Bengals Booth Podcast: Feel This Moment

with the Bengals. Then I'll talk to Robert Weintraub, who covers the NFL for Football Outsiders and writes about the Bengals for Cincinnati Magazine. Finally, it's an encore edition of Fun Facts with Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow. The Bengals Booth Podcast is presented by Ultimate Bengals, the free to play Next Level Fantasy Football game downloaded now from the app Store and Google Play and by on Location, the official

hospitality partner of the NFL. Visit on Location exp dot com for exclusive access to the biggest events in the NFL all season long, including Super Bowl fifty six. Here's a quick reminder that you can have the latest edition of this podcast delivered write to your phone, tablet, or computer by subscribing wherever you get your podcasts. It's the

greatest thing since Cascatelli. I didn't realize that people were still inventing new shapes of pasta, but lo and behold, a guy named Dan Pashman, who hosts a food podcast, has come out with Cascatelli. That's the Italian word for waterfalls. Dan says there are three qualities by which all pasta shapes should be judged. One sauceability, how readily to sauce? Add here? Two fork ability how easy is it to get on a fork? And three tooth sync ability, how

satisfying is to sink your teeth into it. I'm here to tell you that Cascatelli gets an A plus in all three categories. It's the Joe Burrow of pasta shapes. Now let's get to my guests, beginning with Bengals wide receiver Mike Thomas, the one player in Super Bowl fifty six who has played for both head coaches. Mike, you are a member of the Rams when they went to the Super Bowl four years ago, but unfortunately you were

injured and didn't get to play in the game. Can you describe what it means to you to get back and be on the active roster, man, It's undescribable. Honestly, it took a while for me to let it all come to me, like, Damn, I'm going back to the Super Bowl and I'm actually playing in this game. Like it it's so surreal, like the fact that I'm suiting up and I can't really explain the feeling. It's just it's overwhelming. I tell you that. Did you get emotional

after the AFC Championship went over the Chiefs? Yes, I did. I was. I was overwhelmingly happy, like we really did it, like it's actually happening, like it's it's no underdog like Joe said, no underdog boar crap, Like we are. We don't. We do them guys, and we deserved this and we showing it each week, weekend and week out. So I was overly excited. We're chatting the Bengals wide receiver Mike tom I said, what point this year did you think, man,

this team is good enough to go to the Super Bowl? Honestly, um, honestly penited to all our games we always was down, uh you know, going in the halftime and after all our game were majority of all our games, we always came back and got back on top and one games. And every time I think about that and the previous Super Bowl, like the Chance Kansas City Chief when they won their Super Bowl year, they always came back and

won each game. So and when I think about that, we resilient enough that when we down, we don't panic, We don't we don't trip, we don't go crazy. We keep probably most you know, and tact and let's keep playing ball into sixty minutes is over. One of the big reasons, Mike, why the Bengals are headed to this

Super Bowl is the wide receiver room. It's led by Jamar Chase t Higgins and Tyler Boyd, but all of you guys have contributed in some way yourself, Stanley Morgan, Trent Taylor, etc. What stands out to you about that wide receiver room Just holding each other accountable, sending the standard high high as possible that we can. There's no room for mistakes. So the more that we in the room together and sending each other, sending standards high and

making sure that we keep that standard above average. Damn disguise a limit for us all. Has Jamar Chase been treating you guys to stakes? Did I hear that correctly? Yeah? Yeah, we still got him on a little rookie kieer duty, So you know what I'm saying, held he'd been holding it down. Good to know. We're chatting the Bengals wide receiver Mike Thomas. When your buddies around the league ask you about Joe Burrow, where do you tell him? Man? He he the coolest in the game. Man like he

gotta you know everybody. Honestly, a lot of people were telling me, Yeah, it seemed like out of all the quarterbacks in the league, Joe got some spice to him. He got a little flavor to him. So if people coming to me saying that, hey, Joe the coolest one in the league right now, cool without trying to be cool, without trying to effortless. We're chatting with the wide receiver Mike Thomas. Mike and your second season in the NFL with the Rams, Zach Taylor was your assistant wide receivers coach.

