping a little too much. And then as it went along, you know, I got progressively worse a little bit, but I was able to play through it, and that's

a testament to his toughness. The medical staff tried to tape it, Burrow tried to wear a glove, and ultimately he just played through the pain. And it was the decision of make it feel better or continue to be able to somewhat throw the ball. So I decided to be able to throw the ball. As for next week, that's just something I'm gonna have to deal with. I'm not going to miss any games because of it. That's

not something that's going to happen. I mean, unless it somehow gets worse, which I don't can't imagine it's going to get worse than I'll be playing next week. I feel like he had zip on the wall. I felt like I was able to compensate for what was lost. UM, probably not as much a zip as I normally have, but I don't I think I was still able to

throw the ball effectively. After trailing twenty four thirteen at a half, the Bengals kicked a field goal on their opening drive of the third quarter to pull within eight. Then Mike Hilton forced a fumble that was recovered by Trey Hendrickson at the Chargers thirty two. Cincinnati was a touchdown and a two point conversion away from tying the game.

Burrow catches the shotgun, snap hands to Mixing chip fighting through a hole, and runs it into the end zone, touchdown, Bengals Mixing doing an end zone dance with his teammates, and the Bengals are a two point conversion away from erasing a twenty four point deficit. And I'll tell you what set about the inside. The Bengals offensive line starting to effect him inside, keep pounding pounding away at the inside,

and eventually Bill Crack. The ball was placed at the two yard line and the Chargers had twelve men on the field, moving the ball to the one for the two point conversion. Try Burrow hands it to Mixing, charges forward, fighting, struggling and stopped. He did not get in, so it was twenty four twenty two. Midway through the third quarter. The Bengals had blown a chance to tie it, but would get a couple of chances to take the lead.

The defense forced the Chargers to punt on back to back possessions, and with fourteen minutes left in the game, it looked like the Bengals were going to take the lead. The Bengals are within the field goal range of Evan McPherson, trailing by two points early fourth quarter for hands it to mix and again loses the football scoped up by the Chargers. This is going to be a touchdown run back by to Vaughan Campbell. No man. The Bengals were on the verge of taking the lead. Mix and fumbles

the ball. Campbell scooped it up. Nobody had a prayer

I'll bringing him down. Former Bengal Christian Covington got credit for forcing the fumble, but on the replay it looked like Mixon just lost the ball as he tried to cut to his right that don't happen usually, So I mean I gotta go back to you know, get back in the lab with you know, taking care of the football and learning how to shift and do little certain things, because those little things like that as we that you beat, it was turnover, that kind of you know, shift at

the momentum, and uh, you know, I'd take full responsibility for that because at the end of the day, no matter what the play was, that shouldn't happen. And you know, I'd take full responsibility. And the extra point gave the Chargers a nine point lead, and burrow In the Bengals never got closer. I was proud of our fight, and we had the ball in plus territory with a chance to take the lead, and we had another turnover, but

and we fought back. It's you know, there's not any moral victories, but we put ourselves in a position to win that game. Joe threw an end zone interception in the fourth quarter and the Chargers added ten points to

make the final score forty one to twenty two. Zach Taylor and Joe Mixon wrap up a disappointing day in the jungle sloppy game all the way around by us, you know, to get in the hold of the way that we did with the turnovers, the explosive plays, the opening kickoff, going back to the plus forty eight, things that I did that that certainly were unacceptable. So again, just we didn't deserve to win today. They did. It's a good football team. When you put that performance out there,

that's what's gonna happen. A lot of guys basically got banged up today, and you know, I'm just proud of the way to everybody for all four quarters, and you know, just shows you that it adn't go fighting the teams. You gotta keep on going. I mean, the best thing that we got, or the best thing that we have going right now is that we get to live to fight another day. So we just gotta come ready next week. We gotta prepare for San Francisco, and I just gotta

