Bengals Booth Podcast: Forget Your Troubles

The Bengals Booth Podcast is presented by Bengals Picks and Ultimate Bengals. They're free to play with tickets and signed merchandise up for grabs. Find both inside the Bengals app. Now here's a quick reminder that you can have the latest edition of this podcast delivered right to your phone, tablet, or computer by subscribing wherever you get your podcasts. It's the greatest thing since New New York City Bagels. Because of the UC football schedule, I had to fly to

New Jersey at the crack of dawn on Sunday. I headed to the airport at five am without eating anything and by the time I landed in Newark around eight thirty, I was famished. So I stopped at a bagel shop in the airport. Why is it that bagels in the New York City area are so superior to the rest of the world. My bagel tasted like it was right out of the oven, and it was the size of a truck tire. There are bagel shops in Cincinnati that I really like, but nobody doze it. Better get it

then the bagel geniuses in the Big Apple. Now let's get to Sunday's game. For the past few years, when the Bengals have won the coin toss, they have deferred, and there's a simple reason to do so. It gives you the chance to get back to back scores without the other team getting the ball, if you can score at the end of the second quarter and score again

to begin in the third. But the Bengals offense has been so anemic in the first half this year that Ted Carriss, who joined Joe Burrow as a captain this week, was told that if he won the toss, the Bengals would take the ball. You know, we hadn't had the lead yet in the whole seat in two games, so you know that was my orders to do. I'm glad I won the toss. Tales never fails. Here we go

and the Bengals started the game in attack mode. Is Burrow through ten passes on an eleven play opening drive, a four yard touchdown pass the Tyler Boyd was wiped out by a holding penalty, but that didn't kill the drive. Burrow drops back to throw, looking back, pedaling, stepping left, scrambling left, still looking to throw his pass, caught at the goal line. Touchdowns Saba JP Ryan God opened his Burrow scrambled, he caught it right at the goal line

and the Bengal score. It was seven nothing Bengals before the Jets got the ball. Here are Joe Burrow and Lael Collins on the decision to begin the game on offense. I thought it was a good call obviously, you know we put seven on the board on the first drive, but if you if you go three and out, it's a different conversation. So we came out aggressive and then paid off for us. Yeah, I think we got to take the ball every week to start the game off,

no matter what. That where we start ahead, we let our defense you know, play with the lead all game, and I think that's how we're gonna dominate opponents for the rest of the season. So was that Was that a decision that kind of like everybody and the team's like, look, we went in the coin toss, let's take the football man, let's get after it. That's the mindset that's out of two, you know, the physical attack offense. And that's what we did from the jump, and that's what we're gonna do

from here on up. The Jets answered with a field goal to make it seven three, and the Bengals gave them the ball right back first and ten Burrow wants to throw again, his pass caught by Chase at the forty oh He has the ball stripped away and the Jets recover it at the forty three yard line. That led to another field goal that made it seven six.

But on Cincinnati's next drive, Jets defensive lineman John Franklin Myers was called for unnecessary roughness for a hit on Burrow when the Bengals otherwise would have had to punt. That proved to be an egregious mistake. Burrow back to throw blitz coming throws over the mid caught by Tyler Boyd two defenders sprinting down the middle of the field of the twenty ten lunches for the end zone touchdown.

Night singals on the final play of the corner as Tyler Boyd pinballed off two defenders and took it to the house for the score and the Bengals make the Jets pay all out blitz running route to the middle of the football field, Tyler Boyd says, I'm not only gonna make the catch, I'm gonna break a tackle. I mean, the Jets brought seven or eight, they brought the house that gave the Bengals of fourteen to six lead at

the end of the first quarter. As Boyd finished with four catches for one hundred five yards, the first time he's led the team in receiving yards in the bengals last ten games. You know, any one of us can go off. You know, he's got to do. Our sammis is just let My motto is always just let it come. Just let it come, you know. And when a ball on my way and I can make the play, I'm gonna always make it. Te Higgins also had a big

day with ninety three yards on five catches. First and ten Bengals at the twenty five, Burrow takes a hand off to Mixon. He's gonna fling it deep again. Tee makes the catch. Penalty flags down as Higgins went up and over Sauce Gardner to catch it and te Higgalmet is now getting up. That's a helmet your helmet hit,