Did you ever dream that this guy would be a Super Bowl head coach someday? To be real, nah, I ain't gonna lieu. He was in. He was in our Ride receiver room. So I have worked with previous Ride receiver coach. They always never wanted to go up and beyond. They always just wanted to stay as a receiver coach man. Obviously Zach wanted more. He wanted to be a head guy. So obviously he doing it. He's doing at a greater skill right now. What do you respect about Sean McVay

from when you played for him? His resiliency, He was always cool. He never really raised his voice too much. He was always a cool, common, collective coach. And he was a high standard guy too. He was always forcing the details, making sure everything was perfect. And that's what I can say about him. He was a professionalist. He want everything's perfect so that we can set the standard high and going games confident and not really wherever it

or think overthinking. So one of the challenges for the Bengals wide receivers in this Super Bowl is going to be trying to get open against Jalen Ramsey. He's probably the best corner in the NFL. What makes him so special Obviously he's a bigger framer, I mean cornerback of course, he's like six two wide wingspans long. He's a long corner. So, if you know what I'm saying, going to get his

long corners ain't really fun. So anybody who can just reach out and touch you across the on scrimmage, that's as you know, that's you're gonna have a long day. So all credit to Jalen for sure. So, Mike, you grew up in Chicago idolizing Chad Johnson. You wanted your buddies to call you Mike Ocho Cinco when you were in high school. Does it seem fitting to you that you are going to a super Bowl in a Bengals uniform? Yeah,

I would say that. Um, it's only right man. Um, Like you said, what the history says, it's been thirty years since. It's been a long time. So I'm just I'm just glad to be a part of this history. Man, to just be you know, in the locker room with the guy, sharing those those moments and cherishing every moment

and just man, I'm just excited. I mean, I can't really explain it, man, It's just you just got to cherish those moments and be humble and understand what you're in what you know, what you did, what you got, what you got in front of you. Honestly, I think it seems a little bit unreal to all of us. But have you allowed yourself to dream about what it would be like to hold up that Lombardi Trophy after winning a Super Bowl? Oh yeah, oh yeah, I can

picture with ring finger out what the ring going and everything. Man, I can see for sure. I hope you get the opportunity to wear it. But just making it as far as a remarkable accomplishment. Congratulations Mike, and I appreciate your time as always. Thank you, Thank you, d I appreciate you. Thomas only has five catches this year, along with four

tackles and a forced fumble on special teams. But if there's one thing we've learned about the Super Bowl over the years, it's that there are often unexpected heroes like David Tyree, whose helmet catch helped the Giants beat the undefeated Patriots. It was the final catch of his NFL career. The Bengals Booth podcast is presented by Ultimate Bengals, the

free to play fantasy football game. This year, Ultimate Bengals awarded a weekly winner during the course of the season with tickets, autographed merchandise, and he can't buy experiences all up for grabs. Find Ultimate Bengals in the app Store and Google Play. In each of the last two years, just before the start of the season, I've been joined

on this podcast by a writer named Robert Weintraub. Rob covers the NFL for Football Outsiders, a website that focuses on advanced statistical analysis, but he also writes on a more personal level for Cincinnati Magazine. You see, Robert grew up in suburban New York rooting for the Cincinnati Bengals. Robert, the title of your most recent story for Cincinnati Magazine is the Bengals Answered Our Prayers at long Last, and

the end of the first paragraph reads as follows. I hope for it, prayed for it, offered to sell my first born male son for it. Never truly believed it. It's been about a week. Are you still having a hard time believing it? I definitely am. My son is still for sale by the way out there, if anybody wants to please do uh. It's it's living in this sort of another world of disbelief with you know, incredible pride and confidence in the team and just giddiness, I

guess is the one word that comes to mind. It's they've come so far and it's all been so unexpected that it's it's a better ride, I think than you know, had they gone into the season as a favorite, or you know, a team that we thought couldn't even make a Super Bowl run. The fact that it came so out of nowhere and yet feels sustainable for the future

