Hi, get everybody, I'm Dan Horden. Thanks for downloading the Bengals Booth Podcast. Ba A Lift or the Aplause her Blaus Herplause. Addition, as we hear from the two legends selected by season ticket holders this year to join the Bengals Ring of Honor, Boomer Asiasin and Chad Johnson. The Bengals Booth Podcast is brought to you by Alta Fiber, future proof fiber Internet capable of delivering multi gigabit speeds designed to take your home, business and community to a
new level. Elevate your connection with Alta Fiber and by Bengals Picks and Ultimate Bengals. They're free to play with tickets and side merchandise up for grabs. Find both inside the Bengals app. Now here's a quick reminder that you can have the latest edition of this podcast delivered write to your phone, tablet or computer by subscribing wherever you get your podcasts. It's the greatest thing since dodgeball our Yes,
you heard me correctly, dodgeball archery. It's just like dodgeball, but instead of firing big rubber balls at your opponents, you try to shoot them with a bow and arrow. Don't worry, the arrows have big spongy tips and don't hurt. Recently, me and five of my buddies gave it a shot, no pun intended. There's a dodgeball archery arena north of Cincinnati and Westchester Township, and according to their website, they
also have locations in Denver, Omaha, and Ottawa. So if you're looking to try something new and you live near one of those locations, I can personally recommend dodgeball archery. And remember the five d's of dodgeball still apply dodge, duck, dip, dive, and dodge. Now let's get to our first guest. Two players in Bengals history have won the NFL MVP Award, Ken Anderson in nineteen eighty one and Boomerisiasin in nineteen
eighty eight. Each quarterback led the Bengals to the Super Bowl in his MVP season, and now they are both members of the Bengals Ring of Honor. Boomer ranks in the top three in team history in passing yards, touchdown passes, and yards per attempt, and the final pass of his career was a seventy seven yard touchdown strike to Darnay Scott but Boomer's impact went far beyond the stats. He is, without question, one of the most charismatic leaders in team history.
Here's my conversation with the Blonde Bomber, Norman Julius assiasin Boomer, you are a former MVP, you won the Walter Payton Man of the Year Award, you are in the University of Maryland Hall of Fame, and now the fans have selected you for the Bengals Ring of Honor. What does this particular honor mean to you?
Well, it's pretty cool, Dan to say, at least, you know, for twenty years, I was doing Monday Night football and I would go to these stadiums and I had watched the home teams all celebrate their past. I mean, the Jacksonville Jaguars, the Carolina Panthers, all these new teams had rings of Honor, and I always wondered why the Bengals chose not to do that. And I think that was at a difference to the great Paul Brown. I think, you know, he was the one that brought the team there.
He was the one with one of the greatest coaches in the history of the league, if not the greatest coach. So in my eyes always felt like it was it was Paul Brown's team, it was Paul Brown's legacy. And then really, when you think about his grant granddaughters coming back to work for the franchise and being exposed to everything else that was going on around in the NFL,
you know, why don't we celebrate our history? And that took place three years ago with obviously the inaugural class of Paul Brown and Anthony Munos and the great Kenny Anderson. So I have to say it's taken a while, It's finally happening, and I'm great. I'm very grateful to our fans, our season ticket holders for voting me in this time around. I can't wait to get there that Monday night to celebrate.
I asked Mike Brown about you. Here's what he had to say. I'm going to read this off my notepad. Boomer was tough. He could play under harsh conditions that could be physical injuries or whatever else, but he was not deterred. The players liked him. He was a leader that they all respected for his abilities as a player, and it went beyond that. He had a way of talking to them and they acknowledged him as the first among equals, if you will, they listened to him. What do you think of Mike's quote?
It's pretty special. Actually, it means that he noticed he noticed me in college. I know that he scouted me in college I think six or seven of my games, and he was one of the reasons why they ended up selecting me. I wish they would have selected me a little bit earlier. That would have been nice. But I always knew that he liked me as a player.
I think he respected me in the locker room, the way that I treated my teammates, the way that I was one of the guys, but also the way that I carried myself in the meeting rooms and on the practice field and then ultimately out to the game onto the game field. And you know, nothing is more satisfying and more fulfilling than watching a young player that you
can impact. And that's why my final five games in nineteen ninety seven were some of the best games that I've ever been a part of, not only because we were scoring a lot of points, but because I saw the impact that an old geezer like me could have on young players. With just a little bit of direction, they could find their game and find out truly how great they were, and I think that's really what Mike is talking about.
You mentioned the eighty fourth draft. Let's go back. You were the first quarterbacks selected, but it did come in the second round, number thirty eight overall to this day, do you have any idea why you lasted until the second round.
I probably was perceived to be a pain in the neck, which I probably turned out to be for Sam Wish a few times, I was not afraid to voice my opinion. I think that's probably another reason why. But I also know that there was a bidding war going on for quarterbacks in the USFL, and I do believe that the Bengals would have taken Steve Young had they held on to the number one pick. But Steve Young decided to go to the USFL and go play with the La Express,
So that left me as the next quarterback. So you would think, Okay, maybe they'll take me number one. But you know, I don't really know the true story as to why they traded that number one pick and ended up with three picks in the top twenty eight in that particular draft and didn't select me with any of those picks either. So I was wondering if maybe my name had fallen off the board or something, or somebody
had forgotten about me. But when Sam Weisch did call, he said, you know, do you want to be a Bengal? I said, are you sure you want me? So our relationship started off very uniquely at that on that particular day.
