Bengals Booth Podcast: Bad Blood

on one with offensive lineman Quentin Spain. 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 delivered right to your phone, tablet, or computer by subscribing on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, Spotify, or pod Bean. It's the greatest thing since candy Advent Calendar.

Since I was a kid, I've always loved Advent calendars where you open the little door and find a small surprise as you count down the days in December leading up to Christmas. Well, this year we have the twenty four Tastes of Christmas Advent Calendar, a candy tasting version. My son opens the little door each day to reveal that day's treat. They countdown to Christmas. Never tasted so sweet.

Now let's get to Sunday's game. On an eighty one degree day in Miami, the Bengals scored first late in the first quarter when Tyler Boyd took a short pass from Brandon Allen and turned it into the longest play of his NFL career. Third down in two, Cincinnati from their own twenty eight yard line. Allen, in the shotgun against the snap, throws quick boy down the side, cross midfield, met them bowing it you go all the way, cuts inside of the table and sits into the end zone.

Touchdown Tyler Boyd touchdown, Cincinnati seventy two yards. Unfortunately, it was Boyd's only catch of the day. The Bengals had a seven to three lead with about a minute to go in the first half and had the ball at the Miami twenty yard line on third down in ten. They knew that even if they couldn't get a first down, they were well within easy field goal range for Randy Bullock in the shotgun. Allen gets the football looks right now.

He rolls fires toward the sideline and it's too high, incomplete and a little extra push on boy a swipe by Howard, and it continues on the sideline just outside the fifteen yard line. That swite could easily be a fifteen yard penalty. It would be half the distance to the goal here. And the referees are talking this over, but no flags yet. Zach Taylor's ran down there at the officially, so are you kidding me? You didn't see him swat Tyler Boyd in the face mask. He took

a shot at him. He took a left handed punch out him, took a swat because Tyler Boyd gets up, goes face mask to face mask, he swats at him with the left hand and then comes back at him again. So Zach Taylor saw that. Zach Taylor saying where's the flag? He's doing a play by playing the officials ear and finally the flag comes in and are they going to penalize the Bengals bench? Oh, they're gonna call it him the Bengals. That makes it a more interesting field goal,

it sure does. Let's unpack what happened. Tyler Boyd got pushed in the back late when he was going out of bounds. He took exception and got up and said something face mask to face mask to Dolphin's cornerback Xavian Howard. Howard threw a punch that didn't really connect. Boyd retaliated

with a punch that also didn't really connect. The game officials apparently only saw the retaliation punch and hit Boyd with a fifteen yard penalty, but the replay officials watching in New York saw both punches and ejected Boyd and Howard. And even though they saw Howard throw the first punch, the crew in New York can only rule on ejections. They cannot ask the officials on site to throw another penalty. Flag that turned a thirty eight yard field goal attempt

by Bullock into a fifty three yard try. Clark Harris the snap, Huber to hold off the left. Hash looking in now getting the snap, it's high place down Bell and Wine Lord wide of the post wide left. You just knew what was going to happen after that, right, The Dolphins picked up a couple of first downs and kicked a forty eight yard field goal on the final play of the half. To make it Cincinnati seven Miami six.

The Bengals had the lead, but it sure didn't feel like it, and sure enough, the second half was thoroughly dominated by the Dolphins. Three receivers set with smythe motioning talking about Lowa takes throws back of the end zone, it is Cark Gisicky back of the end zone over Sims for eight Dolphins touchdown. That touchdown passed to Mike Kasicki, and a field goal by Jason Sanders gave Miami a

sixteen seven lead going to the final quarter. In the third quarter, the Bengals had minus four yards of offense. Here's Zach Taylor, there's a third quarter in the Nut Show, you know. And they came out and had three straight scorn drives, and we had some three and outs, And I gotta put our guys in a better position, too. We gotta make some plays that are there. But at the same time, you know, I gotta be accountable for

