Bengals Booth Podcast: Holly Jolly

I go one on one with linebacker Josh Bines. The Bengals Booth Podcast is presented by bud Light Seltzer. Refresh the game, and here's a quick reminder that you can have the latest edition of this podcast delivered right to your phone, tablet, or computer by subscribing on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, Spotify, or pod Bean. It's the greatest thing since End of Year lists. I am a total sucker for the various end of year lists that come out

in the final few weeks of December. Top ten movies, even though I've rarely seen more than one or two Top ten news stories. Even though this year most of them are likely to be depressing top ten books. Even though I've been reading all the light, we cannot see a few pages a night before bed for at least a month, and that book came out in twenty fourteen. If I see an end of year list, I'm reading it, even if I know very little of the content. I should probably make a top ten list for why I

love lists. Now let's get to the game. It began with a salute to the Radio City Roquets Christmas Spectacular as in one two three kick, one two three kick. Each team began with two three and outs on offense, but Pittsburgh's third possession was even worse. Pittsburgh has it first intent to the nineteen yard line. The exchange was fumbled, the ball on the ground at the twenty. The Bengals have started celebrating and they recover the Pittsburgh Steelers fumble.

Josh Bines at the bottom of the pile comes up with a football that led to an Austin Cybered field goal and a three nothing Cincinnati lead. Before the first quarter was over, the Steelers coughed it up again. Roethlisberger back to throw short pass over the middle, caught by Juji Smith Schuster. The ball was popped away by Von Bell. It's scooped up by the Bengals and returned to the twenty, but they're saying it's an incomplete pass. After reviewing the play,

the receiver completed the process of a catch. As a result, it is a catch in a foam role, as is his custom. Juju Smith Schuster danced down the Bengals logo and a TikTok video before the game, then got blown up by Von Bell and fumbled on Primetime TV. Here's the Bengal safety. We have a limless group, and man, we stepped up to the place to night, Monday Night Football,

the biggest stage. We're out there and hit out. The parking man was out there doing things we love at the highest level and we're just playing for one another, planning for the name went back your jersey, you know, because guys come from different stories and they're just telling the story to night and we're going out there and

making plays. Ryan Finley, making his first start of the year at quarterback, turned the takeaway into points with two third down pass completions to t Higgins that drove the Bengals to the four yard line. Finley under center, takes the snap, hands it off Geo trying to run wide to the right. Little ship off. Yeah. He takes it into the end zone before tossing the ball into the air. Touchdown Cincinnati as the Bengals go up nine nothing pending

the extra point. Giovanni Bernard finished with twenty five carries for eighty three yards, and that touchdown run and the point after gave the Bengals a ten en lead. Surely big Ben would strike back right wrong. Roethlisberger back to throw fires apastit's intercept it picked off at the thirty eight yard line. The Bengals are running it back high stepping his way as McKenzie Alexander he got hit after being out of bounds and now he got some pushing

and shoving in the Bengals bench area. But McKenzie Alexander intercepts Big Ben and runs it into Steelers territory. There was a fifteen yard penalty for a necessary roughness that gave the Bengals the ball at the Pittsburgh twenty six three plays later, they were in the end zone again.

Finley catches a shotgun snap. He's back to throw the protection's good shot pass caught over the middle, Bernardo breaks the tackle at the five, runs into the end zone, and throws the ball away up in the air again, touchdown Cincinnati and the Bengals lead the Steelers by sixteen points. The extra point he made it seventeen nothing, and all seventeen points were the result of takeaways by the Bengals defense. Here's Ryan Finley. We preached the heck out of that

all week. Was just winning the turnover battle versus these guys. And you know, if you get three takeaways on defense, you know the offense owes it to you to win night football game. So you know, just happy we could do enough to get that defense to win, because they service heck deserved it. It was seventeen nothing Bengals. At the half they had seventeen points. Roethlisberger had nineteen yards.

But in the third quarter he finally looked like the quarterback who's made life miserable for the Bengals for seventeen years. First with a screen pass to Chase Claypool for thirty seven yards, and then Ben's gonna float it deep down field into the end zone touchdown Deyonte Johnson, and just like that, Ben Roethlisberger and the Steelers come to life a screen passed down the sideline for a thirty six yard game, followed immediately by a touchdown pass to Deonte Johnson.

