Bengals Booth Podcast: Bad Luck - podcast episode cover

Bengals Booth Podcast: Bad Luck

Jul 31, 202333 min
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Episode description

It’s the “Bad Luck” edition of the Bengals Booth Podcast as broadcasters Dan Hoard and Dave Lapham take an in-depth look at the first week of training camp including the calf injury suffered by Joe Burrow. Plus, comments from Sam Hubbard, Jake Browning, Trevor Siemian, and Darrin Simmons.

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Transcript

Speaker 1

Hi, get everybody. I'm Dan Hord and thanks for downloading the Bengals Boot podcast. The You Got Bad Bad Luck addition, as Dave Lapham joins me to take a look back at the first week of Bengals training camp, including the calf injury suffered by Joe Burrow. The Bengals Boot Podcast is brought to you by pay Corps. More than twenty nine thousand customers trust Paycore to help them recruit, pay engage,

and retain employees. Learn more at paycoorp dot com. Now 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 Quarterback on Netflix. By now, you've probably heard of the eight part documentary that provides a rare, behind the scenes look at what it takes to play quarterback in the NFL, as The Seer's focuses on three qbs throughout the twenty twenty two season, Patrick Mahomes, Kirk Cousins, and Marcus Mariota. I watched it and thought it was outstanding, but when I asked Joe Burrow about it, he said

he hadn't watched the show and didn't plan to. When another reporter asked why, here was Burrow's answer.

Speaker 2

Would you watch documentary about Hobson?

Speaker 1

That was a reference to legendary Bengals Dot Com editor Jeff Hobson. And for the record, I would definitely watch a documentary about Jeff. And just to be clear, Burrow wasn't comparing Mahomes, Cousins and Mariota to the Bengals lovable scribe. Joe simply prefers watching non football shows in his free time. Now, let's get to the first week of training camp. Perhaps you've heard of the broadcaster's jinks. For example, if you use the words no hitter in the late innings of

an no no in progress, it's supposedly bad luck. If you mentioned that a kicker has made fifteen straight field goals just before his next attempt, he's bound to miss. Now, I don't believe in such a thing, but it almost felt like there was a reporter's jinx in Cincinnati this week. Following the Bengals first practice, Joe Burrow was asked several questions about finally having a normal training camp. If you remember his rookie year, was impacted by COVID protocols and

the elimination of preseason games. In his second year, Joe was coming back from his gruesome knee injury, and last year he had an emergency app in deck to me and dropped ten pounds at the beginning of camp. So I've edited together Joe's answers when he was asked about the benefits of being healthy this year at the start of training camp.

Speaker 3

I'll come would hopefully we'll see.

Speaker 4

Yeah, I feel great.

Speaker 5

It was time.

Speaker 2

Last year was sitting in the hospital bed a couple of days post surgeries.

Speaker 3

So it's it's good to be out there with the guys. Anytimes you get more reps, the better you're gonna be. So when you have four weeks of training camp, you're you're gonna be four weeks better than you were if you didn't get those reps.

Speaker 2

And you know, you can't can't.

Speaker 3

Waste any of those days because all those days matter, and you're.

Speaker 2

On a pursuit of constant improvement, and if you waste those days, then you know you're wasting your time. You know, personally, I feel in my position, I don't want to waste any of these days that I have to to get better. I've I've wasted enough days last two years with you know, injuries and a pendicitis and COVID the year before that. You know, I don't I don't want to get out of camp wishing that I had, you know, seven more days that I could have got better. And so I'm I.

Speaker 3

Need these days to to be my best. I know I'm gonna be able to get a lot more out of this training camp than I have the last couple as long as I stay healthy.

Speaker 2

Which, like I said, knock on wood, nothing's happened yet.

Speaker 1

Nothing's happened yet, So much for that. The following day at practice, Joe wore a compression sleeve on his lower right leg, indicating that he probably experienced some minor tightness in his calf the day before, not significant enough to miss practice, but enough to wear a little extra support. Unfortunately, when the Bengals quarterback attempted to roll out to the right near the end of the team's second practice, he felt significant pain in his right calf and was immediately

taken to the training room. Zach Taylor says Joe is going to miss several weeks a calf injury. Caused Sam Hubbard to miss two weeks late in the regular season. Last year, he returned for the final game of the regular season and had his ninety eight yard fumble in the jungle return in the first round of the playoffs.

