Bengals Booth Podcast: If This Is It

on from Kevin Huber. We'll also look at why the running game was so much better last week and update you on a couple of key players who appear ready to return from injuries after the bye. And finally, I'll chat with Paul Hyrons from the Bengals Fan Club in the United Kingdom about their recent visit to Cincinnati. 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 lay this 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 The Offer. I'm a huge fan of the movie The Godfather. If I'm flipping channels and Godfather one or two is on, I'm definitely going to watch at least thirty minutes, even though I've seen each

one approximately one thousand times. Well, recently, I've been watching a series on Paramount Plus called The Offer, and it's about the development and filming of the first Godfather movie. It's told from the perspective of the movie's producer, Albert Ruddy, and I don't know how realistic it is, but the making of the movie was a lot like the movie itself. The critics reviews have been mixed, but I think it's great. If you love The Godfather, I bet you'll love The Offer.

Now let's get to football. I've gotten to know Kevin Huber's folks over the years that I joke with them that I might have seen Kevin punt in person more than they have since I called his games home and away for his entire career at you see end have done the same for most of his career with the Bengals. Kevin is without question the best punter in team history and has played in a franchise record two hundred and sixteen regular season games, but there's at least a chance

that he won't make it to two seventeen. So far this year, the fourteen year vet has not punted up to his high standards. He ranks next to last in the league in punting average and net average. Here's special teams coordinator Darren Simmons. Well, think he's been he's been struggling a little bit. That's that's no secret. And I think he'd be the first to tell you that. He made a pretty good analogy. He said, he's he's great

on the practice range. He's not taken to the first heat and he's been His practice has been pretty solid, His pregame warmups has been solid. He's just not taken to the game. And I think as you get older, you know, your margin for air becomes really small. Some of these guys are that are real strong and real powerful of young young legs, you can get away with some things, can get away with the get off times being a little slow, get away with the drop not

being the exactly the right spot. They can adjust and you know, his his margin frere with some of that stuff is just it's just reduced, you know, compared to what it used to be with true un practice squad. Is the buy a time to evaluate where things stand. Well, I mean, like I said, we we've constant consummate evaluating this whole thing. Um, our plunny game obviously, our playing games got improved. Um, you know, we're not We're not getting out of it when we need to get out

of it in terms of flipping the field. And so someone will take a look at over over this bye week and try to figure out what the best thing is going forward. Just to clarify, is it possible that when the Bengals return from their bye week next Sunday that Drew Chrisman is their punter at Pittsburgh? Well, you know, I don't know. That's something we'll talk about. I'll think about. You know, we've got whatever it is, howby days to

figure that out. Um, you know, but this is something that's that's sort have been building over some time, you know for sure, And we got to do something and to you know, put her team in a good spot to control field position, and we've got to be better with that. Darren went on to say that holding for field goals and extra points will not be a factor in the decision. He's confident that Chrisman can do a

solid job as a holder. It's all about punting. Drew average forty nine point six yards in the preseason, but his net average of thirty eight point six is only slightly better than Huber's current net average of thirty seven point four. I caught up with Chrisman in the locker room this week, so Darren told us yesterday that the punting situation will be evaluated during the bye. Did you

see those comments and what were your thoughts? Yeah, I didn't see him, but I mean, obviously I've been here the whole season and thoughts are just prepared every week as if you're going to play. That's what I've been doing the whole time. So really nothing changes, and you know, get some extra work and this buy work on some things that we need to work on, and then yeah, we'll see what next week brings. Does it add a little intrigue for the next week or two for you?

I mean, of course, I mean every week's you know, full opportunities. You know, lots of things happen around the league, injuries every so you know, opportunities pop up. But you know it's uh, man'd be awesome that happened here for sure. I know you have the utmost respect for Kevin. The way Darren described it yesterday, Kevin feels like he's been practicing well and then like a golfer, it doesn't take it out to the first team. Has that been your observation, Yeah,

I mean it's it's tough. I'm not in issues, and I know, I know for a personal experience, you know, playing you might have a great warm up, that doesn't necessarily mean you're gonna have a great game. You know, it's uh doesn't always. I mean the game and situation. You know, you feel that drill and pumping a little more and everything. You know, sometimes you know your steps are a little off, dropped a little inside, and the nature of our position just an inch you know off.