really is kind of the best of both worlds. There there a year ahead of time, you know, they kind of took this great leap forward, as they said in China once upon a time, and you know, I think that really makes it more special than it would be otherwise. And of course the way they've won the games themselves have been you know, hard to believe and make it even more of a too much at times of a

roller coaster ride. But when you come out on the winning side of those games, it makes it's so much better. And you know, it's just I'm still dizzy. Maybe that'll wear off by the time to kickoff next week, We'll see, but you know, for now, I'm still I'm walking on air. I've been saying to people, there's nothing better as a sports fan, and when your team reaches this level and it's entirely unexpected, it would have been great under any circumstances.

Hopefully five years from now, when the Bengals are going to their fifth consecutive Super Bowl, we'll still think it's great. But when it's completely unexpected, that's the best, right. Yeah. You know, we talked before the season started and we were just like, maybe, hopefully, let's pray they play some

meaningful games in December. Let's hope they have an outside crack at the playoffs, you know, And I think in the back of our minds, knowing that Joe Burrow was the quarterback, this was not completely out of the realm of possibility. But obviously coming off the injury, you know, we didn't know what to expect. We didn't know how long it was going to take for him to go back to being Joe Burrow, and I think it did take somewhere along the lines of half a season for

him to do that. But you know, the way they've then just kind of boarded this rocket ship and taken the flight straight to the moon has been really pretty amazing, And yeah, it is. It is the best it can never be replicated. Really, I mean, that's the thing about it, and you know that's what makes it really that much

more special. And then I just worry that if they don't finish the drill as they say, and don't win the Super Bowl itself, maybe we have a bit of a bitter sweet feeling at the end of all this. But I'm trying not to get into that mental space just yet. We're chatting with Robert Weintraub, who covers the NFL for Football Outsiders and writes about the Bengals for Cincinnati Magazine. In the article I referenced earlier, you also described how you were so nervous that you could not

watch the finish on TV. You went to another room. You'll be happy to know my eighty five year old mother does the same thing, so you are in good company. At what point couldn't you stand the stress? It was when the Chiefs were driving for what was going to be a go ahead down or take the entirety of the clock, as it happened, and kick the field goal

send the game into over time. At that point, with the ball in Joe Burrow's hands, I probably wouldn't have felt the same way I'd have felt maybe a little bit of his confidence would have ebbed into my field. But with Joe on the bench and the Patrick Mahomes, you know, going downfield, even though he had been struggling for the entirety of the second half. Nevertheless, the jelly in my knees did not allow me to stand up the you know, the mini stroke feelings I was having

in my chest and head. Said let's just walk away from this and put your prioritize your health over to Bengals for once in your life, and it worked out pretty well. The question will be in the Super Bowl. I have similar strength if the situation repeats itself. Hopefully the Bengals go out to about a thirty seven nothing we had to just cruise home from there. Somehow I doubt it, but we'll make that decision when the time comes.

We can dream, There's no doubt about that. We've recorded podcast each of the last two years after the Football Outsiders preseason Almanac came out, and your feelings about Joe Burrow have been clear. You call him atlas for carrying the franchise on his shoulders, but how did this team get to the Super Bowl in his second year? When you have a truly transformative player, they're capable of doing these things. And we look back and you know, it

happens more often than you might think. I mean, when teams have truly a great player at that position, obviously it happens faster than you might imagine. You know, Mahomes went to the super Bowl in his second year as a starter, Roethlisberger Ben Roethlisberger in his second year as a starter, Aaron Rodgers in his second year. When you have a guy like that, all things are possible. I mean,

we always talked about it. We knew it. We had to, you know, so sort of see it to believe it maybe, But you know, that's why you drafted the guy like this number one overall. That's why we were so happy to you know, kind of bottom out instead of finishing you know, five and eleven in twenty nineteen. It was like, Okay, we got a rack at this sort of once in a lifetime ish kind of player, and he makes things

like this possible. I mean, I hate to break a complicated game down into such a simple, you know sort of factor, but you know it's true. We can go on and on about all the little things that Bengals have done, and all the offseason moves that they did that worked out pretty much entirely one hundred percent, all the things they've done offensively, you know, to scheme around the fact the offensive line is not great, etc. Etc. Evan mcpherrison. Of course being the future ten time All

Pro that we thought it might be coming out of college. Oh, that's great, and all of it's true, But the single most important factor is Joe Burrow and a player of his ilk, not just playing the way he plays, but obviously, you know, giving some of his character and leadership and the intangibles that we talk about so much in our metric based company at Football Outsiders, I'd sort of feel a trader talking about things like that that can't be measured.