them and put us in some better spots. But you know, we played the game how we expected to be playing the first half, and then weren't good enough in the third quarter, and that's where I got away. Miami added a field goal early in the fourth to make it nineteen seven, and while the Dolphins didn't score again, things got much worse. First, Jonah Williams suffered a knee injury

and was taken off the field on a cart. On the very next play, Mike Thomas hit punt returner Jachim Grant before he had a chance to catch the ball, drawing a catch interference penalty. Earlier in the game, Thomas was penalized for unnecessary roughness for another hit on Grant that caused Dolphins players and coaches to come charging off the field from their sideline, leading to three more ejections for fighting, Devonte Parker and Mac Hollins for Miami and

Sean Williams for the Bengals. After the games, Zach Taylor defended Mike Thomas for the two hits on Grant that resulted in penalties. Oh, we'll watch the first one first of all, and then the second one. He got there a little too soon. I mean, that's that's obvious. We know that. But again that that returner is a heck for returner. That's the number one point returner unit in the league. He does not fair to catch the ball, you know, And so you've got to put pressure on him.

Of course, we don't want to do it before before the catch point. We want to play within the rules. But our guys were playing hard. It was unfortunate. You hope he's fine, but again there's no will will there by Mike Thomas, I can promise you that he's just he's just being a gunner and trying to go down there and make a play. The rest of the game was basically an assault on Bengals quarterbacks. Brandon Allen got sacked five times and had to be helped off the

field with about seven and a half minutes to go. Fortunately, he only had the win knocked out of him. Ryan Finley came in and promptly got sacked on his second play as Miami finished with six sacks and eleven quarterback hits. The Bengals managed just twenty five yards of offense in the second half as the Dolphins scored the game's final nineteen points in a nineteen seven win. Oh. I think our guys got put him some tough spots, you know.

And you know those are two core guys that got keeped out of the game, Sean Williams and and Tyler Boyd you know, and again, we don't ever want that. We don't ever want to throw a point. We need those guys. We're counting on those guys, and everyone's got to maintain their composure, myself included. So we just got

to look at what happened. But but it was I know, they were both very frustrated with what was going on, you know, and Sean got hurt there on a blindside block and TV like you got hit way laid out of a ounce, you know. And so but again we got to maintain our composure and be better than that. What did you tell you football team after the game?

I mean, I'm proud of the effort they gave, you know, and they they're playing hard and had some calls go against them, you know that that we'll have to look at it, to be quite frank, But um, you know, I thought our guys were playing hard and got putting a tough spot there. The Dolphins are eight and four and a half game behind the Bills in the AFC East. Those two teams meet in the final game of the regular season. The Bengals are two nine and one and

currently have the third pick in next year's draft. Now time for postgame analysis with my broadcast partner Dave Lapham. All Right, lap nineteen seven the final score in Miami today. My question is who had a worse day, Ron Torbert's officiating crew or the Bengals O line point. That's a that's a good question. I'll tell you what. The league can't be happy. I mean, the officiating crew lost control of that football game and they had a terrible day.

They really did trying to figure out, you know, who to assess penalties on, who to eject. I mean, the league office had to get involved, obviously, and I've never ever been in a football game there was where there was a twenty to twenty five minute delay regarding that who to penalize, who to eject. Unbelievable. I mean, it's just people don't tune in by television or radio to listen or hear or watch officials having basically a conference

of stripe jersey. It was ridiculous. And the ejection of Tyler Boyd and the penalty late in the first half was huge. They missed the fact that he got shoved in the back out of bounds. That should have been a penalty. Yea, he gets up, gets in somebody's face. The first swipe was taken by the opponent, he swipes back, he gets a fifteen yard penalty. So that's a mistake. They both get a ejected and shouldn't have been. That was just totally mishandled by the officials. Like Marv Levy said,