come back and get ready for another door. Despite the loss, the Bengals are still the final playoff team in the AFC with five games to go, and since the Steelers beat the Ravens on Sunday, Cincinnati is a game behind Baltimore for first place in the AFC North, a half game ahead of the Steelers and a game ahead of the Cleveland Browns. As Joe Mixon mentioned, a home game

against the forty nine Ers is next. San Francisco is six and six and saw a three game winning streak come to an end on Sunday with a seven point loss in Seattle. Now time for postgame analysis with my broadcast partner Dave Lapham. Wild game lap the Chargers beating the Bengals forty one to twenty two. The Bengals almost railing from twenty four down. They made a twenty four to twenty two, they had a two point conversion to tie,

got stopped from the one yard line. They had two possessions after that drove within field goal range, and then a sixty one yard return of a Joe Mixon fumble seemed to be the play that swung everything back in the Chargers direction. Absolutely, that was the That was the dagger, you know, it was the Bengals were getting in McPherson if they weren't already in McPherson field goal range. So that's a minimum of a ten point swing, maybe fourteen,

and that was That was a tough, tough blow. But during the course of the game, I thought that explosives allowed by the defense and turnovers by the offense, or the story because the Bengals defense responded with some takeaways, but you have four giveaways. It's tough to beat, you know, teams in the National Football League. When you're hurting yourself like that. It's like, man, they're like we talked about a few times, these teams are good enough to beat

you on their own. You don't need to help them. And when you help them, it's it's it's hard to overcome your own you know, mistakes and penalties and turnovers and things like that. You just have to play a cleaner football game against a team like this that has that kind of talent, especially when a couple of the turnovers are not forced. So Jamar Chase could add a seventy one yard touchdown Insteady juggles a perfect throw that

becomes an interception. That's almost like the ninety nine yard pick six against the Steelers, or you think you're going to score and the other team winds up with the ball and then Burrow's last interception. I know he's trying to make a play down by two scores, but that's just throwing it to the other team in the end zone instead of living for another play. Yeah exactly. I mean that that was the final blow against the final nail in the coffin for the Chargers was that interception.

But but you're right. I mean Jamar Chase at training camp had some issues catching the football. Now all of a sudden here in the last you know, a few quarters of football, he's had some issues in terms of looking the ball and catching the football. So you don't want to get a reputation as a streaky player, because if you're a quarterback, you don't know what you're going to get when you put the ball in the air. If you're like throwing it and then crossing your fingers,

that a player is going to be me. Because Joe Burrow couldn't have thrown the ball any better than he did on that play. I mean that that was a beautiful throw and you know Jamar had it and bobbled it around and spotted it over his shoulder with one of his hands, and it was crazy. It was that kind of that kind of a turnover. I haven't seen unfold that way in quite a while. I mean, defensive player didn't have to do anything, didn't have to reach in there, strip it, rip at it. It just it

just ended up right in front of his face. It was a weird play and could have been a huge momentum builder because with the acceleration the speed the chase has and no doubt in my mind that that I think he scores on that Burrow got sacked a bunch mix and average two point eight yards per carry. Is that because of the changes on the offensive line today. That's a that's a good question. I mean, you know, I asking, uh, you know, asking guys in the locker

room out to the game. Did they do anything that you guys did not see them do from a defensive configuration standpoint, because they are pretty clever in the way that they use different personnel groupings and they and they use different uh formation alignments sometimes you know, to break break some of your tendencies and some of your blocking patterns that you have a real comfort level with. It

didn't seem to be the case. I mean, I think it just was they just played so poorly at the beginning of the football game that they had to probably change their mind a little bit and what they were doing offensively. But I didn't think that they abandoned the running game necessarily, they just never got it going. They just never got the game the run game executed, and h you know, I think they I think they had

to make some adjustments though. I could tell Frank on the sideline was, you know, trying to get some things done. That grease board was was being drawn on and erased and drawn on and erased, and they were they were trying to get some some things done. And I think some of the adjustments worked out a little bit better as the game went on. But I'm telling you, you just in this league, as we always say, from one week to the next, you just never know. Um teams