But I don't know why. You know, there's a lot of reasons why things happen in life that you can't really control, and I just think that, you know, it was out of my hands, and I knew this that prior to that draft, I did say that I wanted to be an NFL player, that I did not want to go play for the Washington fed Erroles or the Memphis show Boats. I mean, I wanted to be in the NFL. So I remember my agent telling me, you should have never said that, because that's going to take
away any bargaining that we have. But you know, to the Bengals credit, people don't realize this. They gave me the largest contract that a second round draft pick had ever received in the NFL, and they did it really quickly with me. I wasn't holding out or any of that stuff, and we came to an agreement relatively quick.
So your rookie year was Sam's rookie year as well. Kenny was still around as the starting quarterback, although you did start four games that rookie year and went three and one. What stands out about those early beginnings in Cincinnati.
I remember the first time I walked I walked into the offensive meeting room, and I mean I felt like I was the dumbest guy on the earth. You know, we had guys in there, Chris collins Worth, Anthony Munos, Max Montoya, Dave Remington, Pat Mcanalie, Steve Krider. I mean, they just had traded for James Brooks. I believe Rodney Holman was in there. mL Harris was in there. I mean, I was just overwhelmed. I couldn't believe all that you had to learn, and they were talking a foreign language.
I really had no idea what I was getting myself into. And quite frankly, I think if I went back and asked those players whether or not they thought I was going to turn out to be anything, I guarantee you every single one of them would say, there's no way this guy's ever going to make it. And I'll never forget playing in those four games, I really had no idea what I was doing. This is why Chris collins Worth I think his career was shortened because my rookie
year I almost got him killed. And I remember my first touchdown pass was to all people, a tackle that was playing right tight end on the goal line in Cleveland, to Anthony Multios. I mean, it was just it was crazy. So but I was blessed when I really think back to it, to have a coach like Sam, an offensive coordinator like Bruce Coslet, an offensive line coach like Jimmy McNally, a great running back coach and Jimmy Anderson, and a tight end coach and Tiger Johnson along with all of
those great players. I finally figured it out in year two and from that point on it was just like, let's go. The more we can do, the better we're going to be.
So all of that is really interesting to me because together you and Sam helped change NFL history really by pioneering the no huddle offense. And this is before helmet radios. So Sam isn't telling you what you can do. I mean, you're running the whole show. You made it look easy, but how hard was it Yeah.
In the beginning, it was pretty tough. Know, my rookie year, I really struggled. I mean I would go home at the playbook and my wife Cheryl will be sitting there and I'd be trying to memorize it like it was like you know, lines in a movie or something, and
it was not easy. But the more once it clicked for me and I started to understand how they were describing defenses, how we were calling plays, and our personnel groupings and why certain past protections didn't work with certain personnel on the field, it really started to come easy to me. And I think Sam and Bruce saw me as a guy that needed more, that I needed to be challenged, that I needed to be challenged mentally, that I needed to be challenged physically, and Bruce was great
at that. Bruce would really, I mean, you'd get on my ass like you wouldn't believe in practice, and I could take it. And I love being coached hard like that. My high school coach coached me hard, my college coaches coached me hard, and Bruce Cooset was really the hammer. Sam was, you know, he was the brains behind a lot of this, but Bruce was the one that you know, after every practice I would watch film with and he'd be like, you gotta hold your arm up, you gotta
do this. Look at your footwork is terrible. And Sam would put me through all the drills. So I don't know, I just I just felt like the more I got, the easier became. And you know, we just had so many different aspects to it, and I know that a lot of guys had trouble with it, but at the end of the day, I would always make sure that everybody knew what was going on on the field because my life depended on it.
So you're the MVP in eighty eight, you lead the Bengals to the Super Bowl. That team still holds the franchise record for most points scored per game in a season. When you remember eighty eight, what's the most vivid part of that season that stands out?
So I guess you're just going to pass over eighty seven half.
Well, if you want to talk about laying down in front of a bus, that's fine with me.
Hey, you know, this is the thing, This is maybe why I dropped in the draft, right. You got to think maybe these are the things that they projected could have happened if they would have drafted me. But I mean, eighty seven is a part of eighty eight. It's a part of me as a player. And eighty seven, you know, I stood up for our players rights. I believed I was making the most money in the NFL at the time, so I was losing the most money as we sat out.
I think it was seventy five thousand dollars a week. And you know, while I'm not proud of some of the things that went on during that time, I am proud that that was the impetus to where we are today in the NFL some forty years later, with the NFL players, you know, making it, at least at my position, forty million dollars a year. So who would have ever thought that would have been the case. So maybe something
good did come out of eighty seven. And I remember I was booed, and I can't imagine what it would have been. Had social media been around. I probably would have been run out of town. I was this close to being run out of town. I'm sure instead of running me out of town, they ran Dave Remington out of town because he was the assistant players representative along with me. So eighty eight, I did have a chip on my shoulder because I lost my best friend. He
ended up ended up in Philadelphia. And we had a good team, you know. Eighty six we were really a good team. We were very close. We were ten and six and didn't make the playoffs. And eighty seven we got off to a really unique start by losing our second game to the forty nine ers. We should have never lost. And then we lost so many games in the fourth quarter when we came back from the strike and it was just a killer. It killed all of us.