they were all a bunch of overly officious jerks. It was ridiculous because, you know, New York got involved with the ejections, and New York got overly excited about doing something to try to take control of the game that the officials had lost control of. I think I think they saw that it was starting to get pretty or very chippy, very nasty potentially, and they tried to put a fork in it as such. But the fact that New York couldn't do anything about the fact that they

blew the call. They can't assess penalties that officials miss on the field of play. That would open up the can of worms. Every single play would be asked to be reviewed to see if there was holding on the left tackle, if there was an illegal chuck on the cornerback. I mean, they couldn't play the game, so they couldn't rectify the mistake that was made by Tyler Boyd being the guy that responds to being pushed. They missed totally

why he was instigated to do what he did. All they saw was him retaliate, and it's ridiculous what took place there. And Zach Taylor was going nuts because he saw the whole thing as he was going down the sideline and certainly could not change the officials' minds whatsoever. So technically the game got away in the third quarter, but I really thought that final sequence in the second quarter swung the game. That's how I felt watching it. One oh eight left in the second quarter, the Bengals

have the lead. They've got it first and ten at the Miami twenty. You think, worst case scenario, they're going to kick a field goal and have a ten to three lead at the half. Instead of having, you know, what should have been a relative chip shot, like a thirty eight yard field goal, it becomes a fifty three yard attempt that Bullock misses, gives the Dolphins good field position, and they kick a forty eight yard field goal as the half expires to make it a seven sixth game.

That was a huge swing. It was, it was, and I think the Bengals went into locker room feeling it. So they came back out in the third quarter, went two and out, three and out in their two possessions in the third quarter, and then they went three and out in the first possession of the fourth quarter. Three straight three and outs, and on those twelve snaps they had zero yards, three plays for six yards, three place for minus ten yards, three place for minus one yards,

minus five total. So in a in a let's see, in a five possession sequence, they had four three and outs, twelve plays, no yards in those in those in those possessions, those five possessions, that is brutal. That's ending the first half and starting the second half with nothing going on. I mean they had on the drive you talked about whether they missed the field goal, they had six first downs.

On the other nine drives, they had six first downs total the other nine drives, and on the one drive where they missed a fifty three yard they had six verset downs, eleven plays, forty three yards root canal surgery. I mean, they just can't make any plays. They really can't. Seventy two yard touchdown, Tyler Boyd, you know, basically you had a misplay by the defensive back sample does a good job of blocking one. The other one just tries to run underneath the plane and catch it from behind

instead of going over the top. And when he ran underneath it, Tyler Board out ran him to the sideline and it was, you know, six points at that point, it was six city. The Bengals ran a total of fifty plays, so that one went for seventy two the other forty nine went for un excuse me, one hundred and twenty four yards. That's two point five per snap. Like you say, root canal surgery. Just a dreadful showing. And you know, it's tough when you lose your starting quarterback,

but that's happened to a lot of teams. Typically your offense is not as good, that's to be understood. But it shouldn't be this bad, really shouldn't, I get you know, you compound it with the fact that Joe Mixon, you know, the Joe Show is done. The two Joe's only played together, what four game games maybe Dan possibly five, I can't remember the exact number, but it wasn't very long. And uh, it's it's this football team, both both the Bengals and

and the Miami Dolphins. Their numbers were very similar. They had run it for about ninety five and ninety six yards and given up about one hundred and thirty And they both were giving up four point eight yards per play in the running game. And they're running it for about you know, three point six yards, you know, three point six to three point eight. So who was going to run it and who was going to stop the run? The Bengals running game was non existent against the defense

the teams had run the ball against pretty well. You know, they hit the sea gap, they hit the off tackle gap when they went to that bare front and covered the center on both guards, and teams hit that and abused it pretty well. In the first half, they showed some signs, you know, they were finishing runs pretty well. P Ryan finished the couple, Giovanni finished a couple, and I thought, yeah, maybe they'll be able to stay with him, be persistent with the running game and grinds it out

a little bit. And then that's just evaporated. You know, that went away, and it's amazing. As soon as the team gets up more than a score on the Bengals, it's over. It's over. They can't they can't run the football, the pass protection is they get overpowered and dominated six sacks, five of them in the second half. You know that