do things a different way. They attack a different way, and the defenses line up to to attack that attack a different way. This game is so unbelievable. Adjustments and adjustments to adjustments and adjustments at halftime to adjustments, and it just continues through the through the entire football game. Are you reasonably confident, based on the way he finished the game that burrows pinky finger and his right hand

is not going to be a big problem. Yeah. I asked Zac about injuries, you know, after the game, and of course, you know, he says, no update at this point in time. But I would, I would hope and think that, you know, the big, big deal is going

to be how much swelling does he get tomorrow? You know, sometimes those kind of injuries, you know, I've had injuries before where it's like, yeah, I don't think it's that bad, and go and ice it and then go to bed and overnight blows up like a balloon, you know, and now you've got to get all that swelling out, and

so it'll be interesting. I think. I think the next twenty four hours are going to be, you know, very interesting to determine what kind of impact is going to have on him next week and you know, hopefully not anymore than next week. But they didn't. They did not do anything like rush him in to get X rays or anything like that. So I don't think they're looking at any fractures or anything of that nature. I think

it's just bruising, and with bruising comes swelling. And that's the big question in my mind, how much swelling will there be in that in those joints. Zach Taylor seemed more frustrated than usual after a Bengals loss. I don't know if I'm you know, one hundred percent certain of that, but that's the vibe that he gave off in the news conference room. I'm sure the four turnover has had

something to do with that. He also seemed angry with himself or some of the Bengals clock management in this game. And then I wonder, big picture, tough schedule going forward, home game against the Chargers, a team that's obviously got some talent, but still was a game over five hundred,

if he felt like a really good opportunity slipped away. Yeah, I think that's the big part of I think everything kind of boils to that where it's like, you know, if we had taken care of business here with an eight and four record against another conference opponent, would would have put ourselves in pretty good shape. Now you know, you've you've instead of stepping ahead of the pack, you've stepped back to the pack. And now you're, you know, amongst a whole you know, plusthora of other teams that

you wanted to try to start to separate from. So I think I think that's the frustration, and I think it's frustration that not just a phase didn't play up to snuff. Everything was not up to snuff. Players, coaches, special teams offense as a unit defense as a unit. Nobody can say I played winning football. I don't think

any group can. And that's the frustrating thing is, you know, even when you're going through something like that, to be at twenty four twenty two after it's tough being spot in a team, a good team in the NFL twenty four points and thinking, you know, I was still in this and they felt that way, and they came back to a point where I mean they were threatening to take a legitimate lead, and then they spit the bit again.

So it's just that, you know, you put yourself behind the eight ball by putting yourself on your schedule in all three phases, and then you start to write the ship a little bit and then you just say, ah, you know, it wasn't meant to be. We're just going to make all these self destruction moves again. That's the frustration I think is that you know, they just never really gave themselves a chance other than that little spurt a moment and they scored twenty two points in fourteen

minutes and thirty nine seconds. I mean, it's not like this. This this football team doesn't have talent offensively but you can't give it away four times. You can't. You can't give four possessions away like that against anybody. The Bengals have had good luck where injuries are concerned this year. Obviously, Trey Waynes has been out, Joseph Osai got hurt in the first preseason game. But now, as is inevitably the case in the NFL, they're starting to add up. They

didn't have Hopkins or Reef on the offensive line. Darius Phillips missed the game. During the game, Burrow hurts his pinky finger. Marcus Bailey went out with a shoulder injury. Logan Wilson went out with a shoulder injury. Should obey A Wooje went out with a foot injury. Of all of these injuries, which one gives you the most concern? Well, that's a good question. You know. I think that the one, the one that I'm concerned might be the longest in

terms of damage done, is Logan Wilson's shoulder. I just have a feeling, you know, it's very rare for a shoulder injury to cause a cart to take you off the field, So, you know, was there some sort of a dislocation a major separation and things that if that's the case, we're not looking at just a few days. We're looking at a significant amount of time. So I think he's an impactful guy, you know, a playmaker type individual for the for the defensive football team. You know.