So eighty eight was great. We got off to that seven and zero start, and I think I threw like four or five interceptions in New England, and interestingly enough, you know the Bengals. We created a lot of rules in the NFL. A lot of people don't realize this, and one of the rules that we created was the double catch rule, meaning where the receiver and the defensive back both had their hands on the ball, tie goes
to the offense these days. Back in those days, ties would go to whoever the official thought control the ball. I'll never forget throwing what I thought was a touchdown pass to Chris collins Worth and he coming down with it, and the dB was draped all over and I forget who it was, and they gave the ball to the New England Patriots in the end zone. This is a game we should have been eight and oh and we
were so ticked off. And I think it was either the next year or the year after that they amended the rule saying that if two guys do come down with it, the offense is going to get the ball. So a lot of great things happened in eighty eight of a lot of fun stuff and a lot of
crazy stuff. At the end of the year with whether or not we're going to be able to run the no huddle in the AFC Championship game, I think Marvel Levy did a really good job trying to get into our heads and distract us from, you know, what was the most important thing, and that was winning that game.
So the simultaneous catch rule should be the Assias and collins Worth rule.
I think it is. I mean, you know, there were a lot of things that we did that pushed the envelope on the field, and I think that was one of them.
So it's been thirty four and a half years since Montana to Taylor. What about that game gets under your skin to this day.
Third down, I think we had a lot of third and shorts, and unfortunately, you know, we lost one of our best players the night before and Stanley Wilson, and everybody who is a Bengal fan obviously knows the story
about Stanley. What a lot of people don't realize was just how valuable Stanley was to our team and all the little things that he would do on third down and special teams, and he was a virtual lock to get a third and one or fourth and one, and we would go for it when Stanley was on the field. You know, Sam made this fateful decision to basically suspense Stanley from the super Bowl the night before the game because of drug use, which he had already been suspended
I think three times for. And we were angry meeting that night that Stanley did this, you know, I remember Chris Collins were getting up into a meeting, said we got to win the game for Stanley. And I don't think any of us thought that. I think all of us thought like, we cannot believe that this is going on right now, and we need to win this for us. I mean, we've all, you know, tried to help Stanley in so many different ways and support him and love him and give him all the support that he needed.
And here we are, the biggest day of all of our lives, and unfortunately he could not resist. And we understand that drug addiction is very strong, and it showed itself in that regard. But you know, the next day, we woke up and we played well. Our defense played outstanding, especially after losing Tim Krumry in the first quarter to
a broken leg. And I'll never forget David Grant and Skip McClendon and Jim Scale and Jason Buck those guys played great and they held down one of the greatest offenses the NFL had ever seen until, of course, the last drive and we just could not score a touchdown and we could not convert on third down. And thankfully we had what I consider one of the great big game kickers of all time in Jim Breach, and he
would miss. I think he probably would have been the MVP had we won the game because he was so good.
I know your shoulder wasn't one hundred percent down the stretch that year. You downplayed it super Bowl Week and at the time and immediately afterward. How bad was it?
I don't remember. I mean, I just it doesn't really matter. You're on the field. You're on the field, you know. And I say the same thing today about today's acts. If you're good enough to be out there and playing, then you then that means the guy behind you isn't good enough to beat you. So I was on the field and I never make any bones or excuses about
any of it. We had our chances to win, and I'll never forget walking off, you know, with about three fourteen or so to go in the game, and Sam actually said, I think we might have left too much time on the clock. And I think back some of the decisions that we made. We meaning we all had input, and Sam was great that way. He would always ask us, the players, what do you think? What do you want
to do? You know, most coaches nowadays are so much more aggressive on third and fourth down, especially if you're
playing against great quarterbacks, which we obviously were. And you know, we played it close to the best, and we played it by the book, and that book ended up kicking us right in the ascid at the end, at the end of the game, because what we should have done has been more aggressive, probably on third and fourth down, and gone for it and tried to keep the ball away from the great Joe Montana and score touchdowns ourselves, which we are unable to do.
Earlier in the conversation, you mentioned the final five games of your NFL career. I had just moved to Cincinnati. That was the first year I covered the team for Fox nineteen. To this day, I say it might have been the coolest thing that I've ever covered because your kids were there. I don't know how much they remember it. They were really young at the time, but obviously we're all familiar with Gunner's story at that point, and you
were spectacular in those games. Statistically, it was the best you ever played. What was it like as a professional athlete to go out that way?
It was remarkable. I often think of Peyton Manning winning Super Bowl fifty and walking off into the sunset knowing that was his final game, and how lucky and how fortunate he was to be able to have that. But I had six weeks where I was a part of something that I don't think anybody expected. I certainly knew we had a good team. I knew we had a really good young, aggressive, young team, especially on offense that
just needed a little direction. And unfortunately Jeff Blake was struggling and he got hurt and things weren't working out, and there was a lot of like I think distain in the locker room, and I hate that kind of stuff. And I'd been through losing before, so I knew that.