But it's clear these hadn't effect a transformative effect, not just on the team, not the entire organization. It's what he was rafted to do, It's what we thought he was capable of doing, and he's done it already in year two. It's truly a fantastic, incredible accomplishment and you know, something he should be pretty proud of. I'm sure your colleague, Mike Tanier wrote the Bengals preview for Football Outsiders this year, and it was not encouraging. Have you playfully reminded him

of that? Oh? I told him next year's essay, which I will write, will just be a point by point hit for tat reader on of that and pointing out where he was wrong. And whenever he goes on radio shows this week or podcasts on Super Bowl Week, I told him he's going to have to go back and refer to that essay that he wrote, perhaps with a celebrity voice to give it more of a Samuel L. Jackson,

perhaps scorn attached to the way he wrote that. Yeah, you know, I mean that was the sort of national outsider's view of the Bengals, And you know, you can't say he was unjustified and he went out of his way, perhaps with a few had hominem attacks and a little extra snark, But that's Mike. I mean. The point of it is the Bengals didn't have much to stand on over the last five years or so. They didn't have

much success. Obviously, they hadn't won a playoff game as we know in over three decades, and they were sort of they were doing things differently now as it turns out sometimes when you do things differently and you have an organization that isn't you know, just busy chasing the same thing every the other organization is chasing, that works out for you. And sometimes, you know, these things are also also cyclical. I mean, the drafts were very good in the first half of the twenty tens, and they

took a downward turn in the second half. That's every team, you know, most teams go through something like that. It can't be one hundred percent in the front office and

personnel things like that. And the Bengals were different upward turn in that respect, and it happened, and it happened to the end degree, and they happen to you know, also get a chance that, you know, the great quarterback who didn't get to show what he was really capable of last year, and the fact that he went out in such a disturbing and catastrophic way also lent the national media to sort of dismiss the Bengals and Burrow in a casual way. He's kind of aut of sight,

out of mind. I feel like, coming into the season, it's like, well, yeah, he's there, but you know, let's see what he can really do, and you know he did. And I think if Mike were here now with some true serum, we would be able to pin him down and say that he was a little over the top. But that's okay. I mean, you know, the success is the last laugh, and I've had a few at his expense throughout the season. So they have the transformative player in Joe Burrow at quarterback. But where was this team

much better than the metrics suggested it would be? Obviously, run defense is the first and foremost place you look. They were top ten all season in that respect, something I didn't think it was even possible, much less you know, going to happen at a consistent rate this season. You know the fact that they addressed it in the off season so heavily in the last two off seasons. Really if you count Dj Reader, who had a really excellent season,

and he too was pretty much forgotten about. People don't remember that he was lost for most of the twenty twenty seasons, so just getting him back was it was a huge effect on the interior that defensive line, and you know, the way they were able to consistently stop other teams running games, which was you know, passing is much more of the way to go. It's much more efficient overall in football. But teams still want to kind

of break you, for lack of a better word. They want to control the game through the running attack, and if you deny them that, you know, it makes obviously

winning on defense much easier. That Bengals still struggled to stop the pass in a lot of games this season and overall this season, I think could say, but the fact that they were consistently able to stop other teams running games meant that they couldn't the other team couldn't put away games on them, and they were That's the reason why they were always in these late comeback fourth quarter games, and they always had a chance because the

other team couldn't kill the clock on him. That was a big, big factor and certainly something I didn't see coming. I don't think anybody did, maybe except for the Bengals staff and the Bengals players. For chatting with Robert Weintraub, who covers the NFL for Football Outsiders and the Bengals for Cincinnati Magazine. He is also the author of several books, including The Divine Miss Marble, available in paperback. So let's turn our attention out of the Bengals and Rams in