Basically Miami started to run away with the game. They scored on four straight possessions, the last possession the field goal we talked about in the first half, then touchdown field goal, field goal in the first three possessions of the second half. Ball game, and uh, it's it's it's tough to watch it. Defensively, again, they played pretty solidly. I mean, Jesse Bates is having he had thirteen tackles, ten of them on assisted and punch the ball out

and Von Bell recovers it. The Killer Bees are playing well at the safety position, and the last two opponents have scored nineteen points and the offense cannot even you know, come close to make it making it a competitive football game. In today's NFL, nineteen points should not win you a football game by two scores. It just shouldn't. I thought Bates really stood out today because not only did he have all those tackles, but he wasn't like making the

last line of defense tackles fifteen twenty yards downfield. He was up in the box stopping guys repeatedly close to the line of scrimmage. Yeah, and when receptions were made, the journey was over. There was no yards after catch. I mean he was he was physical. I mean he was he was into it. And honestly, I think that he's going to get a lot of votes for the Pro Bowl because his play. I think Lawrence it plus the fact that he's trying to ignite his football team.

His team is not a good football team, particularly offensively, and he's trying to lift his entire defense, you know, to stay competitive and keep the football team in games. So I think League Y he's getting a lot of respect for that, and he was effusive in the praise. Was florries about Jesse based before the football game during the week during the Zoom call that he had the conference call on Wednesday, and Jesse did look him up

before the game and thank them for words. And if you have a guy who knows what he's looking at from a defensive football perspective. Given the kind of compliments, the Flowery compliments they were thrown out there, Flores was thrown up their debates, that means something to League. So the Jonas Williams situation was awful. TV coverage only showed it once, similar to the Joe Burrow situation. Looked like Bobby Harts guy inadvertently crashed into the leg of Jonah Williams,

causing the injury. Again on the TV coverage, they only mentioned that he was taken off on a cart. We didn't see it. None of that would appear to bode well in my opinion. Now, they called for the card very quickly. He never moved, you know, they just just went right down to the knee. I mean, he knew obviously right away. And I remember that happened to me one time, and I was fortunate in that I tore cartilage,

tore meniscus cartilage and tour it pretty well. There was a big you know, the meniscus is like a horse shoe underneath your kneecap, underneath the matella, and I had a big, huge ripping in the meniscus and it was locked, locking my knee up. I couldn't bend my leg. But they carved it out of there with with you know, the surgery, the scope, arthurscopic surgery when in there, chopped it up, sucked it out of there, and I was

able to play. Literally, I played the following Sunday. So that was a you know, not a not a terrible procedure, but a lot of times when you get you get hit like that from the side or behind, it can lead to some significant damage. And the fact that he didn't even try to get up and walk off the field is not a good indicator. Bobby Hart had a tough day. Looked like Michael Jordan had a really tough day.

Xavier sue of Philo is off the injured list. Do you think Michael Jordan gets another opportunity to watch from the sideline and we see the return of Xavier Suafilo to the starting lineup. I would think so. And uh, you know, if Redmond's able to come back, what do you do do you go with? You go with Spain and Suafilo, Redmond and Suafilo. You know, it's it's interesting what they might do inside there. But I do think I think right now Michael Jordan has got a confidence issue.

I think that you know, he's he realizes that in his mind, maybe I shouldn't be playing, maybe I'm not ready to play. And you can't compete in the national football if you go out there with doubt in your mind. If you don't think that you're going to be able to get the job done, there's not a snowball's chance in hell you're gonna get the job done, bottom line period.