that's what the penalty flags for. That forty five yard catch and fifteen yard penalty led to a short Evan McPherson field goal that made it seventeen six, and when the Jets got the ball back, the Bengals immediately took it away. Hilton, coming on a slot corner blitz deep frog down the middle of the field, intercepted by Logan Wilson running back to the near sideline at the fifty gets a block from Hilton at the fort he's at the third, comes back to the twenty, louse of the

ball and there's a scramble at the twenty five. Von Bell saying that the Bengals recovered and it looks like Cincinnati did Trey Flowers with the recovery. It led to another Moneymac field goal and a twenty to six lead. The Jets ended the half with a fifty two yard field goal to make it twenty to nine. The Bengals were in the lead for the last twenty four and a half minutes of the half, and Burrows says, that

is a much easier way to play. That's ideal, right, Then you can run the ball, you can play action, you can run your nakeds. You're not just dropping back every play, So those I mean, that's critical going forward for the rest of the years. Just coming out fast, putting points on the board, staying close. Now you're not in two minutes the whole game, and that puts offensive line in better positions. It makes it easier to call plays,

So that was that was critical. Any thoughts of a Jets come back in the second half were thwarted by Trey Hendrickson. Hendrickson hips Flacco from behind. He's got his second sack of the game. The ball came out and the Bengals recover a strip sack b J Hill recovered at the Jets twenty four and four plays later, the lead grew to eighteen. Burrow, clapping his hands, catches the staff, pup fakes throws, caught Chase with the catch. Burrow belted

after the throw HiT's a touchdown for Cincinnati. Burrow threw for two hundred and seventy five yards with three touchdowns, no picks, and a passer rating of one fourteen point nine. He was only sacked twice. Here's Ted Carris classic Joey b game throne at deep shots and our receivers made big plays. So very proud of all the guys. It was a team effort. Obviously, our defense played great, and

you know that's just an all around team win. Greg's Airline's fourth field goal of the game, made at twenty seven to twelve going to the fourth quarter. The Jets got the ball two more times and the Bengals defense took it away. Flaco as ready extends the hands, catches the shotgun, stacks Gregson's got a hen. The Bengals will sack Flaco. Look like the ball came out again because of the rush by Trey Hendrickson. Hendrickson was credited with two and a half sacks and three forced fumbles. Comes

with the game to football. I mean, it's a twenty two man game, and you know, when you're playing football, you're playing for your brothers next to you. It's not all about the statistics, I know they'll come. We just play hard up front. We rushed the passer effectively, and you know, it's just keep chopping wood. I'm not really looking at stats and all that stuff. I mean, we had two losses and those of the things that were important to me, and it meant a lot that we

got this win. Since Trey doesn't like to toot his own horn, let's hear from Logan Wilson. I just can see it in his eyes throughout the whole week in preparation. It was just he was his time. He was just dude for one of his Trey hendrickson days, and today was that day. Appropriately, the final nail in the coffin was provided by the Bengals defense. Sixty two seconds Tremaine,

fourth down and one for the Jets. Flacco catches the shotgun staff he fires over the middle, let's pat it up in the air, is intercepted, and that for the first time this year is coffin DALs. I am Jesse Bass with the i NTE. The final score twenty seven to twelve. Once again, here's Ted Carriss. So you get the taste of victory. Man, It's all we worked for. It's a culmination of a lot of hard work, um, a lot of just a lot of guys making plays today.

I thought we handled the game plan the right way and we got a quick turnaround here, and you know, we have a chance to even it up after a rough start and get back on track against the team that's rolling. So we're excited, we're ready to go. You know, there's some things to clean up still in the game. I thought we played played pretty good against a really good defensive front, and that's just about as good as the D line gets in the NFL interior wise. So

I thought we held up pretty solidum. But let's go up next the Thursday night home game against the three and oh Miami Dolphins, who beat everybody's Super Bowl favorite Buffalo on Sunday. I spent a few minutes with Jesse Bates after the game. Before we get to that, we remind you that this podcast is brought to you in part by Kettering Health, the official healthcare provider of the Bengals.