Speaker 6

I know about calf strains all too well, and they're really painful and they're you know, they're not the end of the world, but they do anger a bit. And I think that the training staff and Joe are going to do the right thing to you know, take care of this early in camp and be ready to go. But really early in camp. We'll see what the prognosis is. But you know, he's gonna do everything he can to be back out there quickly. And I have faith that, you know, it's just a bummer because I want him

to have a healthy training camp. Nobody worked harder this offseason, and uh, you know whatever, it is just veryes you know, it's a bummer, and uh, you know, I don't know it'll bring the best out of him, for sure, but it wouldn't it be nice just to have an easy route to Week one for once. But uh, I know we'll we'll handle this as a team. He'll handle it, and uh we'll come out on top like we always do.

Speaker 1

Again. Burrow is going to miss several weeks, and while he was hoping to play a series or two in the preseason, that is almost certainly not going to happen now. Instead, the two guys competing to be his backup, Jake Browning and Trevor Simeon, will alternate days as the number one quarterback at practice. Browning is twenty seven years old and has been on the Bengals practice squad for the last two years after spending his first two NFL seasons on

the Vikings practice squad. He was the first string quarterback in the first practice following burrows gaff injury and had a very solid day.

Speaker 5

I don't really know how ready any of your second thirsteon quarterbacks are until it's time to actually do it. And so yeah, I mean, I think I've been working really hard at this for a while, been on a lot of practice squads and spend a lot of time away from any cameras or getting any reps with ones. And so I feel like, now that's steel. I got

a good practice. It's a singular practice, but I feel like I'm in a position where he can keep stacking some good days and hopefully have some good preseason games and hopefully win the backup job.

Speaker 1

Trevor Simeon is thirty one years old and entering his ninth season in the league with thirty NFL starts under his belt. In addition to competing with Browning, he wants to make sure the offense is running smoothly until Burrow returns.

Speaker 7

There's a certain level of professionalism that you try to have, and you know, I don't ask, you know, when I come in, I make the most of more reps, try to run the show as best I can. And it's good for me getting these reps with these guys, you know, because I'm the new guy, if you want to call it us.

Speaker 1

It's hard to get through training camp with only two healthy quarterbacks. So the Bengals have signed Red Sinnate, who spent the last three seasons on the practice squads of the Buccaneers and Dolphins, as well as ten games on the active roster with the Eagles in twenty twenty one. Sinnate played one game in the USFL this year before

breaking his foot. The Bengals Booth podcast is brought to you by All to 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 sign merchandise up for grabs. Find both inside the Bengals app. Now time to look at the Bengals first four practices with my

broadcast partner Dave Lapham Lap. One of the biggest storylines going into training camp was Joe Burrow finally gets a chance to go through training camp healthy and unfortunately it only lasted for about a day and a half as he suffered that calf strain. I'm a recreational runner, as you know. I've had some calf issues over the years. They stink, but they heal. The key is don't rush it back.

Speaker 4

Absolutely. I mean that is that is the biggest piece of advice that could be given. Because I had one a mid calf and I'm like, oh, it feels pretty good. Can tot raises doing the get out there and doing football stuff started tugging like, boy, you know better not

better take a little bit more time. So it's one of those when you feel like you're ready, give it another little bit of time to make sure that you're ready, because if you do exacerbate it, it can get a heck of a lot worse quickly, you know, And you don't want to be in that situation. You don't want to be a nagging thing. I've seen, you know, cap injuries now again, initially probably they weren't. They were more

severe than what Joe's dealing with right now. But man, you know, guys, the regular season, the pressures on to come back, to come back too early, and they end up missing a good part of the season, you know, because trying to do too much too soon.

Speaker 1

Zach Taylor did not give a specific timetable. He used the expression several weeks, and then everybody tried to figure out, well, how many is several? Is that three? Is that four? I think it's more than two. I think we can draw that conclusion and probably the best case scenario is about three weeks. And obviously the real key is to be ready for the season opener, if possible, and I think that's the expectation if there's no setback.