When Bruce came to me and said you're going to be the guy going against Jacksonville, I was like, okay, and I just told our guys that look, man, you better be awake because if somebody is not open on a particular play, that doesn't mean I'm throwing it to him. You know, if I call seventy eight X hook and Carl Pickens is the number one receiver, if he's not open, Darnay, you better get your ass where it's supposed to be because I'm throwing the ball to you, and I'll never forget.
We called that play and I came back to Darnay and I threw it the Darnay and he caught it, and he came back to the hoddle and he was smiling like, oh my god, this really does work. And that was some of the most fulfilling football that I had ever played, because I had a young offensive line. Willie Anderson was a part of that offensive line. My center Derek Brills used to get mad at me because I was going so fast, like before he could even
get his hands on the ball. I was calling for it, and I was doing that in practice too, because I wanted those guys to think fast. I wanted everybody to think fast because I wasn't the athlete that I once was, but up top I could think better to end faster than anybody on the field. And I knew that if I could just get like Corey Dillon and Kajanna and Eric b Enemy and James Hundon and David Dunn and Darnay and Carl Pickens and Marco Battaglia and all those
guys on the same page. Man, we had a lot of talent, and all I did was provide a roadmap and they all bought into it. And you saw just how explosive that offense could be. So like I said, it was fulfilling for me. It was heartwarming because my kids really started to understand what I was doing, and
they were at most of the games. Gunner was six and Sydney was five, and I'll never forget walking off of that field for the last time against the Ravens, wondering if I was ever going to come back again as a player, because I knew I had in my back pocket one of the best broadcasting offers a player had ever been offered. At that point.
You would have been thirty seven the next year. Tom Brady played for nine more years after he turned thirty seven. But you elected to take that Monday night football broadcasting job. Any regrets, you know?
I remember sitting in Mike Brown's office talking about contract extension, and the Browns wanted me back. Don't think that they you know, they did, and they made what I consider a legitimate, significant contract offer. But I also remember Mike saying, you know, this is a pretty damn good job that maybe you'll have for the next twenty five years, and it is an unprecedented offer. And I'm like, well, maybe he wants me to go.
I don't know.
I'm not really sure. But in my heart, and I've said this before, I don't know if I could have given them thirty two games, meaning two more years of football, like I had just given them the last five weeks of that season. I don't know in my heart that I could have. And remember that it was still different back then. We were still getting hit. We were still getting you know, hit around the ankles and the knees, and you know, we were playing on just awful fields.
You know, Riverfront Stadium was one of the worst fields in the NFL. It was hard, and you know, you all always came out of those games banged up and bruised. And that's why I said, I think Chris Collinsworth probably could have played an extra three years if you would have played on grass this entire career as opposed to the rock that we were playing on in the Riverfront and three River Stadium.
So it was.
A tough decision. I don't regret it, but I also understood why I did what I did, and I never really looked back.
Final thing, and I'll let you go. For most professional football players, a fourteen year career would have been the peak, followed by a highly successful broadcasting career, but not in your case. The Boomerasiasin Foundation has raised more than one hundred and fifty million dollars towards cystic fibrosis and the research and trying to find a cure. Your son, Gunners in his thirties. He's a dad, he's thriving. Do you ever think about just how remarkable a life you have lived?
You put it that way, and it kind of makes me feel a little melancholy. I will say that. You know, one of the reasons we are fighting this fight was because of people like Frank the Ford and all the parents that lost children to CF well before I ever even got involved in this, And I was exposed assistic bibrosis well before Gunner was born because of the Cincinnti Children's Hospitalistic Bibrosis Wing and hearing Frank the Ford's story about losing his daughter Alex, so I just picked up
where he left off. And I remember calling him when Gunnar was diagnosed in nineteen ninety three, and at that time I had just become the quarterback of the New
York Jets. The Bengals had traded me there to them, And there was a thirty second kind of pregnant pause, and then we were both kind of crying, and he was saying, you know, my prayers have been answered, not meaning that he wanted somebody to have seet, but somebody with some stature, somebody with a platform that could go out there and fight for people to listen to if we were willing to share the diagnosis. And we really had no choice, and we took that and we ran
with it. And I often say that, you know, Gunner is my hero personally, and his son Casper is our miracle collectively, and that miracle has been passed on or will be passed on to generations to come because of the fight that Gunner fought, the fight that Frank the Ford has fought, and the fight that all other CF families and patients have fought. So I'm just kind of like the guys that's part of the quarterback, if you will, that has the football card that everybody seems to want.
But at the end of the day, it's truly a team effort and that's what it has been for the last thirty years.
Congratulations on this honor. Thank you for all you've done. We look forward to seeing you at the ceremony this season.
Thanks Dan, I appreciate it. Good to see again.