With more than one hundred twenty care facilities and fifteen hundred care providers, Kettering Health is committed to guiding you to your best health. Visit Kettering Health dot Org to learn more. Now here's Jesse Bates. Jesse, you held the Jets without a touchdown, four field goals, you had four takeaways. What about the performance of the defense, how would you describe it today? Obviously, when a team doesn't score a touchdown on you, that's always good. But the main thing

that is a positive for us, we got turnovers. We wanted to turnover battle, and like I said, I think we play a really good defense. The past three weeks of being able to create some turnovers. You had our offense to ball. I thought we did a really good job. And then also, you know, just with our pass rushers finally getting on you know, you got got three sacks and then we get interceptions. You know that that kind

of comes along with playing complimentary football on defense. So as our rushers continue to get free and get home, there will be more opportunities for us, you know, safeties, corners, nicols like everybody to get interceptions. We just got to capitalize on it. So and an interception for you today along with Logan Wilson says, congratulations on that. How important was the opening drive winning the toss taking the ball which is unusual going down the field to score. How

important was that to set it telling today? Yeah, it was the message throughout the whole week, starting practice fast and then starting the game fast as well. So it was a mindset that coach Taylor did a really good job. He had a plan this week or what we're gonna come in here and do. There was a lot of commentary during the week along the lines of don't panic practice, Well, do what we do now that you've followed that and come away with a win? Is that kind of the mood? Now?

All right, we take we've taken care of business. That's one. Anytime you get a win a good um. And we got the first one out the way, and you know, now it's just just gonna have to keep keep going. We got a game him four days, four or five days, UM against a really good team that's three and oh, so it'll be a great challenge for us, and I think it would be ready to prove not to ourselves, but you know the whole world what we're about in

this locker room. So there was never no panic or no question about who we were in this locker room before we got this first one. You know, the ones that we're gonna get in the future. So I just gotta continue to practice hard and um execute our offense and defensive special team. So final thing following up on Trey Hendrickson, did you think this was coming? He didn't have a sack coming in three well, two and a half sacks and three force fumbles today. You know, Trey,

he's a maniac. I always call him maniac, and I'm just happy to see him get going. I think last year he had a sack almost every game, so he kind of made up for it today with you know, getting two and a half three So, um, I just love seeing him, you know, get back there and then do it a little celebration, uh, and then for him to get two and a half today was great. So he's a hardworking man, great person, so I'm not surprised um by him continue to do well. Um getting back

to their quarterback. So congrats down the I NT more importantly, congrats down the win. Absolutely appreciate that. That's Jesse Bates. No time to hear from head coach Zach Taylor. He spent three minutes with Dave Lapham after the game, gratulations. Big win, win by two scores in the NFL not an easy task now, winning winnings. Winning's difficult in this league, especially on the road against the team we got a lot of respect for Um. They got his last year.

So I thought, our guys really did a good job answering the bell creens some momentum for ourselves. We just needed to rip that band aid off for a first win. And and I thought of the guys that are really nice up today. Guys are obviously excited about it. I mean that music's um, it's hopping out there, a coach, it's a it's a little party atmosphere out there, and well deserved because you know, you're in both football games. I mean the NFL, like you said, it's a it's

a tough, tough dynamic. I thought, complimentary football today. Defense take it away, short field, offense score touchdowns, agreed, you know, and especially to start the game, their offense got the ball, went down, scored, so the defense can play with the first lead of the year. Start the second half. We challenged the defense find us another turnover. They did, offense punch it in with points. So those moments right there

were key in this game. And uh, and it's always good for the defense in the in the game with the turnover. You know, the offense started to drive that everyone's getting worn out. For Jesse to come up with that pick is a big deal. So third down, you normally convert on third down. It was third and long in some situation you just score touchdowns on those big third down conversions. How big was that? Yeah, it's a big deal. You know, that's TV stepping up making a

big play for us. And again it's it's he's always a guy that's we can count on when a moment's big and we need a big bill, we know TV is gonna be the one to step up and be capable of doing that. So for him to knowly make that catch on a great route, but to finish the playoff was something that really gave us a huge boost

right there. I thought a good sign was at the end of the football game, as a formal linement, you going with big bodies, you get six linemen out there and you're just you know, not trying to surprise anybody about anything. You're just going and pounding people and you're kind of beating into submission and just letting the clock

wine down. That was a good thing to see. Yeah, it was that's how you wanted into game, you know, and you know, unfortunately we got to execute the kick to finish off that drive and really put that game away. But I thought our guys up front, we're starting to starting to feel the momentum there and getting some good push and some Ajo was doing a good job finishing it as he subbed in there for Joe, So I thought that was a really good way to end it

