Bengals Booth Podcast: Dream, Dream, Dream

Hi, get everybody.

I'm Dan Hord and thanks for downloading The Bengals Booth Podcast.

The Dream.

Dream Dream Dream addition, as the Bengals still have a shot at going to the playoffs after a wild and wacky overtime win over the Denver Broncos thirty to twenty four. Coming up radio replays, locker room comments and postgame analysis from Dave Lapham. Then, in this week's fun Facts Conversation,

The punter Dixon is the holder.

The right footed Gick splits the uprights and the Broncos take of three nothing leads. Now Higgins motions to the left. Burrow catches a shoulder high snap throws by T Higgins touchdown Bengals, and that is the Big four to roh for Joe Burrow as he becomes the eleventh quarterback in NFL history to throw forty touchdown passes in a single season. This will be a twenty two yard field goal attempt for cade York from the left hash mark.

He is four for five.

As a Bengal, including a fifty nine yarder last week. The placement the right kick, yes, Sir kde York drills it and the Bengals have taken a ten to three lead. Second down in goal from the six, Nicks in the gun. St May has checked in and running back three receivers left, Sutton out to the right. S Tome goes in motion out to the right. Nicks has the ball, floats it into the end zone. Sutton wide open, touchdown. Denver third down and thirteen. The Bengals at their own forty five.

He's at the fifty forty five forty He's.

Got the first down, doesn't go into a feet first slide and runs to the Denver thirty six before PJ.

Locke brings him down fourth down and two.

The Bengals have been stopped on fourth down on two occasions, including in the red zone. Burrow catches the shotgun snap his pass cop of the middle. Chase Brown runs for the first down inside the twenty hand down to the seventeen of Denver. Burrow catches the shotgun snap looking floating into the end zone in Higgins come the back right corner. T Higgins has it for the Bengals. Touchdown.

Man.

I want a throw from Joe Burrow, perfect trajectory and precision into the hands of t Higgins.

Have the back right pylon and moss.

You just got mossed.

J two Fella will check in as the Bengals will go with five defensive linemen to try to shut down this run game. Es to May is the tailback for Denver. First and ten at the forty nine for the Broncos. Nicks fakes a handoff, begins rolling right, sets up to throw deep fires down the middle of the field. Mims has the Bengals beat and catches it in the end zone for the long touchdown fifty one yards. As he gets behind Battle and Stone for the TV three receivers

The four yard line.

Germaine Pratt back on his feet, he gets tackled.

At the forty one.

Germaine Pratt with a takeaway and the Bengals have the ball with two thirty to go.

Jermaine Pratt. It's all about the.

Ball and Jermaine Pratt comes up with a monster play right there too.

Thirty to go in a seventeen all tie.

Burrow waiting for the shotgun snap he has the ball, drops back, begins.

Moving up the middle of the field.

He throws caught Tamar Chase is the thirty five thirty the twenty five and brought down around the twenty two yard line by McMillan. Just like that, the Bengals rnfield goal rang Sherbert in a running back second in goal from the one. Lee is in as a sixth offensive lineman. The game is tied. The Bengals line up in a push push. Burrow holds onto the ball gets shoved from behind.

Joe Burrow doing the gritty.

Oh that's great, that is great.

And it was good. What can't the guy do? He even does a perfect gritty. The ball is at the twenty five yard line, fourteen seconds left. Cincinnati leads twenty four to seventeen.

The Broncos are out of timeouts.

Rookie cornerback bow Nicks will line up in the shotgun to two y two formation. His full back is in the backfield with him in all likelihood to block. Nicks catches the shotgun snap, retreats, being.

Chased, throws it off his back foot.

Get into the end zone, and it is pots for a Denver touchdown with eight seconds to go, Mims with the catch as Nicks just floated it up there for the score. First down and fifteen now at the forty one of Denver tied in ot Burrow ready for the shotgun snap.

Joe catches looking.

Throwing, caught him in the middle, t Higgins to the twenty five and tackled at the twenty two yard line. The Bengals now well within the field goal range of cade York with four to oh three left in ot. This will be a thirty three yard attempt for twenty three year old cade Yorke trying to be the overtime hero for Cincinnati.

He made one from twenty two yards in regulation. How about finishing it in overtime?

Adam might as well snap?

Ryan Rico will hold the snap, the placement, the right footed kick, It.

Is up and hits the left up right and it's no good.