It contains the whole whole matter of the operations. So um, yeah, I mean I would say that's pretty sound. Have you been doing anything in particular to improve in practice in the pregame warm ups, etc. Yeah. From you know, taking this opportunity, no one I wasn't going to be playing. You know, the first couple of weeks I've been able to tweaks some things in my form and things I didn't like in the preseason, and improve some areas that I knew that I needed some improvement. And I feel

pretty comfortable where I'm not right now. For sure. I haven't studied every practice squad, but I don't think every team has a punter on the practice squad. What does it mean to you that the Bengals thing highly enough of you to want to keep you here for when that day comes? Now, it's been great, Yeah, I mean this is this is pretty rare. I would say, Yeah, I'm not sure too many other teams do that, just to carry a punter throughout the season, maybe for a

week or two something flares up, but not continually. And I think that, you know, that goes to show kind of what I did in the preseason, you know, knowing that I was close and so has some things that work on and just you know, waiting for the right opportunity. Kevin Huber's thirty seven years old, but it's worth pointing out that last year his punting average and net average

were slightly better than his career numbers. Will find out soon if he'll be given the chance to show that this is only a slump, or if the Bengals decide to make a switch to a lesser extent. Evan McPherson is also in a slump. In the last two games, He's missed forty seven and forty eight yard field goal tries and a thirty three yard extra point. But Darren Simmons doesn't sound too concerned about money. Mac. You know,

you can't dwell on anything too much with him. You have to let good or bad roll off his back and let him go out and react and go to the next kick. You know, I thought that came into play here go in the playoffs. You know, he had a practice I think he missed seven kicks and one practice and you know, came back and you know, made all madile these four field goals in the game. So yeah, it's I'm a little concerned about it, but I'm trying not to make too big of a deal about it.

And you know, it's something he's going to get worked out here over the course of mixt couple of weeks. Even if Early had seven misses in a practice, that's not embellishment. That's no embellishment. That's that's real. What's he that a practice record. This is something that's really got you. Um, yeah, I think it's a record that's a lot of misses. No, uh, it was it was one practice he had a couple. It was he had a couple of bed he hits during a row, and so we're not in on that one.

And he missed again. I said, we're not in on that one. And he missed again, and I'm not in on that one, and he missed again, And after seventh one, I said, right the hell with this. We're done. We're done. The Bengals Beak Podcast is brought to you by Cattering Health, the official healthcare provider of the Bengals. With more than one hundred and twenty care facilities and fifteen hundred care providers, Cattering Health is committed to guiding you to your best health.

Visit cattering health dot org to learn more. Sometime during the second quarter of last Sunday's broadcast, I made a prediction that came true. I'm not claiming you'd be Nostradama, as it was an easy call. I said that Joe Mixon would be named the AFC Offensive Player of the Week. First and goal from the three officially Burrow takes the snap, gives it to Mixon, show is into the end zone. Touchdown, Bengals,

Joe Mixon half and a half. That's his second touchdown of the afternoon, and the Bengals are up by three t ds. And you're saying, Joe Mixon a Pro Bowl caliber running back? When is the day coming? This has been a get right day. Mix and rushed for one hundred and fifty three yards on twenty two carries and caught four passes for fifty eight more. His two hundred eleven yards from scrimmage marked a career high, and his

five total touchdowns is a new franchise record. The Bengals entered that game ranked thirtieth in the league and rushing at a meager eighty one yards per game. They nearly tripled that against the Panthers, running for two forty one. Here are center Ted Carriss and offensive coordinator Brian Callahan. I think we're getting there. Yeah, I think yesterday was who we want to be. And if we can continue to run the ball like that with nine and as our QB, it'll be hard to, you know, stop us.

I think that'll be a great addition to our offense. If we can continue to run the ball for you know, over one fifty would be a good mark, but you know that's going to come down to performance on Sundays, and really we did our best yesterday, so hoping to do it again for the eight game stretch we have coming up. Joe finally ran with the demeanor and the passion and the energy and the things that he's always done, finally showed up this week, you know, and it broke tackles,

ran hard, ran aggressively, you know, made it. He was a tough out for the Panthers defense this week and hopefully that's that's what Joe is for the rest of the rest of the season going forward. But um, you know,

he breathed a lot of life into the plan this week. Obviously, it's it all looks good on a chalkboard down and drawing and presenting it to the team, but when you got going out and you know, blocking defensive ends like Trent Taylor did and tb did, and Joe making people miss and running for yards and running people over, it makes it look a lot better. So that's what happened.