The next time the Steelers got the ball, they drove to the Bengals seven before settling for a field goal that cuts Cincinnati's lead down to seven points. The Bengals failed to score in the third quarter for the seventh consecutive game, but they started to drive late in the third that reached the end zone early in the fourth. Finley in the gun second down in two runs after Faki to p Ran, He's to the fifteen to ten middle of the field into the end zone, touchdown Ryan

Finlay as he runs the zone read to perfection. The Steelers all converged on samaj p Ryan and Ryan Finlay went untouched into the end zone for the Bengals score. Finley is not known as a running quarterback, but finished with forty seven yards on ten carries. Well, that helps when you have a thirty yard touchdown and don't get touched, So that helps with the average. But you know, it's always been, you know, a part of my game. You know, it's kind of using athleticism to get out of some stuff.

And you know, it's it's not heavy what I do, but I think it's it's something that I can definitely do on occasion. And this was a game that called for the touchdown play. Did you run that during the week or was that just it was a concept you guys have talked about or ru we had not ripped that play. That was just Zach being you know, real headsy and just kind of tagging it on there, and

you know why not. Up by two touchdowns in the fourth, it looked like the Bengals were on the verge of wrapping it up when they stopped the Steelers on fourth and four with less than six minutes to go, but Will Jackson was called for pass interference near the goal line first and goal from the one. After the penalty on Will Jackson five thirty four to go, the Steelers a yard away from making it a seven point game. They give it to Snell. He's into the end zone,

touchdown Pittsburgh. The lead was down to seven, and the Bengals were only able to pick up one first down on their next drive, punting the ball back to Pittsburgh with two seventeen remaining from his own twenty four Roethlisberger through incomplete to Smith Schuster, then incomplete to Johnson, then incomplete to Claypool, making it fourth and ten with one fifty six to go. The Bengal sending defenders up to the line of scrimmage, showing blitz Jesse Bates playing deep

in the middle of the field. Roethlisberger back to throw from the pocket his past two high incomplete coffinels Bam, bam, how about that? Who would a fuck? That? Attack on field goal by Cyberg with twelve seconds remaining made the final score Cincinnati twenty seven, Pittsburgh seventeen. Here are Zach Taylor, Ryan Finley, Von Bell and Giovanni Bernard on a memorable Monday night. It's the resilion of the group. Has I've ever been around, you know? They never stopped believing each other,

never stopped believing what we're asking to do. It showed up on a huge stage tonight against divisional. Right, and and again I just can't can't say enough how proud I am of the coaches, the players, the staff, everybody who's hunging there together. Here we are week week fifteen, whatever it is, and um just what a great night for those guys. You know, I'm obviously very happy, um, but just happy for everyone involved. You know, just the faces and the you know, the after the post game

locker room. Um, it's just you know, it's fun. We haven't had too many post game locker rooms like that, uh, you know as of recent and it's just fun. It's always fun to get a win, and um, even better beating the Steelers on Monday night. So just happy for everyone involved. Really, it shows the world tonight. We played

with anybody. We played all phases of the game. We played great team football, um uh, hand in hand football, offs and defense, put them in position to make points of plays, taking the ball away, just really have to just let them loose, having fun, and then that's that's one of my most complete games we played at the highest level. So was gonna keep on building that, keep going getting better to be able to beat a team like that. We know they're a good team, they know

they're a good team. But you know, when you play those divisional games, the records don't matter. It's about who wants them more. And it just showed just the type of mentality that we had going to the game. We started off hot, you know, coming we started off hot, come back after the second half, you know, we started

off so, but we continue to keep fighting. Man, I'm just so thankful that I've been able to witness you know, some of the guys make these plays, and you know, just throughout this season, it's just been a tough year, a tough road. But man, I'm just I'm just grateful that I've been able to be a part of those tough times, just because you know, when things like this happen, it just feels that much sweeter. Now, time for postgame

analysis with my broadcast partner Dave Lapple. My point spread, this is the Bengals biggest upset since you're playing days. Back in nineteen eighty you were part of a Bengals team that was a thirteen point underdog and beat the Steelers in Pittsburgh seventeen sixteen tonight the angles of fourteen point underdog and they beat Pittsburgh by ten. How did they do it? Turnovers? And that was the secret to