Oh, cade York missus in ot and with two forty three to go, the Broncos get the ball second and ten from the thirty five of Denver Burroke catches the shotgun snap, Joe throwing it deep down the sault line. T Higgins lunging for the ball. He's got it, got it inside the fives.

Want to throw?

Wanna catch T Higgins at the three yard line, beating Brandon Jones. An incredible grab by T Higgins.

Boo did he get both feet down?

One ten left in overtime, the Bengals trying to win it from the three yard line of Denver Burrow looking to throw his pass. It is.

My T Higgins touchdown. It's Bengals.

And the final playoff spot in the AFC will not be decided until the final week of the regular season. The Cincinnati Bengals are still alive as Joe Burrow hits t Higgins for a game winning touchdown.

Damn, that's three touchdown passes over three hundred yards passing.

His streak is still alive.

Two hundred and fifty or more yards passing, three touchdowns.

Are more for eight straight games.

I mean, you already had the NFL record, He's continuing to build on it. This is a magical season. Joe Burrow, Jamar Chase and Gee Piggins. What a threesome.

Joe Burrow throws for four hundred and twelve yards, three touchdowns, no picks in a passer rating of.

One twenty two.

He is up to forty two touchdown passes this year. There's only been twenty instances in NFL history where quarterbacks have thrown forty or more touchdown passes in a single year, and Joe's got forty two with at least one game to go, one game left in the regular season, and who knows, if everything falls just right, maybe, just maybe, the Bengals will head to Buffalo for a first round playoff game. The final score in overtime Cincinnati thirty, Denver

Joe Burrow, all right for the game, thirty twelve yards, three tds, all the t Higgins. Your streak's alive during fifty yards and more, three touchdowns, more eight games in a row. Now you know over time you're a cool seven for eight for ninety seven yards in the touchdown. What the hell? What what did you see? What were you doing out there?

What were you looking at I thought I was in a groove.

You know.

I started slow, missed a couple throws early. I was disappointed in that. But we found our groove late second, late first half. We had tea is unbelievable. All my weapons stepped up big in every single one on one situation.

It was.

That was a master class there for about two quarters, two and a half quarters there. So that was fun.

What does you say about the grid of this football team? The field goal hits the left up right, defense says, ah, yeah, we got you. We're gonna get you. The football back they played it really, I mean it was a good football game by the defense stepped up multiple times. But when the defense stepped up, you guys delivered. Man.

It was deep definition of comparity football.

Yeah, that's that's what we've been missing this year. You know, we were started slow, defense picked us up, defense needed us, and we stepped up big. That's that's what good teams do. You know, we got one week to put ourselves in position to get in and you know, I'm focused on that.

Sir Tan, you know he was he was basically he he kind of traveled with with Jamar Sum. They were traveling with ge some to a little bit. So you're in a lot of travelers out there. Uh did you expect that? I mean, did you have to go to like a plan D or a C in your head.

They threw a lot of different defenses at us. They pressured us, they played coverage, they they showed pressure looks. I thought they had a good plan on defense and made it tough on us. But uh, you know that's how we like to play. You throw a bunch of defense at us, we're gonna We're gonna make you pay.

I was a fun woman this game. If they win, they're in. Well they didn't win, but they still make it in. If you lose, though, it's over. Now you get to go to Pittsburgh and play the Pittsburgh Steelers. Who knows, I mean tomorrow. I know everybody's gonna be glued to a bunch of different games. See how things unfold there. But what what is it going to be like to go to Pittsburgh and play the Pittsburgh Steelers there with potentially an opportunity still.

Yeah, we'll be ready for it. You know, we know them, they know us. We know what kind of game it was last time. So you know, I'm gonna prepare myself. I'm gonna pair our guys to get in a shootout and go win it.

Now, let's talk about Joe's targets. Jamar Chase had nine catches for one hundred and two yards, strengthening his bid to win the wide receiver's triple crown with games still to be played in Week seventeen. Jamar's one hundred and seventeen catches, a new Bengals record, leads the pack by thirteen. His oney six hundred and twelve yards, another Bengals record, leads by two hundred and twenty five, and his sixteen touchdown catches that's one short of a Bengals record, leads

What are your first thoughts, I mean, as you try to collect yourself here in the locker room.

What a hell of a day. What are your thoughts? Man?

It was just, you know, obviously a good game. No shout out to Joe. I have none of that without him in old line, you know what I mean. But man, as a you know, it's a great game by me, But you know, as a collective hole we all played.