Speaking to Brian Callahan, he addresses the team every Saturday morning and according to Mix, and did an especially good job of getting the guys ready to go for the Carolina game. He had a head of a meeting on Saturday, and the way that you could just tell, like the hunger and everything in his eyes. And we had a

great preparation all week. But the way that Callaghan he was getting at us on Saturday, and I just loved how he came in with an edge and that meeting and basically everything that he said, we made it happen today, So we spoke it into existence. I asked Brian about his speech. I'm glad that he felt that it was effective. I don't know that. I'm too many pregame speeches or meeting speeches have won too many games. He went out and played really well, which is all that really mattered.

But yeah, I mean my Saturday mornings are kind of a recap of the week, what the plan is going forward, how we're going to play the particular game we're getting ready to play on Sunday, And most of the time it's it's practice clips and you know, kind of spliced them with the game clips and just so we show how we're going to attack a team and things that we think are going to look work well and all

those types of things. And then I usually try to have some sort of message, And you know, it's our job as coaches is to try to have a message that can be digestible, relatable, something that has an impact. And some weeks it's something a little more funny and lighthearted. Some weeks it's some movie clips we use a lot of I've used a lot of different documentaries, sports documentaries, just you know, just have some other voice in perspective

on whatever the topic might be. So I've done a lot of them over four years, and I appreciate that Joe Joe felt like that will made an impact on Saturday. But you know, it's just sort of part of part of the normal weekly routine. And again, if maybe some of some have probably fallen pretty flat over the years, and some of some of them I think of have been better than others. But you have to ask the guys and what they think and if if they're really as good as I think they are, as bad as

they can be. Sometimes I try to keep it as entertaining as possible, but um, you know, it's a pretty normal part of the week and normal routine, normal Saturday meeting, and I thought the message this week it was probably a little more aggressive than others, but it was it seemed to have resonated, so that's good. I don't know what he said, but I hope he has something similar planned for Pittsburgh. The Bengals Booth podcast is brought to

you 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. Now let's get to an injury update. The Bengals have not had DJ Reader in the lineup since he suffered a knee injury in Week three against the Jets, but the team is optimistic that he could return after the bye. I asked defensive coordinator lou Anna Romo about the big man

in the middle of his defense. All Right, your poised to potentially get some reinforcements back after the bye, most notably DJ. Is that your hope? Yeah, I hope. So I think he's on track, you know. So I'm running around out there this morning and looking good. So hopefully he'll he'll stay trend in that way, and you know, just give us a great lift when he gets back, you know, really really hard to block one on one in the run game, and gives you more rush than

you would think from a guy his size. So and then just his leadership out there on the field, he's a dominating force. Her football focus has DJ graded as the second best interior defensive lineman in the league this year. He's one spot behind Chris Jones of the Chiefs and one spot ahead of Aaron Donald. Quarterback Mike Hilton missed last week's game against Carolina after tearing ligaments and fracturing the pinky finger on his left hand in three places

in the Monday night game at Cleveland. He had surgery the following day and says he'll definitely be back next week in Pittsburgh. I find this hard to believe, but some people apparently question Mike's toughness when he was ruled out of last week's game. Hall of famer Ronnie Lott famously had the tip of his pinkie finger amputated in order to play in a playoff game, but Lott says he regrets doing it, and I seriously hope that nobody

expected Mike Hilton to do the same thing. Mike saw some criticism on social media and sent out a tweet saying, l L y'all think I quit on my team? Folks are hilarious. Here's what he had to say about that tweet. You know how people are, They think just because it's a pinky compared to what people do get back in the day. I got all the little Ronnie Lot stories.