for the offense. Trey Hendrickson came up large. I mean, I think he forced three fumbles himself, had two and a half sacks and three forced fumbles on the day. I think it was a crazy day. Great job by him. You know, it's he's been close, you know, so many

times the last two games. And for him to create the two three tournivers that he did and BJ cleaning up two of them is big that we get that from the defensive line and the other team's quarterback field, they can feel that guy bringing it on his neck and it affects their play. So yeah, I thought Joe Joe Flacco was throwing off his back foot a lot today. I mean I didn't think he really had time to step into his throws and you know, kind of complete

the mechanics of his throw. I thought the pressure was pretty significant all day long. They did a good job, you know, a couple more sacks that were closed where he got the ball out the last second kind of spiked in the ground there. So I thought that our defense really did a nice job holding them to four fueld goals, two of them started in our territory. I

thought it was exceptional performance by those guys. They didn't take a red zone snap until the very end of the football game and still ended up, you know, settling for a fuel goal. So I think up until that point the deepest penetration that Jets had was the twenty five yard line. I mean, when they had to the defense just bowed up. Yeah, they've really done that for three weeks now. They've played really well. We're going to need that to continue. Appreciate you congratulations on a big dub.

Awesome appreciative. The Mangos Booth podcast is presented by pay Corps. More than twenty nine thousand customers trust pay Corps to help them recruit, pay, engage, and retain employees. Learn more at paycorps dot com. The Browns beat the Steelers on Thursday night, and the Ravens won in New England on Sunday, so after three weeks, Baltimore and Cleveland are tied for first at two and one. The Bengals and Steelers are a game back at one and two. Now time for

postgame analysis and this week's Radio Guys recap. The Bengals get a badly needed victory by fifteen points in New York. The offense set the tone today by winning the toss, taking the ball, and marching seventy five yards to score. Yeah. That's the seventh straight win where they've scored first, and the sixth straight when where they've scored on their first drive.

So it's pretty important. I think, figured you need to change something up, you know, I mean, just whatever you need to do to try to get a W is what you need to do. So I thought playing with the lead for the first time, you know, it was a big deal. And that wasn't an easy drive, you know. I had to go ten plays to cover the distance they needed to cover, and it was the sign of

things to come. On third down, some nice are down conversions and they had some you know, three of their touchdowns were on third down in third and long in some cases, So it was kind of a foreshadowing of things to come. It was nice to be the sackers instead of the sack today just two sacks allowed four sacks for the Bengals, including two and a half for Trey Hendrickson. I know you talked to LC after the game.

Would you think of the play of the O line. Yeah, I mean I thought that it was it was solid. You know, I think, like we was saying during the game, I think that the amount of time that they sustained their blocks and protection was was a big factor, and it allowed Joe to do some of the things he wanted to do, you know, to extend and create plays

when the initial stuff wasn't there. He had some Houdini like escapes, There's no question, but the fact that guys were still pressing into guys and protecting Joe, I thought was was it definitely a step in the right direction. And you know ELC got it it out. You know, Uh, he's got a issue he's dealing with. I asked him, is it is it more pain as more uh stiffness, and he said it is what it is, and he's just gonna gonna continue to try to operate at the

best level he can operate at. So it's I thought today was a good, good example once again, a complimentary football and the defensive takeaways. He gave the offense short fields, and the offense didn't waste any time, you know, putting points on the board and paying it off. So it was all It was all pretty sound in retrospect. Was there anything more predictable then Joe Burrow would come out sharp and have a good game today, not after the

way he handled himself during the week. I mean he told everybody to uh our e lax, relax, and you know Aaron Rodgers did that and played well after he did that. So I think I think he realized how close, you know, they were in terms of you know, getting getting over the top, and they get over the top. Went by two scores. In the NFL, doesn't matter who the opponent is, you've you've had a pretty good day. There's no question. Trey Hendrickson two and a half sacks,

three worst fumbles. I don't know off the top of my head the last time a Bengal had three forrest fumbles in the game. But just an extraordinary performance by Trey and I can't believe that he wasn't a triple team like he was in Dallas. You know, Dallas would put a tackle, a tight end, and a back on him at times, and they singled him up a lot more than I thought he'd be singled up, and he showed, Wow,