beat in Pittsburgh anytime we beat them. I remember we beat the Steelers another time handily, like thirty four to ten, and they couldn't even execute a center quarterback exchange problem issue. Mike Webster and Terry Brusch, two Hall of famers, couldn't get the ball snapped. Wilson whitlerw was causing all kinds of havoc in there when Ben fumbled Pouncy's snapping, thinking two Pro bowlers, Man Carmer's kind of looking the same here. I mean, they're having issues with the simplest things. And

turnovers were huge in this football game. You go plus three, you're gonna win ninety five ninety seven percent of the time, There's no doubt about it. In the first quarter, Ben Roethlisberger was four for ten from minus five yards. How good question. I mean, he wasn't even sacked, you know. I mean, it's it's it's amazing that they were just just avocating. I mean, the Bengals do. The Bengals basically

beat Pittsburgh at their own game. They ran the football when Pittsburgh in the heyday would run the ball right down your throat and then play suffocating defense, and whenever you made a mistake, they pounce on it and they make you pay, and they make you pay dearly, and then you know, you get all, you know out of sorts. And you make another mistake and then they make you pay even worse. And that's that's what the Bengals did

to them tonight. They ran the ball down their throat, They played suffocating defense at times, and every mistake that Pittsburgh made, the Bengals really capitalize them made and pay dearly for it offensively forty one rushing attempts and thirteen pass attempts. It's nice to say you're going to do something like that going into a game against the Steelers, but to actually pull it off effectively, I did not

see that coming. It's funny. I was. I figured, Okay, this is gonna have to be a dirty, grimy, bloody game, you know, for the Bengals to have to be able to compete. What I thought was as I was thinking about the game this afternoon, had all day to think about it, and and I'm like, all right, well, if the Bengals can somehow incorporate a quarterback run package, maybe include

Hogan in it. Because Hogan had rushed for over one hundred yards against the Bengals and he's averaging almost ten yards to carry, you know, in his career, so you know he can run the football a little bit and he rushed for a touchdown against the Bengals, and I thought, well, you know, maybe they'll do some kind of quarterback run package kind of thing and and shrink the game, you know, eat up the clock, get into the fourth quarter with an opportunity to steal a football game. Was what I

was thinking. And you know, I said to my wife Lynns, where as I was getting ready for the game, I said, you know what if they can run it, and the running backs, you know, rush for over one hundred and the quarterback rushes for fifty or more, they got a shot if they can you know, compress the game, eat up the clock. You know, don't don't throw the ball very much against this defensive front. I mean they're number one in the league in sack sack differential, all that stuff.

You don't you don't want to get in second and third and lungs against these guys and have to throw the football. And so I was, you know, just thinking along those lines, and be a son of a gun. If Ryan Finley it doesn't turn into Lamar Finley. It was crazy. He's out there doing zone reads and the quarterback draw unbelievable design to run the jet. The jet motion and the linebacker has to clear out of there

with him and just a design quarterback draw. And Ryan Finley was saying that on his touchdown run, it wasn't even anything they ran at practice. It was a run play and Zach just put a tag on it, said, you know, put a read on it at the end. So all he did was look at high Smith. As soon as you saw high Smith closing down the line of Scramm pulled it out of there, walked into the end zone untouched or to scored in one fingernail touch football.

Nobody laid anything on him. I mean, it was just incredible. Got to give Zach a lot of credit for the game plan, calling the game, improvising during the game, adjusting during the game. He's been bombarded about that, where are the adjustments? What are they doing when you hear things like that that they made an adjustment like that as he was calling the play, just put a little tag on the thing. That's pretty strong. There are a lot of defensive heroes in the game for the Bengals. Let's

start with Carl Lawson. He had a sack, He had six quarterback hits. You've pointed out in the past that villain Auava at his height, has a particular problem with Carl Lawson. He does, you know, six eight and villain Auava is a waiste bender. He's not a knee bender. So when you're six to eight and you're you know, the little teapot short and stout, you know, and just bending over at the way instead of with the knees