Speaker 4

Yeah, I agree, and I think that it's going to be say it's four weeks and you have like a week and a half before the regular season opener. I think at that point you might say at practice, we're going to just increase the tempo a little bit to get Joe ready because I remember, you know, the last couple of times it was like, well, I just wish I had seven more days, you know, to get ready for the temple of the National Football League defenses. You know,

unfortunately he's going to miss that work day. You know. Against the Green Bay Packers, the Wednesday practice is like that's gold because you know, you used to going against the same guys and you know what their strengths are, you know what their weaknesses are. Now you give a team that comes in totally different people, running different things in different ways, and you know now you have to just rely on your football instincts and not like oh I know what this guy is going to do and

taking educated guesses and you can. It's it's a much different dynamic when you go in full tilt and practice against an opponent and not a teammate. Iron can sharpen Iron, there's no question. But boy, when the Iron is another team, it's not Iron anymore. I guess what would be the next thing up the up the chart of precious metals. I mean, it's like it's not quite gold, but it's getting close. And you know the other thing is it's

Joe's right calf. That's his push off foot. That's where he has to, you know, come with the most effort to get the ball started on his on his uh. You know, his mechanics are throwing the football so right handed quarterback. Any any damage to the right side is tough because that's where that's where all the power and thrust comes from.

Speaker 1

I want to give my wife Peg credit for this. She pointed out something to me after this injury that really made me think, and that is Tom Brady's ability to answer the bell week after week for more than twenty years. He did miss basically an entire season with a torn acl But we've all heard about his training regimen with the stretching and the bands and the flexibility, and you know, the Bengals have a world class training staff,

strength and conditioning, medical staff, et cetera. But I wonder if you study what time Brady did to try to be just as pliable as you possibly can be.

Speaker 4

Diet, you know that Tom Brady diet was a big factor as well. I mean, yeah, I don't think there's anybody that took care of himself in the history of professional sports better than Tom Brady did. And and you know it's the thing is too his overall football IQ.

He never put him I shouldn't say never, but he worked very hard to make sure that he did not put himself in precarious situations, you know, high low situation getting hit, and a lot of it is a credit to his teammates, a credit to how he played, how quickly he got rid of the football. He didn't try to do more than he knew that he could comfortably do. And he never lost his composure in that regard. Some guys, in the heat of the battle, they try to be superman.

You know, he was superman just being within himself and the way he played football, and he never tried to get outside the realm of that, because that's when you can get hurt too. And a lot, you know, a lot of people would laugh at him when you cover up and just you know, collapse in the pocket, and oh he's protecting himself. And you know what, it worked, and it worked for a bunch of years sure, and a.

Speaker 1

Bunch of Super Bowl appearances in Super Bowl rings. Sadly before his calf injury, Joe Burrow is off to a tremendous started training camp. After day one, somebody asked, you know, how'd you feel out out there? He said, pretty damn good? And he was. He was looking extremely sharp for one point eight practices.

Speaker 4

He was. I mean, the thing that separates him, in my mind from everybody, the sideline to sideline, end zone to end zone. He sees it so quickly, and he sees it so accurately and properly, and he makes the right decisions all the time. I mean, if you if you just not confuse him, if you just make him hesitate, you think you had a big win. I mean, it

is remarkable to watch him scan the football field. I mean, if I'm a defensive cord and he's back there scanning the field all kinds of time and all kinds of separation, I'm like, we're cooked. You know, he's going to slice and dice you, and he puts the ball in such great places. I mean, it's just it's it's something to watch him just diagnose. I could do that all day,

just watch him. Look at the field sideline, the sideline line of scrimmage to the end zone, and he can come off the field and tell you where everybody lined up just at the snap of the football, if they adjusted it all in coverage and rolled or whatever. He can tell you the whole progression and where they ended up before he threw the football. It's remarkable to have a guy be able to do that, and that's what

separates the great ones. A lot of them have tremendous talent, but very few of them sees the game of football like this guy does. He is ridiculously special that way.

Speaker 1

The battle for the backup quartered back job was kind of a minor storyline going into training camp. Well, it's a big storyline now because not only are we going to see Jake Browning and Trevor Simmy and working with the Ones on an alternating basis, but they've got to make sure that this goes smoothly basically for however many weeks that Joe Burrow is out, so that the offense is ready to go for day one when Joe Burrow returns.

Speaker 4

Yeah, and I think it looked pretty good the last couple of days, you know, is it Joe Burrow, like, you can't say that, but what quarterback could you say that?

If he's running the schematic of what the Bengals are trying to do a little thing that I thought was big, no all sides, new cadence, new quarterback, and the offensive line discipline enough, patient enough to not get antsy, because you know, Joe has a much different cadence than the other guys, and usually you do have, particularly early on when you're in team, especially you know, a guy's false start, you know, is crippling in the stance a little bit.

None of that that tells me that this football team is focused, and they're disciplined, and they want to be good up front. I mean in the old line, I think it's a very special group for a lot of those same reasons. I mean, I think that this you know, Joe said it, This is the best offensive line that I've played with, There is no doubt. And I think I think this this team has a chance to be special.