Got a hell of a game.

So Joe Streak is alive. Two hundred and fifty yards passing more, three touchdowns more, eight straight games.

He's done that.

You're the guy though, you have all three of the touchdown catcher. Take us through the touchdown catcher. What do you remember about each one of those?

The first one, you know, we knew the levers they was gonna give us.

It was easy slant.

Second one was you know, he gave me a chance to jump ball, you know, lay hands right there.

And then the last one, man, we just put the ball. He put the ball in the right place for me.

All the way.

I can catch youself, eleven catchers. When you when you went into this football game, when you were seeing how they were covering on the back end, what they had decided to do, did you think, man, this could be a this could be a night for me. Yeah.

Man, you know we've seen the type of covers that was giving us. It was a lot of one high, a lot of man, old man. So that's where we shove at, you know what I'm saying. And you know, Joe was able to, you know, put the ball in perfect placements for me and I was able to make a play on it.

Thirty nine or forty nine, four hundred and twelve yards and three touchdowns. In overtime he was seven for eight ninety seven yards and a touchdown pass to you. I mean, what's like playing with number nine?

Man, It's amazing. You don't get no better than that.

You know, he's a he's an MVP quarterback. He's he's one of the best quarterbacks in the league. And you know it shows, man, Eve been showing it all year and you know you're gonna keep it going.

So we talk about complimentary football, you know, uh, the offense drives field goal hits, the upright, defense gets the ball right back to the offense, the offense takes the end. What kind of what did the show about? This football team that never quit in this football game?

It's the grit. We got grit.

You know what I mean.

And I was tough with mister field goal defense. Thought we was you know, they thought they were the game was over, always gonna win it. But man, they came back out there, stepped up big, you know, like they've been doing a whole game.

They stepped up big, and you.

Know, I got to stop for us, and we was able to go back down there and finish it.

A lot of people think that that secondary is maybe the best in football. Uh And you guys, you guys sliced them and diced them and you ripped them up. How good is this offense?

We are who we are, We've been who we are all year.

And we're gonna continue to do that.

Mike is shicky. How big is a factories He's supporting you. Mike is a baller man.

You know, he come up big for us a lot, a lot then more people, a lot than most people think. And you know, shout out to Mike Man, Proud of him, you know, great teammate, great, great great man.

Man.

Just glad he's on our team.

A thirty to twenty four win mark the eighth time the Bengals have scored thirty or more points in a game this season. That's half of their games. They're averaging twenty eight point three, and if the Bengals score twenty four or more points next week, they'll set a new team record for highest scoring average in a season. The eighty eight Super Bowl team averaged exactly twenty eight a game. Now, let's head back inside the locker room, cause I spent

I mean, that's up there for me, man, I've been a part of a lot of crazy football games. To be honest with you, I mean, that's that's in my top three just in terms of off the top of my doing what I can remember. Man, I mean, so special to be able to sit out with these group of men, this organization, this whole building, man, and go out there and literally fight for our lives, you know. I mean it's one of the better parts about football.

Man.

You don't earn any stripes in this from pretending.

And you know, I think every single day, Man, we got guys that come in here that work the tail off, that focus on the task at hand, and most importantly, live in the moment. And when you got guys that live in the moment. You can score a touchdown and think you won the game, come to the sideline, miss a field goal, go to overtime and whatever happened, miss a field goal, and go still go win the game, man. And that's the character of our locker room, the resiliency,

Goal could have been very deflating, but the defense rows up, got to three and out, got you the ball right back and obviously we know what happened after that. I think that shows a lot of resiliency from everybody on the.

Team for sure.

Man.

We got guys that want to win and guys that love the game of football. I mean everything, man, it's just God's grace, you know. That's care of himself, man, and we handle business.

It's very special.

I'm very thankful to be a part of it.

You needed to win all four to get into this position where the final game of the regular season is now extremely meaningful. Does the playoff possibility seem more realistic now.

Yeah, man, I mean honestly, for us, even when we were down, even when we didn't have a I guess a so called winning record. I don't even know who we are, to be real with you, but you know, we got a ton of faith in this locker room man, in each other most importantly, and everything else is gonna take care of itself.

Joe Burrows up to forty two touchdown passes. Jamar Chase is still on track to win the wide receiver triple crown. T Higgins was incredible today. What's it been like for you to be their teammate and part of an offense that's doing those kinds of things.