Super Bowl fifty six. I know you've been diving into the advanced numbers. What are some of the keys to this matchup based on your research? Well, first of all, we'll have to overcome a large gap between the Rams and the Bengals in terms of overall DVOA, which is the standard Football Outsiders stat which measures kind of down by down efficiency. I think one thing you would obviously know is that the Bengals were not efficient from down to down this year. They were very boom er Bus team.

The Rams were much better, and the gap is pretty large. We give the Rams about a sixty five percent chance

of winning the game. I think if you look historically to the one game that this kind of numerically matches the most, though, it's it's the two thousand and one game, which also involved the Rams then in Saint Louis against the Patriots with a young quarterback who not too many people knew all that much about, but managed to pull the upset and spring in a new dynasty, a long lasting dynasty said yeah, that that Rams Patriots games game kind of matches almost exactly where this game is in

terms of DV away. The Bengals, obviously, if you wait the DV away by more recent games, look a lot better than they do in a season long first And you know, funnily, the Rams have really struggled to run the ball themselves. They're one of the poorer running teams, especially on third down and in the playoffs, in particular Water where we just said that's the Bengals strength. So if you wonder a you know how much the Rams

will want to run it. Think Sean mcvay's entire scheme is built around the run, so I think he'll want to. The question is will the Bengals be able to continue that success against their run? Will they sucker the Rams into running it more than they want to? I think they kind of suckered the Chiefs out of running it last last week. I wonder if they'll do the opposite against the Rams. I think you'll also find that the Rams have, you know, Jalen Ramsey, obviously a lot of

talk about him matching up against Jamar Chase. Funnily enough, though the Rams did not do a great job of shutting down enemy number one wide receivers, they were actually sixteenth overall by DV away, and only three teams gave up more yards per game against enemy number one whiteouts. That would seem to indicate that chase. Uh, you know, and I don't think the Bengals will have any fear of throwing it up the chase, regardless of who's guarding them.

So you know that that could be a place where obviously the camera's going to be on those guys and we're going to see a matchup of strength against strength, and that could favor the Bengals. Surprisingly enough, according to our numbers, Bengals are offensive line versus Aaron Donald, von Miller, Leonard Floyd, etc. Certainly a lot of people are pointing to that matchup as the single most significant matchup in

this game. What do you think? Yeah, I mean it may not be able to watch that either, and they have to go through the other room and grow up into a ball in my closet and just hope you know that the Bengals do something good. Yeah, there's no question they have a formidable front. Von Miller has done it in Super Bowls before. Aaron Donald arguably the best player in football at any position. I mean he's a monster.

But you know, the Bengals have had a week offensive line or a mediocre offensive line would be the best way to say it all season, and they've mitigated that, they've worked around it. I think the key is to be able to, you know, even when they get behind the change, which they did like against Tennessee, they were able to able to overcome that. I think they had sixty five negative yards and sacks, but you know, three hundred and fifty yards almost in passing, so that's going

to be important. They're going to have some negative plays. We saw that Joe Burrow doesn't mind taking a negative play because he knows he's coming right back at him. When they're in second and fifteen, it'll be key not to try and go for it all and get into third and manageable. I think the Bengals know that. I think they know where they're you know, the mismatches on the other side lie obviously, and they're probably gonna try and establish a little bit of a perimeter running game

to slow down especially those pass rushing bookends there. It's not what you can do is slow down Donald. But if you get von Miller in particular, worried about running to his side, things have happened that you know the Bengals can find some success there, so it's gonna be rough, don't get me wrong, but I think that certainly there's some places where the Bengals can make some hay in that part of the game, and they're just gonna have to stick to it. We are recording this conversation via zoom.