So until he, you know, gets that confidence back and starts to be consistent with his execution of performance on a snap by snap basis, you got to do something because van Noy, van Noy had three sacks. I respect van Noy as a football player. The guy is a stat sheets stuffer and he's very intelligent. And I mean when when the Dolphins suffer injury to Roberts, I thought, oh man, that's that's a that's a big loss right there.

And Van Noy just picked it up and just made a bunch of plays for the Dolphins at the linebacker level. I mean, he stepped his game up big time. What do you think of Twah. I think that they they dumped it down a little bit offensively for TWA. I don't think they give him a lot to have to concern himself with it. It's very effective. They employ like a motion person across the formation. He can you know, he can give him a little shovel pass to get

an outside run. They do their zone read stuff with him and then play action off all of those looks, and it's pretty simple. It's pretty simple what they're asking them to do. And I think they call it and run it with Twa. I don't think he even looks to audibilize that the line of scrimmage. I think it's a call it and running scenario with chan Gaily and then obviously with Ryan Fitzpatrick in there, he has total latitude to change plays at the line of scrimmage and

get him out of bad plays into better ones. But I do think too it is very, very conscious of not messing it up, don't turn it over, don't make a mistake that will cost his football team, because he knows his defense is outstanding, and he knows that the special teams are great as well. And offensively, just do what you need to do, take advantage of opportunities when they present themselves. Don't try to force and create opportunities. Don't try to do something that's not there and cause issues.

And I think he had a stretch there where he was like I would think probably ten for twelve, one hundred and twenty yards and a touchdown pass. He was pretty effective with that play action stuff, And I think I think both quarterbacks Dan are tough minded Fitzpatrick and two are both tough minded. Two has been coached hard his whole life. His dad just begin with and I you know, it's tough. I've seen father's coaching their sons and they're tough on their sons and anybody because they

don't want to appear to be showing favoritism. And then you go to Nick Saban and probably his dad was a picnic before Nick Saban, you know. So now you go to Flores, who's another you know, stern taskmaster. So two is tough. Two is mentally tough, physically tough. And uh, I thought that he was patient, didn't try to didn't try to create something when it wasn't there. It's interesting to watch him, watch him perform, hasn't thrown an interception,

He's got seven touchdown passes. Now, it's pretty nice. It is good. Miami coach Brian Flores lost his cool over though Mike Thomas hits on punt returner Jachem Grant. Did you think they were cheaper? You know? The thing is Grant doesn't signal fair catches. And I'm sure Darren was like, look, he's not going to fair catch it. Don't let him embarrass you, close the space, get right up on top of him as soon as he catches that football, put

a hit on him. All Thomas took it a little a step further, obviously, And I know some people are are like a Paul that New York didn't throw Mike Thomas out of the game after having back to back punt returns that way. The thing my question is, how the hell does Flores not even get penalized running across the field and leading the whole bench to the Bengal sideline. Now New York can say, well, a coach can go on the field if he's a peacemaker. Peacemaker my butt.

Flores was ready to go. He was he was going to get after people on the Bengal sideline and von Bell held him back. He wasn't out there as a peacemaker. He was going nuts. So you know, if they say, how come Thomas wasn't injected, how come Flores wasn't at least penalized or even ejected. You can't go out in the football field like that in that manner as a coach,

not only as a head coach, an assistant coach. But second time I've seen it happen in the meltdown in the playoffs Pittsburgh as Cincinnati Joey Porter was out in the field proden Vantes Berfort and Adam Jones. So I've seen it before with an assistant coach out there on the football field when he shouldn't have been. But I've never seen a head coach charged the opposite sideline and leader brigade of guys from his sideline across the field

like that. And there's no repercussion about it whatsoever? What's that about it? I don't understand that one we know who he was pointing and gesturing toward. Was it a coach? Was it Mike Thomas? Do we know who he was directing his anger at. I'm not sure. I'm not sure he was. He was screaming and yelling at somebody. And I would like to have been a fly on the wall when he and Zach Taylor shook hands after the game and Zach was asked at the zoom, you know