It's been a special man, It's been really special man. I'm just it's crazy to see him come in on a daily and take care of business. I mean, this is who he is. This is who he's always been, man. So I got a ton of respect for him.

Now, let's hear Zach Taylor had to say as he talked to Dave Lapham after the game.

All right, coach, what's your heart rate like right now? Do you think it's pretty calm?

You know, you get through it and there's a lot to digest. Just proud of our guys. They stepped up at key moments and made plays for us, and and allwed us to finish that game the right way.

So, I mean, this game basically was a playoff game. They win, they're in. You lose, you're not. I mean you're out. They could still be in the sokult you guys, I mean to win that football game the way you did. Ball hits the upright on a very makeable field goal. The defense they don't have their dobbers down. I mean that we're going to get the ball back to the offense. What about the continenty football that took place after that adversity.

I was saying it, different units picked each other up, you know, and and in over time we need the defense to pick up the offense after two drives where we came up short, and I was really proud of them doing that, and then of offense finished the job.

Great to see. So Joe's thirty nine for forty nine. He had a few drops. I mean, I think you could have even had a four hundred and twelve yard street touchdowns. His streaks alive two hundred and fifty yards and more, three touchdowns and more he's building on his own record. He's got eight games now, he's the only guy in the Herestony NFL that did it seven games in a row. Now he's got eight. What can you say about this guy in his effort?

He's special. He's special, and the guys around him are special, you know. And I think he'd be the first to tell you that he's got a great supporting cast that helps him. But to do it that many games in a row means you're you're the top, You're you're the best. And proud of the way he played, probably the way hung in there. It took some hits today and that's that's the price to do a business the way we're going to play football today, and he stepped up and toughed it out.

They had a traveler on Jamar, they had a traveler on Tea. I mean they were traveling everybody out there a little bit. Did they do anything different in terms of coverage or pressure packages or what's the stuff you'd seen?

There's not a whole lot of different we haven't seen at this point. You know, we've seen everybody try everything to slow us down and still able to four hundred. Proud of where our guys handle that.

Uh.

They got a tough, low red zone defense that makes it challenging, but our guys stepped up when it matter.

You know, you're going into Pittsburgh. That's a tough place to play, but you're Joe's within I don't know, three hundred and odd yards is getting five thousand yards passing, and he's looking at between forty five and fifty touchdowns. I mean, those kind of numbers are mind boggling in the National Football League.

We're probably gonna need them all next week, you know. So we got to play great, great in all three phases and we go up there, I'm just gonna be bad weather. You know, they're gonna they're gonna be pissed off. We're gonna be ready to roll and it'll be a great game.

So first thing that comes to mind as you're thinking about the Pittsburgh stw is I mean you have a short week and you respond, You have extra time to try to respond and get ready get ready for the for the Steelers. What are your first thoughts?

Take a deep breath, and then put a great plan together. You know, that's it. We get to potentially an extra day, which we'll utilize. Our guys will be ready, you know, so we're excited for the opportunity.

Since Lap mentioned it, Joe Burrow needs three hundred and fifty nine passing yards against the Steelers to become the tenth quarterback in NFL history to throw for five thousand or more yards in a season. His four six hundred

They've done it.

They've even their record at eight and eight, and we've got a very exciting final week of the season to look forward to.

I get a lot of respect for him. I mean, they showed a lot of grit, a lot of determination. When the ball hit the upright on the field goal attempt to left upright, the defense could have very easily said, man, you know, chin on chest, Arburt down. They hit the ball right back to the offense, and the offense said, hey, thank you, we're going to do something with this. That complementary football at the most opportune time to have complementary

It really is.

I just can't say enough about it.

Dan.

They ran twenty four more snaffs than Denver did. They had the ball for basically fifteen minutes more. They had the ball for a quarter. They had the ball forty minutes fifty six seconds counting overtime to twenty six minutes and fifty seven seconds. I mean, it was unbelievable. And the reason that they didn't win in regulation, of course, the two forced downstaffs were they were brutal.

I want to pick up on one of the first points you just made. If you go back to the overtime game against Baltimore, Evan McPherson misses the fifty plus field goal that would have won the game. On the very next play, Rick Henry runs at fifty plus and

We still got a chance to win if we can get the ball back for.