that's not a good decision. So I would expect in the future here in the immediate future that Thursday night, I would think Trey is going to draw a lot of attention after having the type of game that he had. Other than his performance, what stood out about the defense and holding the Jets without a touchdown in this game. Yeah, I mean they didn't have a red zone snap until the very end of the game. Their deepest penetration was

the twenty five yard line. I think they continue to tackle very well, and I thought they're a big objective was to squeeze the space between you know, themselves and the back or tight end or whoever you know bars just looking for completions, getting those completions two of those guys and putting themselves in position to make tackles and then doing it. You know this, this defensive football team doesn't miss many tackles, There's no question about it. And

I thought they tackled really well. Today. The running game by and large wasn't very good until the end of the game. And then some JP Ryan had forty seven rushing yards on one drive where the holes bigger during that stretch. Was he hitting it a little bit better differently from Joe? What did you notice during that stretch? Yeah, I mean I noticed a real commitment on everybody's everybody's part, you know, I mean they went big, They went six

offensive linemen. They weren't trying to fool anybody. What they wanted to do had to lead, wanted to close it out, you know, melt the clock, frustrate the jets, just to you know, impose their will. And I think that's a

good sign. It's the running game has been sputtering, to be kind, you know, so hopefully a drive like that might you know, might ignite some things and U you know, sharpen the execution and get some things going to One thing I will say about some ajp Rhyan though, man, he didn't he made quick decisions and just he went after it. He got downhill square to shoulder, pads up and and ran you know, behind his pads. There no doubt about that. He was thumping people and had a

twelve yard touchdown catch before that. Yeah, that was that was big on third down as well to uh, you know, give himself as to make himself an available target for Joe Burrow as he's you know, just trying to get something done extended creating a play that wasn't the that wasn't the way that play was drawn up, but the results were pretty darn good. So as far as home team advantage or home field advantage goes, the saying is Thursday night home games are the biggest advantage. You can

have short week, you don't have to travel. Well, it could come in handy this week because the Dolphins are three and l. They beat the Buffalo Bills today. Yeah, I mean that's a that's a huge win for them to uh for them to go to Buffalo and uh and our Buffalo to go down to Miami and get that get that w I mean, m I know, I know the Bills were shorthanded defensively. They had some injuries in the secondary. I think they were missing one of

their guys up front as well. But you know, you still have to you have to play both sides of the ball. And they've got a pretty good quarterback. So obviously the Miami Dolphins defense stepped up as well, and they got themselves a huge win, I mean the division win like that against everybody's Super Bowl favorite. I mean, they're gonna be They're gonna be sky high. So it'll be interesting to see if if they'll have a letdown or if they'll, you know, sustain that that level of performance.

Short week got to travel not a not a short flight from Miami. We'll see. Hopefully the Bengals built some momentum offer this win and come out and play very physical football against the Dolphins. Nice to say, coffin nails for the first time this year. It was very nice. It was Let's do it about ten more times. That'd be good. Les Both podcast is presented by Alta Fiber future proof fiber Internet capable of delivering multi gigabit speeds designed to take your home, business, and community to a

new level. Elevate your connection with Alta Fiber. Now, time to turn the page and get to this week's Fun Facts interview, where you get to know the person under the pads. Time for some fun facts with long snapper cal Ada Midas from Pittsburgh and Central Catholic High school alma mater of Dan Marino. Is there a Dan Marino shrine at Central Catholic. I won't quite say shrine, but there's there's certainly a lot of respect given to his

name in the Central community, for sure. Understandably why now, you were a full back tight end in addition to being a long snapper and good enough to have some smaller college offers. Correct didn't reel in the offers because I had some injuries my senior year that kept some schools from pulling the trigger on me. But going into that season, attended a lot of camps and had a pretty wide variety of interest from D one, Double A

and higher level D two schools. He told me back in OTAs that your dad deserves credit for convincing you to become a long snapper. What was his pitch, basically pretty much that you know, the team that I was playing on, realistically was a pretty stacked high school team, and you know, I was realistic, knew my limitations as a tight end fullback, and he said, hey, I know you have big dreams about wanting to play football as long as possible, and this is a way to continue

to do it. And you know, I'm still playing football, so he certainly gets credit for that. How often did you practice and how did you practice to get good at this? Yeah? So, I mean obviously during practice. We had a good guy named Roy Phillis who helped us out during practice in high school, just learning the ropes