The Thing of Honor ceremony this year will be in week three, September twenty fifth, when the Bengals host the Rams on Monday Football. The Bengals booth podcast is brought to you by Kettering Health, the official healthcare provider of the Bengals. With more than one hundred and twenty care facilities and fifteen hundred care providers. Kettering Health is committed to guiding you to your best health. Visit ketteringhealth dot
org to learn more, and by pay Corps. More than twenty nine thousand customers trust Paycorp to help them recruit, pay, engage, and retain employees. Learn more at paycorp dot com. The second player selected by the fans to join the Ring of Honor this year is Chad Johnson, who joins another number eighty five, Isaac Curtis, as the second wide receiver to be honored. Chad holds the franchise records for career catches, yards, and touchdown grabs. But it's not just what he did,
it's how he did it. Chad's fun loving persona and elaborate touchdown celebrations made him one of the NFL's biggest stars and one of the most popular players in team history. Here's my conversation with o Cho Senko Chad Johnson. Chad, congratulations, you have been selected by the fans for the Bengals Ring of honor. You are one of the first eight members. Can you articulate what this honor means to you?
It means Oh my goodness, listen, it means everything. It means everything. The fact that everything has come full circle. Everything is come full circle, from getting that phone call from Dick Lebow in two thousand and one to talking to Mike Brown to being a part of the organization and coming in there. And my whole thing was, how can I make everyone's job around meetings? How can I make football and Cincinnati fun again. I'd like to believe at some point I made it okay to wear Bengals gear.
Outside of Cincinnati.
You know.
I just wanted to be a breath of fresh air do all I could.
Obviously, the Lombardi Trophy is always always an end goal, but I wasn't able to tieve that it's a a team effort, you know, on that matter. But from an individual standpoint, I just wanted to make it fun for Cincinnati and man and and put that that team and that city back on the map in a respectable manner.
I think I did that.
I did that just to some degree and to you know, be shown appreciation for all the years of hard work in tears.
It's awesome, It's it's a great honor. I'm very appreciative. You know.
I'm getting my flowers now while I can smell them, which which is a good thing. And to me, I think this honor means much more than that gold jacket, honestly, because this is home. This, this is home for me. This is this is this is home. People have played for throughout the years, fans that are voting, that understand what I went through, the good times, the bad times, ups and downs, and they accepted me as my true authentic self, you know, myself. So I think this to me,
it means much more. No, I didn't have to beg I didn't have to knock on the door. I didn't have to cry about being in This is This was this was a welcome home.
You know, you will always be a part of us. And this means a lot to me, a lot.
I asked Mike Brown about you. Here's what he said. Chad was a splendid player, but he was even greater as a performer. He was fun, He made the people smile. What does that quote mean to you and what's your relationship like with Mike and the Brown family.
Listen my relationship with Mike and the Brown family. I will always be indebted to him. I will always be indebted to him. I have a special, a special place at my heart of Mike Brown, obviously, Dick lebo Uh, Barbara Calse who was still on the table for me when his draft time. And to think about the day you get drafted, and I everybody cries on drafting, and I don't think understand, well, why why does everybody always cry?
It's really not the feeling of getting drafted. It's all the work and preparation and all the ups and the downs and the obstacles that you went through that play through your mind and it's sort of an exhale moment, Oh my god, I finally made it, not on to
the next hurt. And that's where the tears come from, all the hard work and the fact that Mike Brown gave me the opportunity to fulfill a childhood dream of mine, even through all I've been through all those years and never never almost not even making it, never really getting the opportunity, you know, bounce from college to college, and just him giving me a chance. I will always be thankful and grateful to mister Brown and that and that family.
You've brought up the draft a couple of times. So let's go back to two thousand and one. Michael Vick was the first pick, Drew Brees was the first pick of the second round. You were the fifth pick of the second round, skinny wide receiver out of Oregon State. You'd only been there for one season, and the Bengals obviously had been struggling. How did you feel about it at the time. Did you have any reservations about coming to Cincinnati considering how the team had performed.
Listen, I don't think people understood back then. It wasn't about where you went. It's not where you go. And I ap preached this all the time even today. It's not where you go, it's what you do when you get there. I wouldn't care how bad they were at that time, and people in Miami at my little draft party were saying, oh, man, listen, look where you're going. You're going to Cincinnati. They're not really good. You know the joke of that, I said, listen, give me a
year or two. Just give me a year or two. Let me get in my first year, let me get an understanding of the game.
Let me get my.
Feet wet, give me a year or two and watch how I turn things around. I will try to get as many wins as possible, but I will turn things around and get us back in a respective light nationally and publicly. I guarantee you I will be able to do this all by myself. And I did just that that because it doesn't matter. I want to tell people all the time they were about even even commits come out of college, out of high school, my four star, three star, five star, or I go to Alabama, I
go to Florida. It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. It's what you do once you get there. If you can play the game, the product will show on the field. And dude, I was excited. I did listen. I exhausted all possibility to do all I can to make the game fun again. And I chose not to conform to wait. Not the higher up in Cincinnati, but the higher ups
around the NFL. They feel, once you get to a certain level NFL, for that matter, you're supposed to change the way you play, you supposed to carry yourself a certain way. And I refuse the change who I was, and Cincinnati accepted me for being me. The Brown family, my coaches and players accepted me for my physical self, and that's what you got, cure entertainment weekend and week out.