when the little kids play. I mean, he's he's got issues with that because then his shoulder pads are leaning forward. Carl can you know, use his hands and pull some moves on him, rip, swim, all those kind of things. And Carl Lawson gives him fits he does, and you know, villain Auava ends up kind of turning his older pads toward the line of scrimmage parallel to the line of

scrimmage and then given a short edge. And Carl Lawson, who's made him pay for that in the past, and he was he was a thorn in Ben's side, There's no doubt about it. I thought he gave very consistent pressure. I thought Sam Harbard, Margus Hunt and a lot of guys showed up in this football game for the Bengals defensive front. They played as hard as they can play. They definitely emptied the effort bucket for sure. The Bengals

also had ten pass deflections. I don't remember them ever getting to double digits in that stat and it came from every every level. You mentioned. Margus Hunt he knocked one down at the line of scrimmage, George Evans had when I think at the linebacker position, Darius Phillips had three, Mackenzie Alexander had two. They were deflecting a ton of Ben Roethlisberger's throws. Yeah, they did. William Jackson, you know, got his hands and he should have had an interception. One.

He'll get a pass broken up, but I mean should have been an interception, and then you know, a couple of plays later he has the fourth down problem, the interference. But Sam Hubbard got his hand on one as well, you know, as well as Marcus so Um. They were they were getting their hands on footballs and uh, you know, I think they were. They were. The coverage was outstanding and for on and off during the course of the game. They were really in Ben's head, I mean more so

than I've seen in a long time. It was. He was definitely bothered by what they were doing. I'm not sure that he was confused, but I think it was like wow, I mean, there's just like fly paper. I mean, they're suffocating us, man, They're smothering us down the football field. I have nowhere to go with the football. And that's that's that's not typical Steeler action there. I have no idea what Mike Brown has been thinking about Zach Taylor's

long term future. But do you think if there was any inkling of making a change, that his mind might have been changed tonight? I mean, you look at it. You look at a scenario like tonight against an organization that is, you know, the the gold standard of professional football. You've lost eleven in a row to him, it's on national television. It could have been a total embarrassment. I mean last last week's Monday night football game was an

instant classic. This one had the makings of being forgettable immediately kind of football game. And for them to play like they did, I think it does mean something to Mike Brown on national television, and you know, in the restroom at halftime, Steve Leapy was like, I can't believe this. You know, that's why you don't bet on these games. All my stuff, I have for I can't use. All he had was Pittsburgh stuff in the second half of steven, you know, and it's all understandable, but I mean everybody

was stunned. I mean all the media guys, national, local or whatever there. Everybody was stunned. And I mean me too. There's no way, but I thought the Cincinnati Bengal was going to hang twenty seven points on the Pittsburgh Steelers in this football game. I thought they won. It would be like fourteen ten, seventeen, fourteen, you know, but it was.

It was a very very good football game that they get short fields on some of those turnovers, took advantage and get points out of it again kind of reverse the flip the script on Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh makes you pay for every turnover. They just make you pay. Dearly Bengals did it to the Pittsburgh Steelers. And you know, there was a lull there in the third quarter, Dan three

to three and outs. They go third and eight, three straight possession like a little boy, now is there going to be you know, enough time for Pittsburgh to make the complete comeback. And then the Bengals, you know, snap out of it and make plays and win the football game going away, pretty pretty impressive. Well, they didn't want to score in the third quarter, now, you know, the Bengals don't like to do that. Yeah, that's right. I mean,

you're right about that. It's it's just incredible. What what what happens in the third quarter? It is, it's it's just it's beyond mind boggling. I'll tell you though. When Pittsburgh came out with the formation they came out with and spread the field as far as they could with two wide receivers lined up behind each other in like double life formations, almost in front of each football team's bench. Boy,

that's a big adjustment and it worked. I mean, they big play by Claypool and then Ben throws a touchdown past the very next snap, and I'm thinking, oh boy, I wonder what else they have up their sleep. But that was something that you just you run at once, and it wasn't really a gadget play, but it was a different look formation. You can make quick adjustments to it. But I thought for the most part, you know, you hear all the time, oh the Bengals, man, you know,

they've had halftime leads. But then the other team adjusted the Bengals never adjust well. I thought in this instance, they adjusted to adjustments and the whole thing, the whole thing panned out. Let's talk about the other side from eleven and ozero to eleven and three and if you go back to win number eleven, that was the Baltimore game where I think it was twelve guys for Baltimore. We're out with COVID, including seven Pro Bowlers. The Steelers

struggle to win that game. They haven't scored twenty points now in any of their last four games. Are the Steelers limping to the finish line? I mean, their their offense looks so different, and everybody's realizing that they are going to the short intermediate east and west stuff, and they're aligning their coverages and and crowding. You know, they're making Pittsburgh playing a closet and it's it's interesting to watch.