with the kickers, punters and snappers. And then in addition to that, just kind of spent a lot of time actually with my dad at the local elementary school field just repping it out and you know, doing all sorts of different things to work on snapping under pressure. And I remember him just here and there, you know, banging pots and pans. They're doing some interesting stuff to try to distract me while snapping. But just got a lot of reps in with him, and my brothers as well,

always helped out. We're doing fun facts with cal Adamidas. I typed long snap trick shots into goo Google and got nearly twenty five million results. Do you have a favorite that you've seen and have you ever tried anything, well, you know, just to stroke his ego a little bit, I'll definitely say. You know, Clark Harris's world's longest snap is certainly an impressive, impressive snap. But you know, I've

never done a ton of the trick shots. I've always just kind of focused on snapping it to the punter of the holder. But it is fun to watch those videos every now and then, I know, And like there was a challenge where guys would snap it and try to hit like the cap off of a bottle. I thought that was pretty cool. But I'd probably say those two were the most impressive to me I've seen through the window of a moving car. That's a pretty good one.

You might want to try. Yeah, and now you're giving me a list of things to work on in my free time. Cal you spent five years at PITT. You majored in economics. If pro football had not worked out, did you have a plan B career wise? In my fifth year at PIT, I was able to start my MBA at their business their Graduate business school, and that's certainly something I want to complete in the near future. In the off time with football is completely that NBA.

But you know, I have to say my minor was history, American history, and that was probably what I was more actually passionate about as a student. Um so, you know, trying to I guess have my you know, feat in both pools a little bit there, But uh, I can't say I know exactly what I wanted to do, But I just knew wanted to finish up that NBA and uh you know, maybe something that somehow incorporated a little bit of history as well. But I just I hadn't

thought a ton into it. I obviously my plan A was football and it's still been working out so far, so I'm all in with that right now. Plan A is definitely working out. What was the highlight of your Pitt experience, whether it was football or just school in general.

I'd certainly say winning the ACC championship with that group of seniors we had last year, and it was a it was a pretty old team, um, just a lot of guys who had been there for a lot of years and you know, just fell in love with the school.

You know, had a great relationship with coaching Ardusi and his staff, and just a lot of guys that you know, genuinely genuinely cared about Pitt and Pitt football and wanted to you know, bring some glory back to to the pit script And you know, guys that always knew about or heard about the teams from the seventies and eighties that were winning national championships and wanted to kind of rekindle that flame a little bit, and we certainly, you know,

did a little bit of that and hoping the trajectory keeps it that way at Pitt. Were you a big fan growing up? Yeah, so this is a funny story. I my dad went to Penn State, and that's kind of a no no in the in the Pit community, but um no, basically grew up kind of rooting for both teams, obviously because my dad was a Penn Stater and you know, spent some time in the Happy Valley and some time at the North Shore at pit football games.

And and then it wasn't untill my recruiting process when you know, my older brother and I both kind of felt a little bit snubbed by by Penn State, and you know, I got a chance to play at Pitt and you know, things just went great and so then you know, as a full one eighty and we just were became a Blue and Gold family after that. We're chatting with cal Adamidas. You were the top ranked long snapper in last year's draft class, but didn't get selected.

You said afterward though, that your relationship with Darren Simmons, the bengals longtime special team's coordinator, was a key to winding up here. How did that relationship start and what was it about Darren that made such a strong impression

even from the jump at the combine. Um, that was I think the first time I interacted with him, just because he wasn't able to be there for the Senior Bowl obviously since you know, the Bengals were in the Super Bowl, which is you know, a good reason to miss it, um, But you know, being at the combine, just kind of the way that he took over the drills, and UM, I almost was like confused at for us. I was like, wait, is this guy like a coach or is he like running the like running the show?