what was talked about him? So we'll just keep that between us, he said, but we're good. But there was I don't know if it's a Bengal assistant coach or somebody else in the organization. Somebody was down on the sides and was getting trampled. Yeah, I mean it's like, man, you know, you can't you can't have those kind of things. That's and that's an ugly scene right there. And the National Football League I think that not only are there going to be ejections, they're gonna be fines. Players are

going to be lighter in the pocketbook. If I'm the NFL. If they don't find Floras, I don't know what the hell of fine? What act would cause a fine to occur? And I'm sure Russ will pick it up. The billionaire owner will probably pick up Floors. Is fine, but the league has to do something. They can't allow coaches to run across the football field like that and help incite, you know, things that might get out of control. They lost total control of that game every way you can

lose control of it. Brandon Allen left with seven twenty three to go, helped off the field by the medical staff. After the game, he said he just had the win knocked out of them. So should we assume that he'll be back as the starter next week? What do you think I think there's a good chance he fell on top of the football. I saw that, you know, on the one replayers got a good angle of it, and I've seen that before, and I seen it where it

can crack ribs. I mean literally, if you fall on that football right, you can have a you know, a crack or one of the most painful injuries I ever had. I recovered a fumble and guys fell on top of me and I was right on top of the ball and had nowhere to go, and I tore cartilage between my ribs and my rib kidge and oh my gosh, man, if you sneeze, cough, anything, it's like, I think I might have preferred to crack a rib then tear cartilage between the ribs. It was. It was very, very painful,

and there wasn't much movement you could do. And they put a flat jacket on to protect it from further damage, but it was already damaged. Man. That was. That was a tough few weeks there, and it almost takes your breath away when you move the wrong way. You feel that big sharp pain and you know you almost lose your breath. So he's it all depends on how serious

that injury is. And if it's if it's a problem obviously and you can't practice and get ready for you know, the game against Dallas, Hogan comes to the rescue and I maybe they signed Sergeant Schultz to back them up. I don't know, they need another body back there at quarterback. I don't know what they're gonna do. Nice hole again reference speaking of painful two nine and one, four twenty three and one since the beginning of last year, just

a brutal two years stretched, no other way to describe it. Yeah, absolutely, And they only have one more chance to win a road game. I mean they could go over the road other than a tie, don't have a W and man, that would be a tough, tough stretch. Obviously, they got one more shot when they go down to Houston to get that road w in the way Shaun Watson's playing, and then that won't be an easy cast down there either, And they've got JJ Watt. Everybody's got players. So yeah,

it's it's it is. It's brutal, and um, you know, you see the thing is they're playing hard. Dan In my estimation, te Higgins is trying to up up and away jump over a guy and make a play. I asked him in the zoom after the game. You know, in hindsight, would you do that again? Yeah, I'm a playmaker. I got to try and make place for my football team. So guys are selling out and they're not worried about the potential effects on their bodies. But they're just not

playing smart. You know, there's just honestly, they're just not playing smart. In a lot of cases, they're just not good enough, you know. And effort is great, but if you're not good enough, effort rings hollow after a while. And right now, the fans and everybody involved with the football team, it's just starving for wins man. They got to got to try to find a win or two somewhere as they close it out in the last month. Appreciate you doing this seeing a couple of days. Look

forward to it. Be good to see you Dan face to face instead of by zoom or by voice. Indeed, appreciate it. Thanks, you know. Man up next three turn of Andy Dalton as the Dallas Cowboys come to Paul Brown Stadium next week. Dallas is three and eight and has to play on Tuesday in Baltimore. The Bengals Booth podcast is presented by Bud Light Seltzer. It's light and refreshing with a hint of fruit flavor. Now time for this week's fun Facts segment, where you get to know