It seems like a lot of the other injuries I think are a shorter, you know, potential time frame. I think, honestly, and I'm not saying that they were they felt like we have this game anyway. But in my mind, the two offensive linemen that's at today, Trey Hopkins and Riley Reef, I think it was just to make sure that, okay, they're close, Let's not go out there and exacerbate it

and make it a couple more weeks. Let's just make sure give it a few more days now that it feels decent, give it another few days where you don't have to play again for you know, over a week, if we if we are smart with this, and you should be able to finish the season. I think that's the move they made with those two guys. I'd be shocked if they don't play against San Francisco, but it would have been nice to have them today as well. But you can't have your cake and eat it too.

You know, once you make a decision, you can't look back on it, and you just have to decide that that was the best decision to make and we'll move on from there. But Man's is playing so well that

one too. I mean, if if he's got a Sometimes a foot injury is brutal because there's so many little bones and tendons and lincolns and stuff and a foot and that's you know, as Bill Walton, I mean, Bill Walton's career because of foot injuries just he never really had any kind of career he could have had at the next level. And he's a big, huge guy. It's like a tower with a crack foundation, but a guy like a woozier that has to plant and cut and explode.

And when you have foot foot damage, I hope that's not significant, you know. I hope it's just like a foot sprain and there's no like displacement of bones or you know, like a ligament snapping over a tendon or whatever those things that can happen with a foot. I remember, the most brutal injury that I had is you you have these these bones under the ball, of your foot and you can have none, you can have one, or you can have two. Well, I had two under the ball of my foot and I cracked one of them

right in half. And man, I mean it's brutal because everything you do is right there at the point. So if it's depending on where it is in his foot and everything he has to do around at that one, I guess concerns me a little bit too, But you know, hopefully the others are just treatment. Rest and come back and play more on Sunday's game. Join Lap and Lance McAllister for Bengals Line Monday night from six to nine

on seven hundred WLW. The Bengals Booth podcast is presented by Ultimate Bengals, the free to play fantasy football game. Ultimate Bengals will be awarding a weekly winner during the course of the season with tickets, autograph merchandise, and money can buy experiences all up for grabs. Find Ultimate Bengals in the app stores now. Now time for this week's fun Fact segment, where you get to know the person under the pads. Talk for some fun facts with running

back samaj p Rhine. Born and raised in Alabama before moving to Texas and attending high school there. Where did you spend most of your childhood and what were some of the things you enjoyed doing as a kid. I'd say early childhood. I split when my mom moved to Texas. I split a lot of my time between Texas and Alabama.

And when I was in Alabama, it was outside in the woods, and when I was in Texas, it was you know, outside in the street, you know, playing football or basketball or you know, whatever I can get my hands on. You are the only Samaj in NFL history. Is there a story or a meaning behind your first name? The story is not as glamorous as people may sing.

My grandfather's name is Samuel, and I have uncle's name Samuel, and my mom she wanted to sam but not Samuel, So she just came up with Samaj and said, so was it frequently mispronounced when you were a kid, And if so, was that annoying? Oh yeah, it still is mispronounced today. Um, not so much annoying. I mean I find it kind of funny, you know, to hear people my first day my last name. Actually, Um, you know, I've heard some off the wall things, but it's a

fun little game for me. To see if people actually get it right. And if they do, you know, kudos to them. But if not, then I don't. I don't hold any grudges. We're doing fun facts with some my JP. Ryan. I've read several stories about your weightlifting exploits as a kid. How and when did you get started? I think I got started freshman sophomore year in high school. Um, I

mean Texas football. You know, they they were, especially at my high school, they were we we got after in the weight room, and uh, you know, I wasn't really I had dumbbells here and there, you know in middle school, but not that much. Had like twenty pounds dumbbells like duct tape some bricks on them. U. But you know, other than that, you know, high school. It is when I really got started in my junior senior year in high school. It is when it really, you know, really

picked up. Like I was strongish freshman sophomore year, but junior senior year, if they got a few years under my belt, that's when it really really ramped up for me. Let's backtrack for a second. You duct taped bricks to dumbbells, It's just twenty pounds dumbbells. And at my parents' house, they had some some some bricks that they didn't use when they were building the house stacked in the backyard.