You have a Bengals helmet and an old football digest with Ken Anderson on the cover over your shoulder, so I know what this super Bowl trip me. Oh, you've got a Bengals mug as well. That's very good. I know what the super Bowl trip means to you, and I'm happy you did not have to sell your eldest son for it to happen. Congratulations, enjoy the Super Bowl, and I hope that the Bengals have a big enough lead that you can watch the finish live. I hope

the same thing for you, Dad. Congratulations for you know, I just want to say, as a fan of your work, of course, and all that you've gone through over the years trying to, you know, make some of these boring games and dead games interesting. In the depths of a losing season, you get to call the biggest game there is and I just hope you're able to watch it at the end as well. That would be tough if you're not, because Dave Lapham will have to take over

play by play and analysis. Great as he is, I'm not sure he's quite ready for that, so hopefully you can make it too. So congratulations, thanks for having me on. I really appreciate it. Robert wrote a fantastic profile of Dave Lapham prior to the season, and if you haven't read it, you can find it online by searching for Dave Lapham Cincinnati mag Gazine. The Bengals Booth Podcast is presented by on Location, the official hospitality partner of the NFL.

Visit on location exp dot com for exclusive access to the biggest events in the NFL, including Sunday Super Bowl Tuesday. On Good Morning Football on the NFL Network, the crew played a little game called What super Bowl Joe, and one of the questions was what super Bowl Joe? When asked if he could meet anybody in history, answered Julius Caesar.

The answer is Joe Burrow and the anecdote came from the fun facts interview I did with him over the phone from his home in Athens shortly after the NFL Draft. I included it on this podcast at the time, but with the Bengals going to the Super Bowl in his second season, I thought it would be fun to go back and listen again. Time for some fun facts with the first pick in the twenty twenty NFL Draft, quarterback Joe Burrow. Joe, I want to start with the famous

cigar picture after the National Championship win over Clemson. It reminds me of Joe Namath in the bathing suit by the pool before Super Bowl three. It's like the epitome of cool incompetent. How did it happen? And did you have any idea in the moment? How big of a deal that would become one of our strength and turns his family on the cigar company. So he was passing around in the locker room and we were smoking them,

and then they told me the time for media. I didn't want to just put it out and they had to relite it by my son's kept smoking it, and so I end up capturing a picture, great video, great picture. It's on T shirts. It's one of the most popular gifts out there. That thing has become hugely viral. Yeah, I mean, this is craziness, and I don't think we were allowed to smoke inside. But I think the New

Orleans costs. Let us let's get away with one. Yeah, I win a national championship, you get a little bit of extra leeway, Joe on Draft night, the Heisman Trophy made a nice decoration in your family living room. How heavy is it and how do you travel with the Heisman Trophy? I think it's about thirty thirty or forty. And they gave us a nice little case with the walk on it that we can travel with. Some nobody

will take it from us. So when you haven't been able to go to fitness centers during this pandemic situation, you can lift the Heisman Trophy. You have stated publicly that your big splurge with your rookie contract is going to be a personal chef. Are there candidates already and what must they be able to cook? I've been getting resumeates for a long time, or since I first said that, So now now is the time when farmers start to go through wall. I'd have to think about My case

has been changing lately. Some things that I used to like I don't really like as much anymore. So I think my options are pretty open. I have heard this isn't something that a chef will be required to prepare. But I have heard that you have a passion for the Honey Crisp apple easily the best apple correct by far, number one of all the apples are signing close. We have that in common, Joe. You have been described as being compulsively competitive. What loss still stings the most? Every

one of them. There's not any particular losses that I heard more than others. Losing this isn't very fun, and that's why I like to work as hard as I can to try to win as many games as possible. On the flip side, is there a win in something other than a big sporting event that's still deeply satisfying? Enjoy being people in ping pong? That's that's pretty satisfying. Um As. We always have a family thing clong tournament

on vacation. I usually win it. You'll be happy to know if you didn't already, there's a ping pong table in the Bengals locker room. I'll be frequenting that table. I want to go back to a game in your junior year at LSU seven overtimes, Texas A and m ultimately won seventy four seventy two. It's the highest scoring game at FBS history, nearly five hours long, and you physically crashed at the end of that game. How serious