the person under the pads. Time for some fun facts with offensive linemen Quentin Spain from Petersburg, Virginia, the birthplace of one of the greatest Bengals running backs of all time, Rudy Johnson. What was young Quentin Spain into growing up in Petersburg? I was into basketball and football, and I did I try a shot foot Well, I just went to the Tratton meet just to see the people run one hundred and two hundred in the full ball one Ruth, Quentin,

you are a large man. Were you always the biggest kid growing up? Yes, I was the biggest kid growing up in high school. I was the biggest kid in the middle school too. Elementary I was playing running back elementary, I played running back in quarterback. I'm glad you mentioned playing running back because there's footage of you on the internet playing high school basketball, and that's good. But there's footage of you as a high school fullback and that

is phenomenal. You look like Godzilla carrying tiny people on your shoulders. How much fun was it for you to play fullback in high school? It was great, Like the Cloch believed in me and he gave me the rock, so he had faith in me. So and I enjoyed it, like I was Tyler blogging at the game, so he made it fun fund me, Like when we got into the red zone, he tamed me in the back. So

we're doing fun facts with Quentin Spain. You attended West Virginia University, which has a history of developing good offensive lineman. Why did you choose WVU now to West Virginia because I had to go to summer school because I was a credit short. When I was a summer school, West Virginia stuck with man told me like, whenever you get dumbed there, it's come up. So I came to West Virginia.

I was a week week in the hell behind the camp, so they reres certain and I just I caught on and see how thing was going, and then I just took off the year after that. What was the best part of your college experience? Everything about college we're chatting with Quentin Spain. Your Twitter profile says mister undrafted, which is a reference, unfortunately to what happened in the NFL draft.

How much did that hurt? They heard a lot like it heard being around, like having your family having a little draft party, and didn't hear your name call, and you projected to go first round when you came back your last ship my last year in the same year college project the first round and it's slipped to undrafted. So I just I carried the name. I said, all right, I'm gonna call my something stunt drafted, and I'm gonna prove everybody, every team wrong who didn't want to pick them.

Has anybody ever explained why you weren't drafted. Nobody never told me why I wan't drive. So that's in the past though. So I just used the motivation and I figured, like once I make like I knew I could make a team. It's just I just had to pick a team will fit for me. And I picked Tennessee at a time they need alignment. So I figured, if I come in there and do what I had to do,

I can make the team. And so when I got the when I didn't get the phone call from being cut, then my agent called me and said I made a team. It brought a big smile on my face, and I said, it's not it's not over. Yeah, I made a team, but I feel like I can be a starter. So I just kept working. And then when I became a starter,

I just took off right there. Quentin, while you were with Tennessee and playing in Nashville, you attended to Nashville Predators NHL playoff where you fired up the crowd by doing what take it off my shirt and chugging beard with the rush of the offensive line and holding catfishes. All right, let's break this down and let's start with taking off your shirt. How did the crowd react to that? First? Lawan said, all right, we gotta we gotta. Whatever we do,

it gotta it. Gotta break the internet, it gotta worldwide. So we would thank you. He said, all right, so I'm gonna get I'm gonna bring the cat fishes. So we got to the game and he snucked the catfishes in like at first win, like we didn't know he gonna get the cat fishes. So he snucked the catfishes in the cooler. They let him slide because we went through the back and they let us in so we was in the press box. Luan said, all right, this

is what we're gonna do. I want you to hold a catfish up over my faith and he'll gonna chug his beard from off the cat fish. So then everybody like Sprange just took off his shirts, just go crazy. So and I said, all right, let's go there. So then when they when it happened, we did it, and then it just went nationwide. It just blew up. Now like every hockey playoff game on the commercials, you will see us doing it. It's classic. I highly recommend checking

out the photos out of the internet. Speaking of shirtless Quentin, on your Twitter profile at the top, you can see that you have a big tattoo on your back of the number sixty seven. So do you always have to make sure that you are number sixty seven on whatever team you play for? Yes? I do. And if you notice, I got missed on josted tat on my back too, like sixty seven under it as a jersey stop sixty