That's cool and all, but this is twenty twenty two. Like, I'd rather be healthy for the back end of the season than we entered myself in put the team in the worst position. So I got those dems and now there. I just laughed and put that tweet out, But I'm ready to go out. I'm RuSHA good Never consider cutting it off. Oh no, no, no, that's not going to cross my mind. Hey, I respect to running a lot. You know you're great, But that's not from pound. Mike

Hilton is among the toughest players in the NFL. The Bengals Booth 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 all to fiber. Now time for something a little different. One of the best things about the Bengals two trips to London has been meeting Bengals fans from all over the world, and one of the

most dedicated is Paul Hyrns. The name might sound familiar. Paul was one of the leaders of the Bengals fan club in the UK and co host the popular Cincinator podcast, which follows the Bengals from an international perspective. Paul and a large group of Bengals fans from overseas were at the game last Sunday and Cincinnati and I had a chance to talk to him about their visit this week. Paul, how many Bengals fans made it to the US for this trip and how did this adventure come about? Well,

to answer your first question, it was twenty five. How it came about, I think there was always as the fan group grew, there was always kind of talk about we should go away, we should all get together and

go away. But there was no really I mean, frankly, I wasn't going to underwrite that trip and there, but there was always like we should go And of course one or two mates came over together and there was you know, a few pockets of Bengals fans from the UK came over on their own steam, but then COVID happened that kind of shelved everything. And then this year a company in the UK called Touchdown Trips. I'm sure you can guess what line of work they came to for.

They called me and said, listen, you know, we the Bengals are one of the only clubs that we've not been to. We've been to pretty much every NFL club in the US, but so we did like a bit of an exercise where we contacted the clubs that we've never been to, and the Bengals kind of said, yeah, we'd love to help out and make this happen. And then he asked me, would we be interested in aligning or kind of joining together in a loose arrangement and calling it a Bengals UK trip, And I said, well,

let's go for it. I was a bit I wasn't sure what the interest was going to be because you know, moneys are very tight at the moment, times are tough. I needn't of worried. Really, the interest was like sky high. So yeah, in the end, twenty five people came of that group of twenty five who had been to Cincinnati before. If anybody, Oh, there's a good question, let me think. Maybe maybe me. So this is my third time here,

very lucky and very privileged to have done that. Another guy had been once, I think so, yeah, only kind of two of us. Yeah. So I am a fan of Leicester City in the Premier League and the first time the Bengals went to London in twenty sixteen, I went to one of their matches. It was at Tottenham and it didn't seem real to me. I had been watching Jamie Vardy and Casper schmike goal on TV and they had won the Premier League title of the year before.

It was like a movie. Was it like that for the Bengals fans who came to the US for this game and watched the game last Sunday? Oh? I mean yeah. The short answer is yes. The slightly longer answer, I mean I wept when I first came over and saw Paul Brown Stadium as it was cooled. It is emotional, and I believe you met a guy called Tom a couple of weeks ago who put a video on social

media with him bawling his eyes out. It means so much to people and as soon as we got into town and checked into our hotel, I said, look, you know, pay court. I mean it's just there and everyone's gonna like, okay, we go and it so it wasn't like it wasn't kind of like like a virgin touch for the very first time for me personally, but still it felt surreal and it just I kind of exhaled and think, there she is, there, she is. Um. But those guys were

kind of like in awe. UM. I have to say, this stadium looked different, brighter, more lights, and I think that goes in you know, it's in line with everything Elizabeth and her team have done. So it looks spectacular. And those guys do you know what. It was kind of like being a dad giving a Christmas present to a child on Christmas Day and watching their faces open it. You know, it was just brilliant. They were just like oh,

you know, they were really really taken aback. And I'm sure your listeners might be thinking, well, why, it's because we we watched these games often on a laptop. You just don't think it's it's ever an option to be here and experience it firsthand, and then you kind of you know, this long distance relationship that we have. It really fosters a very kind of quite intense bond. So to actually be here is a very emotional and surreal

experience for a lot of people, me included. Still, you know, we're chatting with Paul Hireens from the Bengals UK fan Club. What were some of the highlights of the entire adventure because coming to the game was not the only thing that this group of twenty five did. Yeah, it was. I mean, it was a whirlwind weekend. Um, they had some free time on on Saturday morning and Monday morning. That's it. Obviously, everything was optional. They could do what

they wanted. But um, yeah, and I kind of I kind of did this fat pack, you know, guide to over the rhyme, guide to Covington, guide to the breweries you can go and visit, guide to Family Orientated Adventures. No, no, no, everyone discarded that completely. All they wanted to do was spend money in the pro shop since the shirts or Cox Sports, you know. So the next time I saw them, there was like huge kind of trash liners full of hundreds of dollars of merchandise. You know, a couple of things.