And I thought right away when Pittsburgh came out and Ben rolled out and went deep, they were trying to make a statement, Okay, this we're not doing that tonight. You know, you're gonna have to make some adjustments here. But Ben was not even close and the coverage was good, so that wasn't a panic type scenario, and they did try, not even a handful of deep balls through the rest

of the game. And uh lou and Umu was persistent and staying with what he thought was going to be the right the right kind of configuration the schematic for the night, and it paid big, big dividends. Yeah, I think they're there. They are limping and uh uh yeah, it's they just offensively, it looks like they're really really struggling to get it figured out. It really does. So there's a guy known as Bengal Boy who always does the great banner on the opposite side of the stadium

from our broadcast booth. The banner tonight says Panay for your thoughts, a reference to Panay Sewell, the great offensive line prospect out of Oregon. The great thing about this victory is that it doesn't drop the Bengals in the draft order. There's still third, the Jets falling from one to two after they shocked the Rams on Sunday, an Owen thirteen team beating a nine and four team. So Jacksonville has the first pick, the Jets have the second pick,

the Bengals have the third. But now there's a chance if the Bengals win again, that they would fall out of the third spot. Carolina, Atlanta, Houston and Philadelphia have four wins. The Bengals now three ten and one. Yeah, that's what people are already. I've already gotten a bunch of texts. They could go to number seven, they could drop to number seven. What are they thinking? You know?

And it's like, well, you know whatever, you know, maybe they can still get a good offensive lineman or a defensive lineman or whatever the case may be with that with that seventh pick in the draft. But when you look at it, Dan, it's like, they beat Tennessee and they beat Pittsburgh here at Paul Brown Stadium, two playoff teams, two teams that have given other people, you know, difficult time.

Now Pittsburgh's in a little bit of a lull. There's no question they're not, you know they I don't think they really were a dominant eleven and old football team anyway, And now reality is kind of creeping back in. They could finish eleven and five. I mean, they've got they've got two two good opponents left. They got Indianapolis and

they have Cleveland. There's no no gimmes there. Both of those teams are fighting for playoff positioning as well in seeds and all that, So that would be an interesting dynamic to go eleven and O and then oh and five. That would be a tail of two two seasons in one there. But yeah, I mean to me, uh, if if you're if you're out there playing football and you're all they're a coaching football, it is so foreign to say we're gonna lose this because we want to get

an offensive tackle. Who may be great, who may be not as great, who may get hurt, who may get whatever. All you're trying to do is keep your damn job. And it's a competitive world out there. You know. When I was a player, I didn't give a damn with fans thought about draft picks, you know. And I mean it was like you're just trying to survive, man, I mean, that's that's that's all there is to it. And it's easy for somebody from the outside looking in say, oh,

you know, what are you what are you doing? You can position yourself for this net hell, bro, this is like dog fight time. It's like survival of the fittest. It's Darwinism at its finest. You're just trying to survive and advance for another week. You're not worried about, you know, draft picks and free agency and all that stuff that isn't even come close to enter in your mind yet if you're a player or a coach. I'm reminded a little bit of two thousand and eight. The Bengals were

won eleven and one with three games to go. They won the last three, built some moment, then won the division. In two thousand and nine, I'm not going to say that I'm not about to say that that's going to happen, But the point I want to make is they were one eleven and one, they won their last three, they dropped in the draft order. They could have had the second pick, they fell to the sixth, wound up taking Andre Smith. The five guys that were taken ahead of them,

Matthew Stafford went number one overall. He's had a good career. You couldn't even name picks two, three, four and five. I'm sure at the time they all seemed like they were going to be ten time Pro Bowlers. None of those guys between Matthew Stafford and Andre Smith did a thing. No I agree. I mean, the draft is an imperfect science, to say the least. But this guy, Cane Sewell, looks like he's he's about as scientifically a perfect as you can be. I mean, the guy, the guy is a freak.