Joe and nothing against York. But fortunately didn't have to go back to him. You know, they just they end up. I mean, the plays that Tea was making, I mean it's you know, Joe's like, I'm just going to give give him an opportunity. He's six 'y four. You know, he makes contested catches all the time. You know in some plays he was limping and gimping a little bit coming off the football field, went right back in the football game and gave everything he had. It's just, you know,

As you know, I grew up near Buffalo when I was a kid. OJ Simpson ran for two thousand and three yards in a fourteen game season, and I'll never forget what the Buffalo announcer said in the final game of that year. He said, it's been our privilege to watch Oj Simpson run this year. That's how I feel for us in describing Joe Burrow, Jamar Chase T. Higgins and others in this incredible offensive season.

This is a defensive football team that you know on the back end has got really good players and they can put pressure on you up front. I mean they've they've got multiple guys. They came into this football game with five different guys with five saxomore Nobody in the NFL had that. I mean, they can they can win from all different spots. And Joe so the defensive coordinator, brings a lot of people from all kinds of spots.

He is just so.

Intelligent man, and he never's rattled, you know, he just it is incredible, incredible to watch this guy. You know, it's like watching a Formula one racer, you know, going gazillion miles an hour and he's just like his blood pressure is like way down, you know. And those kind of people, I mean, when the pressure's on to have their heart rate go down like it seems to with Joe, that's rare. That's the ability that doesn't happen very often.

So several weeks ago, kind of out of nowhere, Joe Burrow in a postgame news conference, expressed confidence that t Higgins would be back next year, and the following week, when asked about it, he's described it as a need for the Bengals to try to bring Tea back next year. Tea's performance today certainly illustrated how valuable he is to this team.

I don't know if it'll happen or not.

You know, another team might make a crazy offer that the Bengals just can't match. But when he is on this team and makes it difficult for the opposing team to devote all of their energy to Jamar Chase, it's an unbelievable combo.

It really is and you know, when Jamorrow goes in motion, he's gonna shadow and te goes in motion, he has a shadow. It's like, these two guys are we have to figure out a way to try to eliminate him. You know, we're gonna shadow you, me and my shadow every step of the way. And if we can, we're gonna put more resources over the top, you know, with safeties. But it's like at some point Joe Burrow is gonna he's going to figure out very quickly. A lot of times it's pre snap and I can't go to Jamarrow

So one of the most obscure stats in Bengals history has now been erased. Prior to today, they had never scored an offensive touchdown in overtime. The only TD they had ever scored in overtime and franchise history was on a pick six by Corey Sawyer. They've now got one on offense borrow to t Higgins from three yards away to win the game. We can eliminate that stat.

And I remember when we were going to overtime games, you know, back in the day field goal ended it. You know, it was like so if you got in field goal range, it's like, all right, let's go get this thing over with. We don't want to risk a turnover winning, to risk a stupid penalty win or risk and we're in field goal range. We feel comfortable about it. Let's go end it. And that's how it really went

It's pretty well played.

Not a whole lot of turnovers to fourth down stops or you know, the same thing as turnovers in my mind. But man, when you have three possessions that don end was some kind of a kick and stay within a score of a football team and have a score lead at times on the football team, that's pretty impressive. I mean, your offense is getting some things done.

All right, let's look ahead. It's off to Pittsburgh. The Steelers have lost three in a row. The Bengals have won four in a row. The Steelers won Game one. Russell Wilson threw for more than four hundred yards. The Bengals really had trouble defensively in that game. The offense performed pretty well, but they couldn't shut down Pittsburgh the first time around.

That's gonna be the key, Dan, because you know, in speaking with Joe again in the post game, you know, he said, yeah, we know them, they know us, we know what we're looking at, and he felt looked, the look in his eye was pretty confident that he's gonna be able to move the football and score some points. Will the Bengals defense, you know, be able to step up and the way Denver ran the football between the tackles,

So next week is going to be exciting, and it can really be exciting if Cleveland can beat Miami on Sunday and the Giants can beat the Indianapolis Colts. Indianapolis will not have it starting quarterback Anthony Richardson and Tua Tungo Via Looo is downgraded to doubtful for Miami against Cleveland.

I didn't think I'd ever be rooting for the Cleveland Browns, but damn it, I'm rooting for the Cleveland Browns.

Let's go Browns. Let's go Cleveland.

That puts a rap on the Denver win. Now it's time for this week's fun Fact segment, where you get to know the person under the pads. Time for some fun facts with tight end Cam Grandy from Benson, Illinois, in the central part of the state, not too far from Peoria.