We went to see the bear Cats on on Saturday. That was a really great experience. One of our team members that you know, as we're talking earlier, Um is as big a bear Cats fan as he is a Bengals fan. So to see his face when he got to be inside Nippet Stadium seeing the Bearcats was was really special. And that was a very special experienced full stop. You know, the tradition and the I mean, I don't know how you do it. Each week, Dan, this it's bonkers.

He's a fantastic and that's why it's fantastically bonkers. The band, then there's football, there's band, then you've got some sort of weird physical challenges. So it's kind of part game show, part live gig, and then part football thing is it was amazing. It was just fantastic to be there. Obviously, the main event, obviously was was Sunday, So we got down to the tailgates at eight am and had a great time down there and just being there was terrific.

I will mention one very special thing that happened. There was a guy and his partner. No, I'm going to leave this very quickly. One of the special things that happened. Two of the guys on the tour brought their sons with them, So one guy bought his twelve Andrew brought his twelve year old son Felix, and Nick brought his seventeen year old son Ben. And I thought that was just fantastic and just seeing them go about the town together. And I think it was a really special trip for

those guys in terms of a father son relationship. But then, as if you're thinking about the main event in terms of itinery it was the Bengals game quite obviously, but the main event in terms of things that happened. One of our guys, Joe, Joe Jones, I'm sure he won't you mentioned him proposed to his partner in Russia on the banks of the River Ohio before the game. Thankfully she said yes, that would have been to the story. No no, no no no, And they are such a lovely couple,

you know that that kind of bought a lump. It was like that share the icing on the cake to end the whole trip. It was fantastic, and now all other proposals pale in comparison. Well, we kind of said, what are you going to do for your wedding? You know, you've got to go on the pitch at paycor to kind of tie the knot. But no, it's fantastic. Paul. What was the Super Bowl viewing experience like for you with the time difference, were you together with fellow Bengals fans?

How did you pull that off? Oh? My goodness, me, how did I still ask that question today? We had it? So I think I think I speak for most Bengals fans when I say that it was unexpected to get to the Super Bowl. I think everyone knew that we had a very talented team and we should be more competitive last year, maybe challenge for the division. But you know, a momentum is everything in sport and confidence and if

you've got those two together. So I was actually quite confident against the Raiders and the Titans actually, but you had the Chiefs in our head. Come on. Now. We were in a little bar in London, kind of a restaurant come bar called Cincinnati Chili Bomb. A British guy used to live in Cincinnati has opened. It's nothing like Cincinnati Chili, but he's that's his brand. And we got in touch and said, well, you know, we've got to have the meet up there, right And it was one

of the most I will never forget that night. It was like forty fifty people packed into this small bar. It was nuts. It was absolutely nuts. And then we obviously got to the Super Bowl. Absolutely mayhem, absolute grown men crying in the street. It was that kind of evening. And then a day later it was like, oh, we're in the super Bowl. We've got to do a Super

Bowl party, haven't we. So what followed was probably the most intense and heck week of my life, trying to keep my day job but also trying to find a venue to host a super Bowl that would start around midnight and finished around half past three on Monday morning. Licensing is a bit different over in the UK, so trying to find a place that had a license to serve booze on that early on a Monday morning Sunday into Monday. We found one eventually, thanks to the help

of several people in the Bengals UK leadership group. It was a pub in central London. We took it all over, three floors. We decked it all out in kind of jungle foliage and orange and black. The staff wore Bengals T shirts. They had Bengals bombs at the bar. You know,

three floors packful of Bengals fans. It's one of the honestly one of the greatest achievements of my life putting that on such a short space of time, obviously with the help of the guys in the group, and it was a fantastic night as well apart from those final seconds. So yeah, it was. I always said if the Bengals got back to Super Bowl, because I was a teenager

when when they last got to the Super Bow. I always said, do you know what going to the super Bowl with all the expense, and I'm not really a flashy guy. I don't care about, you know, all the hoopla and whatnot. I would rather come to Cincinnati to kind of experience it with Cincinnati and somewhere in a in a bar somewhere or whatever, watch parties somewhere. But I didn't. I just stayed with my people in the UK and we had an incredible time, incredible time, three

stories worth of fans. We absolutely Yeah. So Paul, has Joe Burrow become a star in the UK? Yeah, everyone knows who Joe is. I think you know, as I said, you'd been to the UK a few times. You know that the sport has gone from cult status to almost mainstream status, I think, and so people are clued up. And I think, you know, with the Bengals, with their helmets and the jerseys, they're very recognizable. Yeah. Absolutely, Joe.