When players and coaches talk about what made you great, they always start with your lightning quick feet and your ability to stop and start. When I went back to your draft profile, I saw that four five seven time in the forty Yeah, what happened? I mean, that's not extraordinarily fast.
No, it's not.
It's I think for being in that situation in Indianapolis. The nerves, my nerves got me. My nerves got the best of me, and I wasn't four or five. When you turn on the film, you obviously see I play as if I'm four to three. I play as if I'm four or five. I mean, not play if if I'm four to four. But I play fast, which is not Which is one of the reasons why I'm not sure why we dictate so much about running in a straight line when the game of football is not played
in a straight line. I'm four to left and right stopping a dying red accelerate. You know I'm four too all around as a football player, if that makes sense. You know, as opposed to running in a straight line. Listen, I don't run track. I'm not a track runner, you know, So if I was the track runner, I'd probably come and last. But when it comes to playing the game of football and get an open, creating separation, that's my cup of team.
So the franchise really turned the corner in your third year, the Bengals hired Marvin Lewis. They drafted Carson Palmer. Of course, Carson didn't play that first year. But let's talk a little bit about your Yeah, let's talk a little bit about your relationship with Marvin. As an observer. At the time, it seemed like he mostly let you do your thing and understood that was important for you to be great on the field, right.
I think Marvin and I we were always on the same page. I didn't do anything malicious for one. Nothing I ever did with malicious. It was always in a fun, loving nature, adding pressure to myself and taking the pressure off everyone else. So all they had to do is go out there and play. I will provide the entertainment I need to make sure I play at the highest level. And I enjoyed welcoming that pressure, and it's it's what
I did. I think, as I'm sure you will be able to remember, on the back end of my career, some of the fun was kind of misfreud and that was why, Okay, we're losing because he's doing this. But I mean that's really not the case, you know. But there had to be a story had to be written. And that's when Marvin kind of kind of tightened the bolt and said this is just the stop.
Just go play ball and understood that.
So in two thousand and five you had the list. You sent pepto bismal to the Browns. Yeah, the weekly celebration was a national obsession, but opponents never seemed to mind. They could find that balance of not offending the people that you were beating.
The funny The funny thing about it is is I am so likable. I am so likable, whether it be the referees, whether it be the opponents we were playing the following week. I was a very like the bulletponent regardless of where I was playing. The fans even within the division the Browns and seeing that they're supposed to hate me, but there was a love for me regardless
because of the fun and entertainment aspect. That I brought to the game, whether I was playing home or way, and the balance would just how can you hate me when I'm doing nothing but making the game fun and challenging those I'm playing week to week.
That's it. It was merely a challenge.
It was a friendly challenge, and they never had any issues to the point where people in pregame.
As far as players, what you got for us this week? What do you mean? What do I have?
You're supposed to stop me? You know, the referees every game for like three years straight. Referees would always catch me at the fifty. I can't wait to see what you have for us today, And like everybody became somewhat of an excitement to where I had eyes watching everywhere, just not in Cincinnati.
So in two thousand and four, Carson takes overs the starting quarterback and you two take off as one of the great quarterback to wide receiver combos in NFL history. Do you put yourselves right up there with Montana to Rice Manning to Harrison whatever QB wide receiver combo you want to name.
I mean, I would like to, I would like to.
I'm not I'm not a I'm not a numbers guy, but I think we had a consistent run. Carson is one that I always say is responsible for my success, being the person at the helm for most of my most of my numbers in touchdowns. We did it consistently for a very long time, which is hard to which is hard to do. You know, I was healthy really really all of my career. I don't really didn't really get hurt. So I would like to put us up there.
Tell me about the time you two guys drove to Indy Indy P and mar I do did you the stands?
Uh?
Huh, yeah, we said, we said in the stands? What year was this? Two thousand and four? We did that. I forgot what year was.
It in the two thousand and four to two thousand and six window. I don't remember the exact year.
Yeah, we we just we just wanted to watch them operate from the stands, not TV, to see how they communicated with each other on the field, the chemistry that they had. That is something that Carson and I really wanted to harp on and build on and being something like Marvin and Peyton to where there was a certain we got to the point where there was eye contact, eye contact.
There was no signal needed, and based on what we saw defensively, we already.
Knew what to do and we felt that was something that Marvin and Peyton had because we had seen it numerous times on TV and announced that we'll try to break it down based on the chemistry they had in the eye contact, not giving anything way to the defense, but like, you know what, we need to go watch them and see what we can take from that and implement it, you know, to our own our own union here in Cincinnati.
There are a million memorable moments and games. There were the two hundred and sixty yard game against San Diego. There were several games of three touchdown catches. Do you have a favorite moment, a favorite game, a favorite catch, anything along those lines.
Oh? Man, No, not really, not really, because I think my favorite moment would have would have had to be obviously, I wasn't able to win a win a Super Bowl. I mean, all those moments are great to me, man, but nothing, nothing beats that phone call drafting. You know, I wasn't even on the field for my best moment. I'm just gonna be honest that nothing can replicate or duplicate or emulate that feeling man like my heart.