Cam.

When I looked up Benson, there's a word that always seems to proceed it tiny. The population is in the four hundreds. Give us a little description of your hometown.

Oh yeah, Benson, Illinois. Like you said, it's a small town, central Illinois. It's it's one of those towns where everyone knows everybody and it's really supportive. I mean, I wouldn't be where I'm at now without the support of my town and Benson and the family I have there.

I'm grateful for Benson, Illinois. I always will be.

I suspect the people of Benson are extremely proud to have a hometown kid now on an NFL roster. Have they shown that?

Oh yeah, I mean my mom sent me pictures of people on Facebook buying jerseys and asking for autographs.

But yeah, a lot of support.

Comes from Vincent Illinois, and I'm grateful to have them next to me.

We're visiting the tight end, Cam Grandy. You're six five, two fifty now, but you are a quarterback in high school, roughly the same height, but much skinnier.

Is that accurate?

Oh yeah, I was.

I would say it was probably the same like heigh wise, but yeah, I think I graduated high school at woin't eighty five, I believe, So yeah, putting on the weight was definitely a struggle in the beginning of college.

But getting to two fifty five now I feel pretty good.

So how'd you put it on?

A lot of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches?

Pretty much, just peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, protein shakes and just drinking a lot of water and working out obviously, and Uh, it took me a solid year and a half probably or more to really get used to carrying that much weight and getting used to how my body would move and react to carrying that much weight. But over the years it just slowly and surely just got easier and easier.

Back to high school for a moment, you were named the small school player of the Year. How much recruiting in did you get.

Yeah, I mean I went to a two way school in Illinois, so I really didn't get too much recruit And actually, I mean I went to obviously a bunch of camp senior year, but really nothing shook out. I got a bunch of NAI D three stuff to play quarterback.

But I knew that.

If I wanted to play in the NFL and anything like that, new quarterback wasn't wasn't the position for me.

So one day I just got a phone call from.

Missouri Western State, a D two school in Saint Joseph, Missouri, and they said they wanted to offer me to play tight end. And I like the sound of that, and I always kind of envisioned myself being like a receiver tight end kind of guy, and I just took that opportunity and I ran with it.

That school, which is about an hour from Kansas City, is where the Chiefs hold training camp. Do they have great facilities as a result.

Oh yeah, I mean if you look it up, they probably have.

They're probably top five in terms of a Division two facilities just with the indoor, the training room, the field itself, and the practice fields. They're definitely top two when it comes to Division two facilities.

Did you have any brush is with greatness when the Chiefs were there for training camp?

Oh yeah, I mean they didn't really pay too much attention to us and mostly just would they kicked us out of the facilities.

And stuff, and they're in camp so they could use it all.

But yeah, I mean you would be walking to practice and you would see Travis Kels here.

Or Patrick Mahomes drifting on a golf cart to practice.

So that was that was always cool to see them for a month or two when they were there. But other than that, I mean they kind of just went their own way.

And we went on.

We're chatting with Cam Grandy. After four and a half years there, you transferred to Illinois State for your final college season and became a first team FCS All American you had sixty three catches more than six hundred yards. What did that do for your confidence?

Yeah, I mean I knew once I transferred, I wanted to go up to the Division Division one level just to show scouts and that I could play with that kind of competition and a lot of people I'm thankful for it, Elinois State as well, coaches and players, especially Zach Annix said the one the quarterback when I was there, just pushing me and always asking more of me. And Yeah, doing that and being out a compete at that level definitely put a chip on my shoulder.

When did the NFL begin to seem like a realistic possibility.

Yeah.

When I was at Missouri Western, we'd have scouts come in every once in a while and they would talk to my position coach and me sometimes. But so I was always kind of in the back of my head. But then when I went to Illinois State and I started putting stuff on the film and showing that I could compete at the Division one level, it definitely increased a lot in terms of in terms of scouts in that But and then obviously the Hula Bowl and Shrinebile helped with that as well.

You signed with the Bengals as a college free agent right after the draft.

Why Cincinnati, Really, it was a coach case He had a lot to do with that. I mean Coach Casey, especially now and working with him for as long as I have.

I mean, there's no place I'd rather be.

And also just the skill and the guys they have in this locker room with Joe Jamar and really everyone, I mean everyone in this locker room is a good teammate and they always want the best and want more out of you as a player. So I find that to be big And Cincinnati, I mean, it just felt like it was a good situation to come into and ended up working out for me.