But he, uh, you know, he just kind of took control of things and you know, just seemed very sharp and you know, continue to have zoom calls with him and then his assistant cooled Anderson as well, and just started to build that relationship and just saw their track record and you know, the sense of the stability that

he has within this pro this organization. UM, and just there's a reason why you know, he's been here for as long as he has, and and then also saw just the track record with Clark and Kevin as well. You know, as a specialist, like there can be a a lot of turnaround, but you hope to find yourself in a position where you find a system and a coach that works and you stay there your whole career basically, and that's that's the dream and that's what that's what

his track record has been. So um it was like, hey, you know, that's that's what I want. Why why settle for anything less? Basically? All right, A few wildcard categories. Legendary Cincinnati Reds broadcast or Marty Brennaman had his head shaved for charity a few years ago. He raised a ton of money for the Dragonfly Foundation. You did something similar at pitt for Cal's kids. Describe what you did. Yeah,

so we did a fundraiser. UM with some of the new NIL policies m in college, we were able to work with Children's Hospital Pittsburgh and just basically started a fundraiser for pediatric cancer care. And um, you know, with the success our team was having, things kind of just took off and you know, ended up getting um talked about on like college game Day and on a lot of our bigger games and the big broadcasts, and it was just really cool. You know. I had a ton

of great help from some awesome people at PITT EJ. Borghetti, Celeste Welsh, Chryslasala, all people who you know, helped out a ton along with coaching, our doozy coach Powell, all the coaches and and uh, you know, just you know are the the wins. The big wins were helping too. You know, I can't go without noticing just the excitement around the program really helped channel that as well into the charitable cause as well, and uh, it was cool.

Like I remember when we played VTech Um we had a big win at their place, and there was like a twenty five thousand dollars increase in donations just because like people were fired up about pit football and then they're like, oh, like this is a way to like put my energy in love for pit into like charity

as well. And so it just worked out like the season and the fundraiser just kind of took off together and end up raising over one hundred thousand dollars for Children's Children's Pediatric Cancer Care and then after we reached the goal. Um it was what the week after the AC Championship, we shaved my head and uh yeah, so my hair went went bye bye, but it was for a great cause you had the long, flowing, shoulder length

locks before that. Do you ever miss it? Absolutely? And uh, you know, I'm kind of in the process of, uh you know, growing it back out again. I just miss having a little little lettuce coming out of my helmet. Um, but I'm doing a little something with the beard as well right now too, so we might who knows, we might be able to do something uh you know in the Cincinnati community with that, right and in this season, so we'll see where that goes. And yeah, definitely do

miss it though. So as we've noted you're from Pittsburgh, is there Promantee Brothers sandwich with the meat, cheese, cole slaw, tomatoes, French fries, everything else? I'll jam between two pieces of Italian bread disgusting or delicious? Well, um, you know it's it's sure not Skyline chili. Have to I don't know.

I mean, you know, I'm from Pittsburgh. I have to admit it's Uh, I definitely grew up eating a number of those, you know, in just different like after sporting events or you know, at at sporting events, and um, you know, I thought it's pretty yummy, but I'm definitely getting pretty acclimated to Greater's ice cream and Skyline Chili as well, so you know, it's definitely haven't haven't really had a Promanny sandwich. And while to be honest, all right,

well played, very well played. Final question for cal Adamidas. This is kind of a deep one. If you could meet anybody in history, athlete, actor, statesman, a religious figure, whoever that person might be, who would it be. M I mean, you know, I come from a Catholic family, so I'd obviously have to say Jesus, like, I'd love to just pick his brain. I guess I don't know that's the right thing, but you know, a little easier,

maybe more fun to answer. I don't know, I'd probably say, just being a history guy, I would love to meet like George Washington or any like the founding fathers because just the way they thought and you know, created this country is uh, it's kind of mind blowing and just how ahead of the time and the thought processes of that time they were to you know, write the Declaration of independence and you know, establish a system a republic, you know, of government and h yeah, I definitely say

one of the one of the founding follows, maybe Ben Franklin, because he's a very fascinating character as well. So that'd be my probably Benjamin Franklin, Jesus, George Washington and Ben Franklin. It would be a great trio with a long snapper thrown in there for good measure. Hey, I appreciate your time, Congratulations on your success, and best of luck the rest

of the year. Thank you so much. Day that's going to do it for this episode of the Bengals Booth podcast, presented by Kettering Health, the official healthcare provider of the Bengals, by Bengals Picks and Ultimate Bengals Free to Play with tickets and signed merchandise up for grabs by paycre, the official HR software provider of the Bengals, and by Alta Fiber future Proof Fiber Internet elevate 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 more Bengals fans find us. I'm Dan Horde and thanks for listening to the Bengals Booth podcast