It's it's almost like a can't miss you know, can't miss target on him. But I've seen offensive lineman as they thought, look at Mandridge already thought, you know, I mean, so you win some, you lose some, and uh, and that's the way it goes in terms of the draft. But um, it's just it's it's great to get that the Pittsburgh Steeler weight off your shoulders, you know, get it off your back. I mean that that thing was starting to get i mean too heavy. It was almost

almost unbearable. And I can't imagine how happy that locker room was. I mean I remember, you know, I remember locker room celebrations. I mean the biggest locker room celebration that it'll always be in my mind. Obviously, it was the out of the Freezer Bowl when we beat the Chargers going to the Super Bowl, and I was like, I you know, it was like a dream. It's like this can't be happening. Plus I was frozen stiff every everybody.

Everybody was like a popsicle trying to thaw out. But so there were there are a lot of things going on there um, but yeah, that it. There's like Tiger Tiger Johnson said to me one time, he said, you know, do this as long as you can, because you're never ever going to have feelings in any other occupation in the world than you're going to have in this one. The friendships, the enemies, the hate, the love, the physicality,

he said, on a day to day basis. Man, he said, it's it's a heck of a ride, and you got to think about doing it as long as you can. And he was right. Old Tiger was right, man. It's it's unbelievable. Christmas came four days early. Christmas came four days early. Ben oh ho ho Ben Up. Next, the final road game of the year is the Bengals head to Houston to face the Texans. Houston is four and ten after a seven point loss to the Colts on Sunday. The Texans have one eight of the last nine meetings

with the Bengals, including a pair of playoff wins. The Bengals Booth Podcast is presented by bud Light Seltzer. It's light and refreshing with a hint of fruit flavor. Now time for this week's fun Facts segment, where you get to know the person under the pads. Time for some fun facts with linebacker Josh Bines, a native of Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Was football always your sport or were you one of these guys who was a standout and everything you ever? Did?

You know, I'm gonna standout and everything I did? Actually, I was actually really good in basketball, and also I ran track in high school as well, so I was, you know, a multiport athlete for sure, and that was pretty decent in all of them. Your grandfather was a linebacker, Your dad was a linebacker. Did you have an understanding of xs and o's at a really early age as

a result, Yeah, I would definitely say so. My dad was very pivotal in that point in my life, especially as I got older into high school and linebacker was definitely my position. He definitely took the time and talk to me about simple things, especially talking about just the simplest controlling a defense, being that leader and a lot of those things obviously was natural to me, but just the simple things about playing the position and how to see and had the vision and when you back there.

And my dad was very pivotal, you know, in that time frame of my life, and obviously I took some of what he taught me and ran with it along the way into the NFL. We're doing fun facts with Josh Bines. You are a highly talented recruit. Did you enjoy the attention and do you have a great recruiting story. I don't know if I have a great recruiting story per se, but it was a lot, you know. I

honestly was just playing football because I loved it. And my brother was a really good quarterback, so he was getting recruited a year before. And I've seen all the recruits, the coaches and everybody coming to the house to bring him to the schools, you know, the Louisville, Florida, any school you can name, and and of course, you know, I'm sitting there in my mind like, you know, hopefully it's like that for me. Yeah, it's my big brother

going through. I'm hope it's like that. And then I ended up ended up turning out to be like crazy, like I had coaches every week, my phone blow up. Um one thing I do remember vividly. It's just coming thinking about this now is closer to call all kinds of times of the night, and my mom, of course we're sleep and my mama answered the phone and she was just yelling like, don't call my house this lad,

it's too late. He's sleep. He got school tomorrow and hangled the paul because it was it was like it was a lie. It was like literally, recruiting was two times crazier from my brother went to me because my recruiting level was about higher. So you chose Auburn. You were recruited by an assistant coach named Eddie Grant who's now the offensive coordinator at the University of Kentucky, and your head coach when you signed with Auburn is about