seven was available in Cincinnati. What if it wasn't, I would I would have asked whoever had it can agreement? What do I have? Like would have came up with a plan something. There would have been some negotiating. Yeah, but it was a rookie, it would have been it's just been a said every rookie, you just got to give it up. Ruck, He's got to give it up,

no question about it. If the Bengals had happened to have like a five time pro bowler that wore the number sixty seven, that might have been a little Yeah, it would Yeah, it would have been tough. I think I would have had to we still we had to negotiate a song, but it worse case the words I probably would have when I got to know. Thankfully it didn't come to that. Yeah. You posted a picture recently of a beautiful watch, a diamond studded gold watch. Are

you a big watch guy? I only got one watch, and I just like, I just liked the high it was and like my juror guy like he'd do a good job and it looked nice. So I just I just got one. You only need one when it looks that good. What do you like to spend your money on? See, I'm a big family guy man. I like to take care of my like my guys, like who started the dream of playing in the NFL, like, let's living the

lifestyle of the NFL that can't live us. So like I lost my I lost my one of my best friends. He passed, and this was like this wasn't never my dream though it was his dream when he was young and elementary, Like I never know I was gonna have a chance to go to the NFL. But with me going through high school and my coach told me that he can get me to college. And then when I was in college, my my my homeboy passed, So I felt like I'm gonna finish. I'm gonna finish it off

like this is with his dream. So I said, I'm just go ahead and play for him. So that's why I really, I really went to the LFL for him because it was his dream. He loved football, His dad was elementary football coach and all that stuff. So I just knew that he wanted to do this and he couldn't be able to do it. Quentin, for several years, you posted a free football camp for kids back home

in Petersburg. Why do you do it? I do that because something like where I'm from his heart, it's it's probably like one percent of athletes who make it out of Petersburg with Jaane, like because it's either they go through the drug process or they get killed, go to jail something like that. So it's hard like to make

it out of Petersburg with James. So when I like when I was growing up, nobody I've never seen nobody to come back there to do counts for kids who can't afford four camps and see what it takes to make it to the next level, like technique and like stuff like that. So I do it free. So that's what reason, man, reason why I come back to my hometown to do a free count for kids, Like I want to show them that I made it and then forget about home. So it's anything impossible. You can get

out Petersburg. You don't gotta stay in Petersburg. You can go somewhere. So I do that with the kids. Like sometimes the young kids, I just feel bad, so I'd be had bouncing house for they keep the young kids because you know that the attention span is low, so that age group I let them play around with like that parents who overdare with them, and then the older kid we just do drills and then seven on seven and let them have fun in recognition of your generosity.

The mayor of your hometown proclaimed July first, twenty seventeen, Quentin Spain Day. What's it like for your hometown to give you a day? I didn't know anything about it when when I was at my camp when they gave me, they gave me the day, and they gave me the key to my city. So that was big, Like I'm like a key to the city. That that's like. That mean people recognize what I'm doing out here and what I'm doing for the community, and that was big time

for me. I will never forget that day though. All Right, a couple more fun facts for Quentin Spain. Who is the greatest athlete in any sport? I'm had to go my hometown Moses more Loan from your high school. Yeah, all right, I like that answer. We haven't had Moses Malone before. Last question, If you could meet anybody in history, athlete, entertainer, statesman, whatever, who would that person be. If I can meet anybody in person, it would be it would be Denzel Denzel Washington. Yeah,

love his movies. Yeah, training be all that training days great. That's my favorite Denzel role because he plays a bad guy. Yeah. I feel like every movie was like, yeah, it was a pretty good movie. All Right, you're off the hot seat. I appreciate your time, best of luck the rest of this year. Thank you. Here's a quick reminder to join Lap and Lance McCalister for Bengals Line Monday night from

six to nine on seven hundred WLW. 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 for listening to the Bengals Booth Podcast.