I really do for those reasons. I mean, you know, I'm like, there's nobody jumping around, you know, nobody, everybody's composed, everybody has trust in the next guy, and you know, not getting any antsy. That was good to see a little thing like that turns into a big thing. It really does.

Speaker 1

So we learned something interesting about Jake Browning. After his first practice with Joe Burrow out late last season, the Bengals elevated him to the active game day roster and back to back weeks, it might have been even been three weeks, and we all thought at the time, either're throwing him a bone. It's a way to get him a little extra money, a reward for doing a good

job at practice. Well that wasn't it. As it turns out, another team tried to sign him off the Bengals practice squad, and they did that to hold on to him, and they're very happy they did.

Speaker 4

Right now, absolutely, I mean that you know that that speaks volumes to his work ethic, and it speaks volumes to you know, the work ethic and the way he approached the game of football led to other potential opportunities. But he was appreciative of the Bengals giving him a chance. He showed loyalty. They showed loyalty to him. He showed

loyalty to them. He likes what's going on here, and that's the thing that I really think is good about what's going on now too, is you know they're drafting players, Well, you don't have any choice when you're drafted, but the guys that are free agents, they have a choice, and they want to come here. And when they come here, they don't want to leave. What does that tell you?

That tells you it's a damn good environment around here, and that tells you this football team, a lot of people believe are going to win a lot of football games because you got good football players coming in here, wanting to come here. It's a destination and once they're here, they want to stay for as long as they possibly can, and that is all good.

Speaker 1

I'm always interested at the beginning of training camp which guys have made the biggest physical transformation. I would say the two guys on the left side of the offensive line might be at the top of the list. Orlando Brown Junior is twenty pounds later from the last time we saw him. He's down to three forty five and looks really good. And I'm telling you, Cordel Volson, he's ten pounds heavier and it is lean muscle mass. He's three twenty five and looks rock solid.

Speaker 4

Three twenty five and the lowest percentage of body fat amongst all the offensive lineman. He is the leanest offensive lineman at three hundred and twenty five pounds, which is ten pounds bigger than he was last year. I asked him, I said, how much? How much did you do about ten? I said, dude, you're looking like you're looking stout. Nobody's going to run over you, and you're going to be moving some people. And I mean, this is a young man that wants to be great. He doesn't want to

be just good. He wants to be great, and he's going to do everything he possibly can to give him himself every opportunity to be great. I just I just think the left side, including Ted Karris, you know, Karris, Volson and Brown pretty damn good, you know. And you know, you look at you look at the right side. That's

you know, that's nothing to sneeze at as well. You get the free for all that's going on at the tackle position obviously has to work itself all but Alex Kapp has played at a high level at the right guard position, and they have candidates, you know, more than one candidate they can play right tackle. When LC comes back. That's going to be a bonus. That'll be a huge bonus when he comes back physically able to participate, because

nobody runs through LC either, you know. I mean he's a powerful man, So I mean there's depth in the offensive line, Dan, There's not a position group that doesn't have depth. I really can't see, like, oh, that's a major weakness on this football team. They have done one hell of a job in formulating a roster.

Speaker 1

There's no question right tackle right now is for grabs between Jonah Williams and Jackson Carman. I think it's fair to characterize it, and you can correct me if I'm wrong. As Jonah Williams job to lose.

Speaker 4

I would totally concur You know, the guy has played a lot of football at the collegiate level. He performed at an extremely high level in toughest conference in college football. High draft choice played right away. He has played tons of football. He's a technician and the game is extremely important to him. I mean, he he wants to be as good a player as he can possibly be on as good a team as he can possibly be. And watching him at the right tackle position, I'm liking what

I see. It doesn't look like Jesu. This is foreign. You know, I'm really trying to try to solve this. I feel like a robot. I feel like on a rector set. He's looking pretty smooth and his movements out there to me, and he's moving pretty freely. It looks like he's back from the procedure that he had on his knee. So I do think it's his job to lose as well.

Speaker 1

Got some good one on one training camp battles that have shaped up in the first few days. On day one, Orlando Brown junior versus Trey Hendrickson, they got into a scuffle on the third snap of eleven on eleven. Those two guys, that is going to be fun to watch on a regular basis because they both practice hired there, both Pro Bowl players, and you know, Trey Hendrickson can get under an offensive lineman skin with the best of them.