to become a US senator, Tommy Tubberville Ille. What was your reaction to seeing coach tubs run for and win a Senate seat. I don't know. I just couldn't believe it when I seen it on Twitter and online and stuff, and I was like, Tommy Tuberville is going up a senator? What is going on? I just remember him being my coach. What thirteen years ago when I first came to Auburn. Now he's the Senator of Alabama. That's crazy. We're doing

fun facts with Josh Bines. While you were at Auburn, you met a volleyball player named Brianna Johnson who became your wife. How did the romance begin? Oh, my gods, the romance. It was just that was my best friend honestly in college. We hung out every single day from

day one. She was literally one of the first couple people I met on campus, and that summer before the summer of two thousand and seven, and just we became close and we stayed close throughout those whole the entire you know, Tim, we was in Auburn and all of a sudden, you know, we just I was like, hey, you know, you know, can we make this work as

you know, me and you? And obviously we did at this point and we've been married now six over six years now, and that's the best decision, definitely I ever made. You have three sons, they have athletic DNA. Yes, I got three boys, one is ten five and a nine month old right now, and yes, my boys there there everything to me and they right now, my older son's playing baseball. Actually, both my boys are are doing baseball, and and obviously if it wasn't COVID right now, I'm old,

it is probably doing football this fall. But hopefully we get through that and he can get back to that. And he played basketball as well, so they have definitely have some athletic DNA to live live after. But I'm just happy to whatever they decide to do, I'm all for it. Josh, you had a great career at Auburn. You earned all SEC honors, and yet you weren't drafted. How much did that hurt? It was tough for me.

It was hard because you know, I feel like, um, my junior year, I was definitely um, you know, in a position to be drafted, and I thought about leaving earlier. My junior year I went undrafted, and and it just, you know, it should propelled me to mentally just go out there and just do what I have to do

to survive and make a team, especially in Baltimore. I was the biggest goal, was just trying to prove myself that belong in this league and prove that, you know, I could play this game for a long period of time. We're chatting with Josh Bines. So you did sign with the Ravens as a college free agent. They let you go at the end of training camp before putting it on the practice squad. But that didn't happen for a

couple of months. What did you do in between? I was looking for a job, like you know, like normal people, you know, trying to figure out my next phase. I was actually the day I signed with Baltimore, I had got an interview with Kaplin University as academic visor. And literally that day I came home, I got a phone call, still had my suit on everything. I got a phone call from Azzi. Gazzi knew something. He told me. He said, you don't gotta wor out. You gonna do anything you

want to bring you back to Baltimore. And I was just in tears. I couldn't believe it because I was like, I thought it was over my life, you know. I was like, man, I made the decision. I'm gonna move forward. I'm still gonna work out of sub stage shape. But I was moving forward my life in and I'll be It's crazy enough that one called lead me to ten years later. So you were about to take a job as an academic advisor, and Ozzy called that day. Yeah,

same day, literally got home. All I had, all I did was loosing my tie, and all of a sudden Ozzy be on the phone, on the phone with Ozzy, and I just started boom, crying and getting and all of a sudden went from that to all right and

let me get ready in pack. And but I honestly, I wasn't all the way all the way through it, because I told you, I can't remember her name exactly now, but I told her to the person interview with me, and I told her, I said, let's just hold the job for me and just in case, because this is this game isn't forever, so I might need it in an off season, maybe in a few weeks, and I'll never forget. She told me, She told me God has another plan for you. You won't have to worry about this,

and you go ahead and keep doing your thing. You're gonna be in a You're gonna be in the NFL for a long time. I mean I literally talked to her that interview and for her to say that, you know, um, ten years ago and it's still it's like you said, I'm still playing. It's just it's just it's just it's just crazy and that's just guys will just guys will over me. We're doing fun facts with joh Spines. Your second NFL season ended with a Super Bowl ring, but

it started with a very serious injury. What happened, Yeah, so in practice in training camp, we're in our first or second padded practice and guy hit me in the baging gold line, live gold line, right in the middle of my back. And I get up and I just, you know, I'm thinking, now, I'm okay, she got hit in the back, and all of a sudden that the right side I believe it was, wasn't My leg wasn't really moving. So I ended up going to training room.