Don't do if I cry, just make sure you edit that.
But when you get that up here, when you get that phone call, damn nothing not one catch, no touchdown, nothing beats that.
Nothing beats that.
I'm guessing the low moment is easier to remember, and that's probably when Carson hurt his knee in the playoff loss to the Steelers. Pittsburgh went on to win the Super Bowl that year. If Carson doesn't get hurt in your heart of hearts, do you believe you have a ring right now?
Absolutely? Easily, easily.
No disrespect to the teams that were planning that year, but we were doing offensively, but we were doing decently with the takeaways and giving us the ball, allowing us to outscore opponents, and then allowing the defense just to play with everything in front of you. Easily, easily. We had a crazy number of takeaways that year. If I'm not mistaken, defensively and offensively, it was we were jugging out. We were jugging out.
I think I would lose my reporter card if I didn't ask you some question about celebrations during the course of an interview. Did you have like a list did you take requests back at the height of the celebration mania. No, it seemed to me that like everybody in town was trying to predict what was me next.
Yeah, I just I just as as things went at what I think about.
I would see something on a on a on a Saturday, I'd be like, you know what, I'm gonna do that, like the river dance, the Lord of something, whatever the stage player musical was. It was in Chicago at the time, and the commercial came on in the hotel and so you know what, if I score, I'm gonna try to do the river dance.
And that's where they came from. Tiger Woods.
Tiger Woods had won something either Friday or Saturday, and I remember him doing doing the fist.
I like, you know what I'm gonna try. I'm gonna try that when I score.
And the proposal when I when we played Indy, a friend of mine has got married, So you know what I'm gonna listen, I'm gonna redo your proposal on the field, and the cheerleaders knew exactly what to do. Everything like its just it was further moments stuff. It was never it was never thought out. Well, the dollar bribe. It's not a celebration, but trying to bribe the red for the dollar, like, just that's it in the moment.
You know, I got in trouble for it, but it's so memorable and so fun and just I don't know.
I just kept the tension at ease if there was any I just kept it lighthearted and fun.
Do you like Jamar doing the gritty or do you need more variety?
I mean the gritty is him.
I think I think it's very fitting for him, is fitting for this style of this era that we're in right now.
I don't think I.
Was more creative in an entertaining fashion purposely adding pressure to myself. I don't think that's in the player's DNA in this day and age, because it forces you. I put all this pressure on myself now I have to go out and perform like I was the complete opposite.
So one of the things I admire about you is your willingness to try anything. You box, Yeah, not on a bull one time, you're a bull rider. You famously raised a horse. I mean, you name it, You're willing to try it. You've played professional soccer. Is there something on your plucket list still? That you are eager to try.
Yeah, I'm going I'm swimming with killer whales in the wild. You're laughing, I'm serious, I'm serious.
That's serious. You're gonna swim with killer whales.
From swim with killer whales in the wild. Listen to the people in Norway, the people that live in New Zealand. They have the luxury of actually doing so just on a whim. It's like it's normal. It's like it's normal there and that. And obviously if the NFL didn't pan out, you know, I always wanted to be a marine biologist and a veterinarian.
I'm a huge dog lover and a huge killer whale lover.
For those that don't know, my entire right leg from my waist all the way to my my ankle is orca theme. I'm tattooed with orcas. So I'm a huge fan of them. Know everything there is about killer whales, and my dream is to swim with them in the wild. It's gonna happen, and I'm going to create a YouTube channel, and that's going to be my first and could be very well be my last video. But if I do go out, I'm going to go out the way I want.
To all right, Just if you're going to do this, go with somebody that knows how to do it safely. Please on behalf of all Bengals fans. They want to see you, you know, represent this franchise into old age.
I got you, I got you, all right.
On one hand, you describe yourself as frugal very you know, get imitation jewelry. You don't go crazy on things that other people splurge on. On the other hand, you're the most generous tipper of anybody I've ever met. You will leave a thousand dollars tips on bills of less than one hundred dollars.
Why do you do that?
I just.
It's my version of always giving it back. Especially in the service industry, you know they need it. I have a great understanding of what they go through. Always had that understanding. So this is something that I've always been doing, even before social media came. When I was in Cincinnati. People gonna test to be tipping in that manner, and it's something I've been doing the past twenty some years.
Anytime I go out to eat, I just want to make sure I have no idea how your day's going, But I noticed like dealing with multiple personallets, attitudes, having a bad day and really nobody give me your break.
So any I always want to be that shining.
Like for people in the service industry, if you know, I'm coming in from traveling and just always making sure their day is okay, no matter what, no matter who they had to wait on throughout that day.
It gets back to what Mike Brown said, you make people smile.
Yeah, I'm trying. I'm trying to.
If I could just it'd be even better if at some way, shape or form of fashion, I get lucky and end up with like Zuckerberg or Jeff Bezos or Elon Musk type money, those thousand dollar tips, I would add a zero.
So then you know that's that's the way I think. You know, you know what I mean.
Yeah, So, I mean, we'll see what happened from my mouth. At God's ears, all tips would be ten thousand from now on.
Recently, your daughter Shielle committed to the University of Kentucky to run track, which is awesome. She has won multiple Junior Olympic championships. Is your daughter going to be an Olympian?