So I would go out and get a couple and just duct tape them one of the dumbbells, whatever it takes. So as legend has it, you once lifted a car to help a woman change attire. True story or urban legend. The smart car count Absolutely it's a car. Yes, I mean, I guess you could say it's true. All right, I want all the details. Subscribe Lifting a smart car to help somebody change a tire. Um. It was later one night and I just seen she seemed like she was struggling,

and um, she had a jack. But somehow the jack like it fell over and it just got wedged in between like the car and the ground. So um, I lifted it enough to get the jack back right to for the for the jack to hold the car up while we switched her tire. Tremendous story. We're talking to somebody, JP Ryan. After great high school football career, you chose

to play at Oklahoma. You were actually part of the same recruiting class as your current teammate Joe Mixon, y O you and what were some of the things you enjoyed the most about your time at Oklahoma. I chose, oh you simply because of the opportunities that you know,

that presented themselves there. You know, like you said, I was, I was coming in with with Joe Mix and and um, you know, they had two or three guys that were on their way out, so you know, the way we looked at it like we're gonna come in and you know, we're playing right away because you know, there's there's a big void that they you know that they need field, and we just felt like, you know, we could come right in and play. And that was one of my

biggest reasons. And and because it was close enough to homework, could get back in a decent amount of time, but far enough away where I didn't feel like, you know, my parents were in my backyard, so you know that was that was fun. So you know, just get done in practice and you're five six hours away from home, so on or off, they can just run home and you know, had like nothing happened. But but you know, as far as um, my experience there was great. You know,

to Norm's a great college town. It's um, it was just an extremely fun environment. You know, I didn't do much while I was there, but you know, they they treated us all, you know, fantastic, and it was just a great place to be. We're going to turn the clock back to twenty fourteen. I November fifteenth of that year, Wisconsin's Melvin Gordon set the NCAA rushing record by running for four hundred and eight yards. He broke a record

that had lasted for fifteen years. He got to enjoy it for one week because I November twenty second of that year, you set the record that still stands on a rainy day against Kansas, thirty four carries, four hundred twenty seven yards and five touchdowns. What are your most vivid memories of that incredible day. The most vivid moment was the week before. We were on our way home.

I forgot who we were playing, and we were all on the bus talking about what Melvin had just did, and we were like crazy, like there's no way anybody's gonna touch that record for however many years, you know, we were all going crazy for him. And then when our game came, it was actually delayed because of lightning, and I'd already known it was going to be a run the ball type of day, and you know, I

just went out and we ran the ball. Unfortunately, you know, our starting running back he on the first drive, he went out in fumble, and that gave me the opportunity to come in midway through the first quarter, and from there I just took my opportunities and ran with it. I'll say, have you ever discussed this with Melvin Gordon? Not in person, No, but we message back and forth on Twitter, and you know, I was like, man, my bad.

It was blame my offensive line. They made me do it, and you know I was shying to sit out and let you you know, let you have you, you know whatever. But you know he was, he was cool about it. Then we got a good laugh at it. But you know, no, we never never talked about it in person, but you know it was I feel sorry for him, but you know it was we had a we had a good little moment there. So you had runs of thirty three, thirty four, forty two, forty nine, and sixty six in

that game. That's two hundred and twenty four yards on just five carries. But here's the most amazing stat of all to me, you left the game with more than twelve minutes to go, you could have rushed for five hundred yards. Do you think your record is going to last for a while and do you care if it does? We both me and Melvin both came out with a bunch of time left, so we both could have probably