Coach Casey is James Casey, the tight ends coach. He's such an interesting guy. He failed at minor league baseball, went back to college, played a bunch of positions, had a long NFL career. How do you describe James Casey.

Man, that's tough.

I would probably just describe him as a just a real stand up dude, really, I mean, like he pushes me every day, pushes everyone in our room to be the best that we can. And he's a real technician too. When it comes to just technique and stuff. That's that's one thing that I think really has helped me grow in these last couple of months is just my technique and him just critique and every little thing just so that we can try to be perfect every day.

You started on the practice squad, as many college free agents do, but you have risen to the fifty three man roster. You made your NFL debut on Thursday night in Baltimore. You had to catch in that game. What emotions went through your mind?

Oh?

Yeah, I mean this is obviously something I've I've always dreamed of my who life is to play in an NFL game and to do it with these guys, it means a lot to me.

But just being out there for.

The first time, running out of the tunnel here in the crowd, roar and stuff like that, I mean, it took it took a while to finally sink in, but once it did, was just grateful for the opportunity to be there and I'm looking forward to continue the season.

All right, A few wild card topics now for rookie Cam Grandy. Who is your all time favorite athlete in any sport.

And why any sport I'm gonna go football. I'm gonna go uh probably probably Jason Witten tight end.

Jason Winn.

I grew up I'm originally from from Texas, so grew up always a Dallas Cowboy fan. My dad put me on the Dallas Cowboys early and just always watching, uh, Jason Winn and just how he can. He's not the best athlete in the world, but just how you always find a way to get open.

And the motor he has to play tight end.

I mean, you have to have a high motor to play this position, and he had that and just watching him and I think that's what made me want to maybe potentially be a tight end at the next level.

So was playing in Dallas cool for you?

Oh?

Man, It's That's something I've always dreamed of too. Man, always dreamed of playing at and T I've always wanted to go to game there.

Never got the opportunity to do that.

So actually being being there and being on the field and playing against the Dallas Cowby was awesome. And being able to have some family from Texas to be there as well and watch and support me, it was really cool.

I watched an interview that you did before the draft When you were asked what NFL quarterback you would most like to catch a pass from, you said, Joe Burrow. So does your perception of him compare to the real thing.

He speaks for himself.

I mean, he's obviously one of the best, if not the best quarterback in the NFL. And to be able to have the opportunity to play next to him and even get into the huddle with him, I'm truly grateful. And yeah, I did say that that's funny that you found that, But yeah, but catching the ball from him, like you said, I mean, it's something I've dreamed of. I've always been a fan of Joe. You've not LISHU and to be able to to play with him on Sundays is awesome.

He's pretty good. Have you been recognized as an NFL player yet?

No, I don't think that will happen for a while. Just like obviously like local town stuff when I go home. I went home during the BIE for a little bit and people saw me and asked what was up and stuff. But now I have not been recognized you as an NFL player.

What do you like to spend your money on?

Honestly, I'm big into saving, right now, I haven't really bought anything. The only thing, the biggest perch I probably had was one of them Sleep Number beds. That that was probably the biggest thing I've purchased. But I'm really just trying to save up and make it last and invest it.

So is the sleep Number bed as good as the ads look better?

I mean it's hard to get up in the morning.

They got to set multiple alarms just to make sure him up, and the more I got my phone on alarm, and then I have an alarm clock next to it, so I always have that just to make sure I get up.

But you know it's it's well advertised. Let's say that that's good.

What unhealthy food? Do you have a hard time saying no to nutter butters?

Love nutter butters. I pretty much love anything peanut butter. But a good nutter butter in the freezer, it's like, oh, that's nutter butter easy.

I might have to stick one in the freezer to see how that tastes. That sounds pretty good, all right. Final fun fact for cam Grandy. This one is kind of deep. If you could meet anyone in history, living or deceased, who would that person be?

Uh?

I'm gonna go music industry. I'm a big, big country music guy. I love country music, always have and I probably just say George Strait.

I think that would be a good one.

I I mean, I've been listening to his music since as long as I can remember, so for sure.

Kind of an old school answer.

Oh yeah, I mean my dad grew me up on listening to Moro Haggard, Wayale and Jenny and Swilly Nelson stuff like that.

So that's all I've known is country music and I love it.

So this has been fun. Appreciate your time. Best of Locked the rest of the year.

Thank you, appreciate it.

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