Joe is a star I think globally, not kind of maybe on the Brady Rogers kind of level, but you know, sports fans generally will probably know who Joe Burrow is. Yeah. So, the NFL added a seventeenth game last year, and now it's been decided that that's going to be the international game. So every eight years, an NFL team will give up a home game and that so called seventeenth game against the team from the other conference will become an international game.

So the Bengals are theoretically due next year they will host a team from the NFC North so Minnesota, Green Bay, Detroit, Chicago, and that game could very easily be London or Germany or somewhere internationally. Are your fellow UK fans eagerly awaiting the possibility of this announcement? Yeah, I mean, goodness to me again. I'll go back to the fact that you've experienced this. It is an incredible experience, I think, and

I think he would agree with that, wouldn't you. Absolutely, It's one of the highlights of my Bengals broadcasting career. Doesn't compare to doing the Super Bowl, but those two London games have been absolutely fantastic in my yeah, And I think part of that. I mean, the game is almost a separate thing entirely if your listeners don't know,

each visiting team gets allotted a pub. So the Bengals pub in London the past, that past two times they've visited has been the Admiralty, just off the famous Travauga Square, Right, You've got Announces a column, you've got the National Gallery,

and you've got this pub called the Admiralty. And I think the first time I didn't know what to expect the first time in twenty sixteen, and I basically more or less went Thursday night and didn't leave until kind of two am on Sunday morning, then realize, oh good, oh there's a game today, you know. But what I mean it was bumper to bumper in there all the time. The American fans full respected, They've got it's a lot of money to travel, so they're super excited to be there.

We're mixing and drinking and singing songs and mostly derogatory songs about the Pittsburgh's dealers obviously, but you know, we made such incredible friends and we saw them at the tailgate. It's like, hey, how you do people go People from the UK go over and stay with people they met when they come over, will stay with people that they met in twenty sixteen. I'm going out for dinner with a couple tonight, I first in twenty sixty and to me,

that's why I do this fan group. It's all about the friendships that you create in the community that springs from it. Um. It was just an incredible experience, bumper to bumper. Suddenly you can see Dave Lapham and his enormous hands and you're shaking them and you think you may be crushed, but he gives that amazing Lapham laugh and you're like, oh, I'll just hug you, Dave. I did do that, actually, But anyway, Anti Muna stayed and

talked to us outside for like thirty minutes. Kevin Hube was around, Darren urinated next to Darrenson in the toilet in the not in the streets. We're not animals, obviously, but so you know what I mean, there's kind of and Darren remembers me from that that sounds really weird, doesn't If he remembers me from exactly, I won't say anymore. Kive Hube remembers me. We've had him on our podcast before, and so it's it's those moments, Hey, you know I'm

here with you now. You've been always been very kind and friendly to us, and yeah, it was an incredible experience. Yeah, and then the second time Kenny Anderson was there throwing T shirts into the crowd, and it's just a brilliant two or three nights. And I think this trip just to bring it back around, this trip with the British Bengals, guys,

they're experienced something similar. You know, they've met people, they've swapped following each other on social media, they've swapped numbers, you know that kind of thing, and personally that that makes me really proud and actually quite emotionally it's really cool. The Jaguars play a game in London every year, so I know they have a big following. Do you have any sense of where the Bengals rank in comparison to most NFL teams for how many fans they have in

the UK. We shout very loudly and proudly, as you know, and people who follow us on Twitter and social media. It's really difficult to quantify. I think the Jags are a bit of an outlier because the actual club runs that and there's been no let's say that but anyway, the actual club runs that account and their social media and whatnot. But you know, we're like the fifth most followed team on social media in the UK, bigger than