And once I went to training room and put some ice in my bag and it was over with and I couldn't really walk. It was so much pain or I didn't know what was wrong, And and my fiance say, well, now, wife. Of course, at the time I'm calling her, she's you know, trying to figure out what's gonna want to need to do. And I told I said, it might not be the big of a deal. And then obviously I do the

X rays and do everything else. And if I didn't tell me, oh, I had fractured my lord trainverse processors and I was like what it's like, yeah, your lower back and I was like, broke my back. I was like yeah. So it was crazy because I was like, am I still gonna play? As all my mind was like am I still be able to play football? And as it's over for me? So that was my biggest obstacle during that whole time mentally trying to figure out I'm still gonna play this game. So broken back is

not an injured shoulder. You're not upping about doing your thing. I mean you're laid out. How bad was that? Oh? It was bad. It was bad. And like I said, luckily I have have my my then at toime fiance and my now wife. She was there all the way through. She um and I couldn't even get out of the bathroom, get out the bed to go to the bathroom. So I had a big old jug next to my bed just so I could turn sideways to use the bathroom. I know it's too much affation, but I just all

I had. I couldn't do anything. It was painful, and you know I was I was trying and trying. She would get my ice and try to take care of me and she You know, when you have somebody that does that all for you, and those and those moments when you're down and trying to figure things out and what's going on, you know, I'm just blessed to have someone like that in my life, still to this day and for the rest of my life. And that's why I said, that's the greatest decision I ever made, is

Mary and my wife. So you got healthy. The Ravens made it to the Super Bowl. They beat the forty nine ers, and you made a special team's tackle that ended the game. And just to set the scene for people that don't remember, the Ravens took an intentional safety at the end of the game and had to do the free kick. They kick it to the very dangerous

Ted Gin Junior, and he was going. He ran about thirty yards before you got him to the ground, right, yes, yes, And it was nervous because it's ted again and tied again. At that time, was one of the most dangerous at turners. And we was like, all right, we thought somebody would get him early. But now he started going to the sideline and obviously when he got into my grass, I just slung him down. Ball came out and he just

knew it was game over. And I think it's just crazy to start the year that I had, I couldn't really do anything, you know, with my back, and all of a sudden the years to start and I still, you know, getting through my injury finally even a practice too. From practice actually starting that year to trying to you know, starting my first NFL game, making playing a lot more, and then go from that to actually making last type

of the super Bowl. It's just it's just a crazy moment and I can't really as just as suddenly you know, you're writing a storybook or something, just you know, took my kids, hopefully as they get older, and they were thinking somebody else when it's really just me, all right. A few wild card questions to wrap up fun facts with Josh Bines. When's the last time you had short hair? Oh?

Short hair? The last time? Probably short hair. I had to be an elementary And the only reason I got short hair is because I was as smart as I was. I got it had I got in trouble for maybe getting in trouble at school, maybe a little angry problems here and there. Well, but so I got a couple of fights in here and there. My dad was like, Okay,

so we're gonna keep doing that. So eventually cut my hair like really low to almost looking bald, and I was embarrassed, and of course my mom didn't let it have to get so I've always pretty much for us outside of that. I think that's why been third grade. But since that time, I've always from a little kid all the way, I've always had hair frow to the Jerry curl place back in the day, to braids and then bradies went to what I have now Jerry's for

the last thirteen or so years. All right, final fun fact for Josh Bines. If you could meet anybody in history, athlete, entertainer, statesman, whatever, Oh, who would that person be? That's so hard, But honestly, it has to be Obama at this point, it has to be Obama. Obama is the greatest and and what he represents and him him Michelle have a great connection and what they have inspires even me and my wife.

And when you have that bond with someone else as unbreakable and they show it and you can tell as authentic and what he represent as a man and especially lead his nation is during his presidency. Is just awesome and definitely be a person I would love to meet. You're off the hot seat, appreciate your time. Thank you very much, and best of luck the rest of the year. Thank you so much for having me. I'll appreciate it.

That's going to do it for this episode of the Bengals Booth Podcast, brought to you by bud Light Seltzer. Refresh the game. If you haven't done so already, please subscribe, and if you have a minute, give it a rating or share a comment that helps more Bengals fans find this podcast. I'm Dan Horde. Thanks for listening to The Bengals Booth Podcast.