was that? I thought, a little little blood sugar. I don't like to eat directly before games, so the last time I had eaten was lunch, and we ended up getting up to feel like one am, So that's im. I didn't anything a halftime. So that's all the reason that I had passed out in a locker room. When you decided to transfer from Ohio State, your final two choices were the University of Cincinnati or LSU, and you

obviously made the right choice. But I understand that had you transferred to UC there was a thought process that Andy Dalton actually might serve as a mentor or a sounding board since you would have been in the same city. Was that an appealing possibility? And did you two guys ever make contact that was in discussion that they have never really crossed my mind that that was going to play a part in my decision making. You know, my goal was to always win a national championships. That's the

reason that I picked the LSU. Joe by referencing families living in poverty where you grew up. During your Heisman's speech, you help raise more than half a million bucks for the food pantry in Athens County. Was that an eye opening moment for what you might be able to do going forward for people with the platform you're going to have. Yeah, it really was. I'm excited to kind of come up with some more things to help more people, and hopefully we can do here in the last couple of years.

All Right, a few wild card topics for you. Your dad was drafted by the Packers and played in the Canadian Football League for five years. Your brothers played big time college football at Nebraska. But the best athlete in your family might have been your grandmother, right, Yeah, Yeah, she got eighty two in a game in high school one time, eighty two points in a high school basketball game, and I've read that she averaged fifty plus. Yeah, yeah, she did as you were growing up in the driveway

or anything like that. Did Grandma Dot ever toss a ball? No, I've never seen her. I've never seen her do it. I'll find out for some film of her doing it one of these series. I understand that you are a huge Cleveland Cavaliers fanatic, and rumor has it, I don't know if this was in the first finals against the Warriors of the second one, but you didn't leave your room, you didn't change your clothes, something like that for good luck. Explain.

I didn't quite go that far. I just wore a Matthew Dol's over shirt that I wore for every during every game. When you were a kid, did you have any memorable meetings with a really famous athlete at my cousin's wedding in California? Clo awesome? Peyton Manning attended a cousin's wedding. No, he was just at the hotel that it was happening at. H Do you think you resemble Macaulay Culkin. Yeah, i'd say I'd say so on that one. I can't can't hurt you that one. Thinking a little

better looking. Now, what are you bad at? Because obviously you were a great athlete in every sport that you've played. We understand you're good at paint pong. You referenced playing chess when you spoke to reporters after you were selected by the Bengals. What are you lousy at golf? I think a golf I might do something I have to pick up. I am cractice quite a bit at the once. At the SEC media days, you use the term superluminal time travel. Are you a science nerd? I am a

science nerd. I wish I had more time to kind of study it, but yeah, I'm into all those science documentaries and stuff like that. If you could meet anybody in history, athlete, politician, entertainer, whomever, who would that person be. Julius Caesar? Why Julius Caesar. Here's a great conqueror. And obviously to do that you got to be a really good leader of men. So I'd be interested to just spend spend a couple of days with them. All right,

last thing, you attended the Super Bowl in Miami. You were hanging out with your buddy Sam Hubbard, and I heard that you were a little bit taken aback by the fact that famous people have now started recognizing you and showing their excitement about meeting you. What's that like when you first realize, huh, my life has changed? It was crazy. Yes, people who you grew up watching and listening to and that are just coming up and introducing

youself to me. I mean it was. It's been a crazy experience, little far all right, you're off the hot seat. I appreciate the time. I look forward to meeting you in person. Fun to listen back to my first ever conversation with Joey Franchise. Later this week on the podcast, I'll talk to Chris Collinsworth and Bengals owner Mike Brown. But that's going to do it for this episode. Brought to you by Ultimate Bengals, the free to play next Level Fantasy football game, and by on Location, the official

hospitality partner of the NFL. If you haven't done so already, please subscribe to this podcast and if you have a minute, give it a rating or share a comment that helps more Bengals fans find us. I'm Dan Horde, and thank you for listening to The Bengals Booth Podcast