a Cowboys, Bucks, Patriots, Steelers. Got to mention that all those guys, you know, teams that have been popular for decades, like the Dolphins, the Chiefs are quite and the Packers, you know, you would expect them to have large fan bases abroad. But we're getting there. But you know, it's difficult to know. I mean, I think I think we're up there, and the popular arty of well, the popularity that follows a Super Bowl run only helps grow the

fan base. You know. There's nothing like a winning team, you know, to do that. I think I think there's definitely a few thousand people in the UK that support the Bengals for sure. Yeah. Final thing, you're on my podcast, I've been on yours. You are the co host of a popular and really good podcast, the Since Nader Podcast that they say that properly Cincinnada podcast. You've had some a list guests. Yeah, what are some of your favorite episodes or or favorite guests that you've had? Well, the

one with Dan Hornell was pretty special. Now genuinely because you I asked you. I just you know, you have to ask the question right, and you were very good at doing this, very good for doing this. You did a bit of commentary, didn't you. So that was great featuring myself and my co host Nathan as players. Anyway, whatever, it was very funny and you were a great sport for that. When we started, we Nathan and I just

basically got drunk and swore and very unprofessional. Then we got Ken Anderson on and Jeff Hobson and we thought, oh, we're getting some really good guests here. Maybe we should just tone down like kind of you know, drinking and the swearing, which some would would ask us to bring that back, I think. But yeah, I think being British helps. I think if you call someone or get in touch with someone, say would you like to come on a British podcast, A British Bengals podcast, They're like, Okay, that

sounds weird, you know, that's a bit. We've had Zach on, Zach Taylor. We've had Darren Simmons, laps been on like half a Dazen a time. Jeff Hobbs has been on, pauled Dania and Jay Morrison had been done. Really great journalists, the players we've had, Jesse Bates, Andy Dalton, Carson Palmer, Um, let me think, t J Houshman Zada. I mean, the

list goes on. My personal favorites was Tommy Cook now doctor Tommy Cook, who played for the Bengal was only like a year I think in the late sixties, but of course he was the guy in the Olympics who rose his fist and I was super proud to have him on, especially as it was during the Black Lives Matter kind of campaign, and that was incredible. Genuinely, I was genuinely humbled to talk to him. We do an

International Women's Day special every year. We're lucky in terms of the fandom because we've got great female journalists, like we've had Rissa Contapelli, who's magnificent at last, Jesse as you know, those sort of guys Lindsay Patterson, who's brilliant. We had Zach's wife, Sarah Sarah Sherman on this year, who was fantastic, gave a really interesting insight into what it was like from a family point of view during the Super Bowl run. My personal favorite and was having

Sam Wycheon. He was an idol to me growing up, Like serious, you know, I had my players that I loved, but Sam was the man that I just looked up to. You know, I thought he was just a part aside from being a very innovative and fantastic coach and someone you would quite obviously run through a brick wall for just the kind of guy he was. He was funny, he was unpredictable, he was fiery, he was generous and benevolent, all those things wrapped up into one. So I love

the guy. Said. To actually get him on the podcast only a few years before he passed away was something something that I never ever dreamed of doing, and I developed a bit of a personal relationship with him. So yeah, that was that. I will never I mean, I'll never forget any of this because if you asked me thirty five years ago as a kid selecting the Bengals, as my team, that I'd be sitting here with you inside paycol Stadium in Cincinnati, I would have laughed in your face.

So it's just been such a brilliant ride and such a privilege to do. The Bengals often pull quotes out of this podcast and create graphics for social media. I'm going to recommend that I urinated next to Darren Simmons is now what they select from this particular podcast. But this was really enjoyable. It's so good to see you again. And I truly hope that on a Friday next fall, we're sitting next to each other in the Admiralty having a paint and we have you on one of our

Bengals radio shows. That would be a thrill for me. You know it, Dan, and that point is on me. You can guarantee it. Now what again, thank you for having me. Just to shout out to everyone in Cincinnati who has made us feel so welcome. It's blown people away. I've had text this morning from the guys who are now at home feeling very spundent to be at home, actually, but they were already saying it's one of the it's the best trip of their life, one of the moments

of their lifetime. So you know how you knew that supporting a sporting team could create this kind of level emotion of emotion and friendship and bond and all the rest of it. Say Yeah, I'm absolutely delighted to be here and I can't thank you enough. Thank you 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, They're free to play with tickets and signed merchandise up for grabs by paycor, 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. H