Speaker 4

I'm telling you they Orlando's gone to four straight Pro Bowls, Trey's gone to two straight. So they've you know, been in the Pro Bowl together for the last the last two years. And there's nothing wrong with working hard at practice. You got to make sure it doesn't go over the top and you don't have some foolish injury as a result of something that you know was was wasn't part of what football is supposed to supposed to be about. But when you have guys that have achieved like they have,

they have huge personal pride. I mean, it's monstrous and there's nothing wrong with it, you know, and you know if somebody tries to challenge it, sometimes it doesn't go so well, you know. But you have two prideful Pro Bowl performing players locking horns, man, and sometimes they can get a little nasty.

Speaker 1

The day after that scuffle, Trey Hendrickson got a kind of tracked extension. They added a year to his contract. I think a few things were involved there. Number One, he had outperformed the original contract that he signed. He's not being paid at the top of the defensive line scale even though he's been playing like it for a couple of years. So you reward him for that without you know, ripping up the last two years of his deal.

You add a year on so they hold on to him for another year and reward him for excellent performance in his first two seasons of the Bengals.

Speaker 4

Yeah, I mean Trey Hendrickson, what he's fourth I think in the NFL and quarterback sacks over the last two or three years in the NFL. So this this guy is a premier pass rusher. And I agree with you. I mean, it's an extension. A lot of that can be bonus. You can play with the salary cap. There's a lot of things when you know you just read one year contract. Okay, it's a contract extension. It's not

replacing this year. There's bonus money that makes them hole this year, but it can be pro LTD pro rated on the salary cap. And the Bengals have one of a cap and amis that's as good as anybody in the National Football League and Katie Brown getting it done.

So yeah, I would not be surprised if at some point if they can't get Joe Burrow's deal done that Logan Wilson would be the first one to me to be a deal be an extension happened with Logan because team Logan and the other guys this year, and Logan would be probably the most easy path to take. That would you could pro rate and do the least damage to your overall cap that would still leave room. You'd in a perfect world, probably you'd like to have Joe

go first. But if Joe, if they can't get to an agreement with Joe and you want to get somebody done before the season starts, I think the pecking owner would be the Logan would be the next guy up maybe to get a contract done. Potentially, we'll see.

Speaker 1

And that was another benefit of the Trey Hendrickson extension. You can adjust those dollars accordingly to create more immediate space with the goal of retaining Burrow, Higgins and Wilson prior to this season. We're a few days into training camp. We are having this conversation after Back Together weekend, the Saturday practice inside of pay Court Stadium, roughly thirty thousand people in attendance. Anybody jump out any of the rookies

in these first few practices. Is there anybody that's caught your eye?

Speaker 4

You know? I mean the defensive backs had a day at Back Together again. DJ Turner. He played well today and he's played well I thought all a training camp. He's got the speed, just the raw speed, but also he has the change of direction. The sink your hips and change direction with the wide receivers. He's very sticky in coverage. I mean, he's right there, He's getting it done,

getting it done all the time. And dj Ivy had probably as good a workout as anybody did at the Saturday Back Together Acts that was open to thirty thousand fans. I mean he got juiced up. I mean he made plays and when the lights came on, he was there. He was making plays, contested catches, getting his hands on footballs.

I think Cam Taylor Britt continues to battle with Jamar Chase, those stirring matchups out there on that corner on a snap by snap basis, And I can remember wide receivers talking about playing against Dion, you know, in practice when they were Cowboys, how much better they got working against the guy of his caliber, and and it lifted the whole boat, you know, in terms of those skill guys. So I see that because these young guys talked to him in the locker room after practice to like, nobody's

better than our white outs. So man, I can make plays against our whiteouts. I can. I feel like pretty confident. I can hang in there with a lot of people and it's like they're really starting to show, but they've had so few reps, I mean almost on a snap by snap basis, they're going to get better. So this is just the beginning. I mean, they're scratching the surface.

I really, I really like what I see on that on that back end and in the battle for four, five and six in the receiver corps, it's going to be a good one. There's some dogs there. Man.

Speaker 1

Charlie Jones, the fourth round draft pick rookie out of Purdue, had a bunch of catches on back together Saturday, the day before. Andre Yosi Vass, the sixth round pick out of Princeton, had some twenty yard plus catches on back shoulder throws where basically they said, you're bigger and stronger and faster than the guy covering you. We're throwing it. Go get it.