ran for a lot more than we did. But as far as how long it'll stay, and I have no idea, I'm semi surprised it hasn't been beaten, you know, with these crazy offenses nowadays and crazy numbers that people are up. But I don't really don't really care much about, you know, how long it lasts and will it ever be beaten? I mean, I hope it does. I hope someone has that great all day. But you know, when the day comes, it's gonna be It's gonna be great. So people can

stop talking about minds. One more question about a record. Oklahoma has had some of the greatest running backs in college football history. Heisman Trophy winner Billy Simms, Heisman Trophy winner Steve Owens, Adrian Peterson, DeMarco Murray, your current teammate Joe Mixon, etc. You are the all time leading rusher at Oklahoma and you did it in only three years. Is that a big point of pride to you? M I didn't come in thinking, you know, when I leave Oklahoma,

I want to be this, this and that. I mean, I just took all of my opportunities in stride, and you know, at the end of my career, there's just so happened that I became the all time leading rusher. I mean, it's a great feat to have, you know, like you mentioned all the great backs that that have been there before me. I mean, I love it. I don't hang my hat on it though. You know, it's not something that I really boast about. It just the opportunity was there and I took it. A few more

fun facts with somebody, JP Ryan. You were drafted by Washington in twenty seventeen. Describe your draft experience. Didn't want to get my hopes up about, you know, where when I was going. I was just grateful for the opportunity to get my name called. UM didn't care where it was called. I just needed the opportunity, and you know it was it was a fun experience to have you know, family and friends around and to have them experience, you know,

having a name called on the TV. I was cool with my my wife and my mom, but it was I'm glad I got to experience it. You know. I know some guys they have to take her harder route than me, you know, going through free agency and all of that undrafted free a and then all of that.

But Tom, you know, it was cool, and you know, I just I don't think I really fully grasped what was going on while I was going on, but you know, after I got the call and talked with all of the the the reps and all of that, all of those guys, and just got to sit down and realize, you know, out of all of the athletes in the world, you know, they chose me. So that was that was pretty cool experience. All right. A few wild card questions to wrap it up. Who is your all time favorite

athlete in any sport and why? You know? The crazy part about that is before I started playing football, and even still to this day, I don't watch sports nope, outside of film, and you know what we do here. I not a sportswaher as crazy that maybe I just never really got into into playing or into watching sports at all, like doing it, don't love watching it. Exactly all right. When it comes to your money, what do you like to splurge on? Definitely car parts. My uh

my wife hates it. But anything with a car, you know. I have a twenty ten Camaro back home that has a big engine, big supercharger on. It's loud, it's obnoxious, and it's uh one of the faster cars that I've ever been in. But anytime that I can work on my car or my truck, and that's what that's where most of my money goes. Outside of the kids. I see the twinkle in your eye. You are a car guy. Oh. I love them, love them to death. I'm glad I

have a job that can support my my habits. But when it comes to when it comes to cars, I love everything about them. Last thing, this is deep. If you could meet anybody in history statesman, politician, actor, or athlete, whoever it might be, who would that person be? Honestly, I think it would be doctor Martin Luther King? Just so I can ask, like, ye, how did you keep the mindset that you know we're gonna be peaceful about you know, whatever we go, whatever we go through, whatever happens,

We're not gonna retaliate. We're gonna, you know, we're gonna stand in solidarity. Like, how did you keep the right mindset to continue to do that even though everyone was, you know, pushing against you, everyone wanted you out of the picture. You know, Like, how did you clear your mind and focus solely on that and be successful to get your point across? You know? Just like, how did you do that? A great man, a great leader, and a great answer. Thank you so much for your time.

This was fun. Best to luck the rest of the year. I definitely appreciate it. That's going to do it for this episode of the Bengals Booth Podcast brought to you by Ultimate Bengals, the free to play Next Level Fantasy Football game downloaded now from the App Store and Google Play. And if you haven't done so already, please subscribe to this podcast and if you have a minute, give it a rating or share a comment that helps more Bengals

fans find us. I'm Dan Horde and thank you for listening to The Bengals Booth Podcast.