I hope so, I hope so, And it's all on her, you know, it's all on her.
It's about putting the work. She knows I mean to get to this point.
You know what it took to get to this point. You gotta put in the work. Again, It's not where you go, it's what you do once you get there. They get my kids to get the same message that I tell everyone else. You know, you have to put the work in, and you put in the work, you put the time, and it's going to show up. There was also going to show up regardless, no matter what.
How does watching your kids compete in sports compared to doing it yourself.
I like it. I like it a lot. I like it a lot.
But I still work out in train with all of them in their respective crafts to make sure they can't beat me. That's that's the scary part. So I'm still very active. Since I have stopped playing. I try to train with my son. I train with my daughter. When it comes to track, I do all the drill she does, and I make sure I'm always on points. So if at any point I need to show how it should be done or how it should look, I'm still in elite shape to be able to do so. So it's
not just me talking it. I can actually walk it too. On what it should look like.
Most physically fit forty five year old man in the world, fifty five fifty five year old man.
Yeah, yeah, that's that's how.
Fit you are.
Yeah, hey, listen, I call it the wear and tear from the from the from the NFL. It aasts ten years on the body, even though I had no injuries.
All right, A few questions about the current Bengals. What do you admire and respect about Joe Burrow?
His ability to stay calm under pressure. He's always I think that's obviously the name Joe Cool is. It's therefore a reason he's always cool under pressure. And how most of the time for a quarterback that's young. When you content, when you consistently get hit, you get rattled. It's just it's just the nature of the besis. You get rattled and for some reason, I don't know who, or or or where it came about. Usually over time with repetition at the highest level, then you become cool and calm
under pressure. But he came out the gate just that way, and I think he's the reason for you know, their success.
Chase Higgins or Boyd or excuse me, Chase Higgins and Boyd or Johnson, Hushman, Zada and Henry.
That's a good one. That's a good one. That's a good one. I'm gonna have.
I'm gonna have to go with us, even though I have an appreciation for all three of those dudes. Man, Chase is special, Higgins obviously a special and Tyler Boyd is misterconsistency, you know, throughout the years. But I obviously I'm gonna have to go with us. You know, Chris was special. Chris was special.
And TJ.
TJ can do it all. He can do everything under the sun, short Entermedya, he can go along, he can beat you underneath, I mean just all around. And then obviously myself was just just pure entertainment.
But I don't have to go with us regardless.
All right, A couple more questions for you. You spent ten years in Cincinnati. You're still the all time franchise leader in catches, receiving yards, touchdown catches. What do you think is your Bengals legacy? Oh?
Man, I would I would. I would say making it fun and entertaining.
And then the funny thing about it is I made it so fun and entertaining with what most were called antics. I don't think people even realize how really good I was. You know that they do.
I don't know.
I think outside of the game, like because I made so much noise in other areas, I don't think people understand how good I really was.
As far as like.
If you if you break it down and think about it, to be able to talk trash through the week and then still go out there and execute, knowing everyone trying to knock your head off, to have a have a list of dvs in your locker before the season starts, and still go out week the week and beat everybody.
Like I don't. I don't think people understand.
To lead the AFC and receiving yards what four years in a row, while all while entertaining and talking trash week three, I don't. I don't think people understand how difficult I made the game. And remember the climate that in the era I played in, defensively, remember the division I'm in defensively, it's it's it's it was very difficult. Like a lot of people play Madden, the video game Madden, and its hardest feature is being as playing it on
all Madden All Madden's very difficult. I always love to say I played the game of football, and if feel on old man because I made it that much more.
Difficult and was able to get away with it.
Because yeah, yeah, yeah, I like a degree of difficulty.
Yes, I needed it.
I needed because if I didn't force the difficulty on myself, I don't think I would have performed to the best of my ability.
Final thing, and I'll let you go. Last year, when Willie Anderson joined the Ring of Honor, several of his former teammates made it back to Cincinnati to be there for the celebration. If possible, Who are a few guys that you would really like to attend your Ring of Honor ceremony?
All of them? All of them?
But I definitely want who's there. I definitely need Big Willie because Big Willy and I have some some great memories of me bothering the defensive lineman and will you telling me to shut up and huddle.
We gotta we got to bring those memories up.
And Carson TJ, Big Willie, who else man the DB's Roddneny Heath Tory, James delt O'Neil. Some of those dudes that I battle with, you know, throughout those days.
I mean just it's meaning as possible, it's meani as possible.
But those three, you know, Big Willie, TJ and Carson, it would be it would be a joy to see them there.
Well.
As you say to others on a daily basis, I love you, I love you. Congratulations on this well deserved honor. Thank you for ten magnificent seasons in Cincinnati. Thank you for making it fun and for making Cincinnati cool. You'll always have a place in our heart.
Thank you, appreciate it.
That's going to do it for this episode of the Bengals Booth podcast, brought to you by Kettering Health, the official healthcare provider of the Bengals, by Bengals Picks and Ultimate Bengals. They're free to play with tickets and signed merchandise up for grabs by pay Corps, the official HR software provider of the Bengals, and by Alta Fiber future
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