Speaker 4

He did, he did. I mean, it's it's going to be if you. The thing is, this roster is so competitive, so deep. If you make the Bengals fifty three man roster, it's a hell of an accomplishment. Now you may not be active on game day, but if you make that roster,

that's the next thing. The first thing is to make the fifty three men and then you can do a little exhale, But then you want to make that roster on game day that is the next goal, you know, and then the goal after that would be contributed some of a package. Then the goal after that would be the start, you know. And but you know, I always approached it like you'd set goals and have a few, Okay, reward yourself, reward yourself, well, bet track in the right way.

Pretty soon you're climbing the ladder of success. And you know, now all of a sudden you're reaching a pretty darn good goal. But along the way, you know, has something where you can feel good about yourself. So that's what that's the way, particularly as a rookie, That's how I approached it and the way they've got it done. Now in the National football they only have one cut. They go from you know, ninety players down to fifty three one cut. I mean, that's going to be it's going

to be a flood of players on the waiver wire. Man. I'll tell you the personnel departments around the league, they got to be on their p's and q's to make sure that they've got everybody, you know, rated on a position by position basis, you know, one through whatever it's going to because there's gonna be a ton of bodies out there.

Speaker 1

Last year Back Together Saturday ended on a sixty five yard field goal by Money mac Evan McPherson. This year they let him try sixty seven yarder. He did not come close, which is very unusual to see. I mean, even his miss is usually missed by a whisker. So what did he do? He stayed out there after it was finished and made a sixty five yarder.

Speaker 4

He's he's something else. He's special as well. You know, his approach, his makeup. It's all you're talking to, you know, Jim Breech and other specialists along the years when when they talk about what you have to be to be a successful kicker in the National Football League in terms of personality and makeup and all. This kid he checks every box. He's he's the real deal.

Speaker 1

We are four practices. In my opinion, hasn't changed. Even with the calf injury suffered early by Joe Burrow. This is a Super Bowl contender and, without a question, one of the best rosters in the NFL.

Speaker 4

I agree, it's got it does have roster depth. Now, are they light years better with Joe Burrow at the quarterback position? No question, no question? Uh And I you know, I'm crossing everything that he's back even before the regular season opener, you know, not just for a couple of practices before the regular season opener, back to actually getting some good work, because I mean, he worked so hard in the offseason and like Zach said, he got more

July snaps than he's ever had as a Bengal. So now if he's only off a short period of time, he can kind of pick up easier from where he left off, get some good reps for a week, a week and a half against you know, his teammates, and hone in and get ready for the Cleveland Browns, because man, I went up to Cleveland and playing Baltimore and Cincinnati, and that's no easy path, you know, and those could both be barn Burners, and you need Joe borrowed his best to compete in those bad boys.

Speaker 1

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 guys you to your best health. Visit ketteringhealth dot org to learn more. Now time for

a new edition of story Time with Dan. It's not uncommon before the Bengals play a road game to see several of their assistant coaches come out and run the stadium steps for exercise before the players begin their pregame warmups. On September twenty third, two thousand and six, special teams coordinator Darren Simmons was running up and down the stadium steps before a game in Pittsburgh while a young lady

practiced singing the national anthem. All of a sudden, a downpour hit downtown Pittsburgh and Darren headed for cover under the old Replay Hood, the area where NFL officials used to look at a TV monitor before switching to tablets a few years ago. When Darren got under that small shelter to get out of the rain, he was joined by the anthem singer and her mother, and Darren complimented

the young lady on her performance. It was sixteen year old Taylor Swift, who later that day sang in front of a crowd of more than fifty thousand people for the first time. It was obviously not the last, As for Darren Simmons, this will be his twenty first year I'm the Bengals coaching staff.

Speaker 8

It means everything to me. It means a lot. It means that the level of trust that I have, that they have in me here, I think I don't take that lightly. That something is very, very very important to me. It always has been always. I'm indebted to these to the family here in the organization for what they've done for me and for my family. When I first moved here, my daughter was one and now she's a senior in

college and we just had one kid. Now I have one kid who just graduated from high school here and another kid is going to be and eighth grader. So and they've had the same set of friends their entire life. And for me to be in this profession, for them to have those things, that means everything to me. It means more than you know. It means a lot to me. And being able to have our roots here is and this is home for us now and it has been.

I felt that way for a long time. So it's not something I take lightly.

Speaker 1

That's going to do it for This episode of The Bengals Booth podcast brought to you by Cattering 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 Core, the official HR software provider of the Bengals, and by Alta Fiber. Future

Proof Fiber Internet elevates your connection with Alta Fiber. 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 morengles fans find us. I'm Dan Horde and thanks for listening to the Bengals Booth podcast

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