Bengals Booth Podcast: Start Me Up

or if he is going to get cut. Plus, in this week's fun facts segment, you'll get to know kicker John Brown, who made both of his attempts in the opener, a field goal and an extra point. And here's the kicker, no pun intended. It was the first time he had ever attempted a field goal or a pat in a game at any level. We'll find out how that's even possible.

All of that is straight ahead, but first, 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, or Google Play. It's the greatest invention since having a camera on your phone. Are you old enough to remember what it was like to lug a camera around, or worse yet, not have one

when you needed it. It's wonderful not to have to worry about that anymore, even if you're tired of seeing everybody's selfies, as was the case last year on this podcast, when we get to the regular season, I'll do in depth recaps of every game with radio replays and locker room interviews that we'll be posted in time for your ride to work on Monday morning. But since we're talking about the preseason opener, we'll keep it to one highlight.

Here's the game winning touchdown pass from Jeff Driscoll to rookie Auden Tate with two minutes and four seconds to go, second down and eight at the Bear's thirty three, Driscoll fakes to the right, looking around for a running lane. Now running backward, he'll throw deep off his back foot. Roden hey dud with a touchdown catch right at the goal line, going up and over Sean Franklin and using all of his six five frame to haul in the score.

How about Auden Tate just continues to make big plays again, contested catch John Franklin. The third falls to the ground. I mean, at that point it's over. Driscoll says, I'm going to Tate. Tate rewarded me. It was nullified by penalty offset penalty. But I'm telling you what this guy is a playmaker. Auden Tate was the last of the bengals eleven draft picks this year, number two fifty three overall, he was almost mister irrelevant. There were only three draft

picks after him. But Tate is certainly in the mix to make the fifty three man roster. In short, he could go from number two fifty three to the fifty three. Now time to take an in depth look at the preseason opener with Dave Lapham as he agains his thirty third season in the Bengals radio booth. Lap time to review the preseason opener, the thirty to twenty seven win over the Chicago Bears. Let's start out with some guys

that stood out to you. Get me four on offense to begin with, well, first and foremost, I'd have to go with Andy Dalton, you know, not just the way he played six to eight hundred and three yards two touchdowns in a pick. Quarterback rating just under one hundred and seventeen. The pick was in his fault, as everybody knows, John Ross slipped coming out of his route, hits the deck and it's an easy read for fuller breaks in the football. He gets to pick six out of it.

But and he really should have been seven for eight for like one hundred and fifteen hundred and twenty yards. I mean that was he was open. Ross probably make the catch. I mean, so now he's got a quarterback raiding approach one hundred and thirty or whatever. Not only way he played, but as we saw Dan, it was to track me on and off the sideline. I mean they were stubb stuting personnel, different formations, and Andy has

just run on top of all of it. You have to have a quarterback that knows every nuance of it, exactly what's going on, to be the maestro, the conductor in the in the huddle, getting everybody on and off the field lined up properly, and then run the plane and execute it. And Andy, Andy's smartest the Dickens. I mean,

I have told the story a few times. I remember, you know, having him when he's a red shirt freshman, when he was at TCU playing against Texas at Texas and Gary Patterson's a head coach at TCU at the time as he is now, and I said to him the production and coach, man, you know, red shirt freshman quarterback down here against the Longhorns, and that's when Mac Brown had him rolling. They were good, good defense. He goes, Man, I'm telling you it might sound crazy, but that's at

least of my concerns. This guy's is mature as a red shirt senior. He said, we got we got you know, upper classman following him around, like you know, he's the lead duck and they're all the ducklings. And he said, he's smart at whip man. He's got it down. He knows everything, he knows what the defense is going to try to do to stop him. And so he's always had that football I and UM and talking to the

coaching staff you know that are involved with Andy. Coordinators, position coaches on down, all of them are like, man, it's it's one smart duck, so redheaded duck. Yeah. So I mean, I think I think that part of it is I think Andy's going to have a really good year if the offensive line plays Solow the in front of him as we've talked about Joe Mixon having that twenty four yard touchdown to me was remarkable on a couple of fronts. Not remarkable, but positive on a couple

of fronts. His ability, you know, after the catch, makes a corner linebacker miss and then you know, spins out on a cornerback and they detach them, just like the Newton Patriots we talked about, you know, detach those running backs. Mixing can run a route tree, Gio can run a route tree. These were These running backs are like receivers. They have those kind of that kind of skill set.

And Joe is the widest receiver in the formation and got a match up you know that was favorable in his in his way against the linebacker and you know, two of them. So I like that. So you saw all those kind of things you know from from Bill Laser, and then the players putting the players in positions to succeed getting favorable matchups, and then they reward him by executing it. That twenty four yard touchdown catch was beautiful. Think of beauty. AJ Green. He's pretty good, news flash,

he's good. This dude can play different spots in the formation, you know, different routes and He had two catches one twenty six yards to one twenty two yards. Two catches over twenty yards average twenty four yards to catch. That's AJ, you know. And one of them a shallow cross where he's just outrunning people. You get him at that level of defense, nobody can run with the guy. And then the back shoulder when the defender was running with him

a little bit. Andy and AJ are on the same page, almost mental philepathy, you know, the unspoken word put it back shoulder and a J makes a play. That was a tiny window that Andy Dalton delivered a perfect throat too, And that that's another thing about him. All through camp, Dan, he's been he's been hitting those those tight windows. He really has. He's he's been as accurate as I've seen him. He's had a remarkable camp. And I think it, I

think it translated. And then of course you have to go with odd and take you know, the thirty three yard touchdown. U. Every everybody on the sideline when we were talking doing lock him out to the game, They're like, we knew what was going to happen, you know, we were just waiting was nineteen gonna go up and get it? Like he has every practice and he's done it against you know, quality corners Drake ker Patrick and others. So who he's going against isn't you know, the top shelf

cornerback in the NFL. And he's trying to prove that he should have a roster spot. So he made a you know, great catches. He's a contested catch babn, huge catching radius, long arm, strong, hands six five twenty eight pounds. The question is, um Cody Corp played well on special teams. Cody core has proven he can play gunner. I don't think got In Take can play gunner. Too big, not enough speed. He may have to play inside some inside positions on special teams. Can he prove he can do that?

Because you know, Josh Malone has been nicked up, so Darren Simmons didn't want to use him on special teams and expose him to more with the hamstring problem. So he's shown he can do it. So these guys all play special teams, not just return but special teams coverage things, you know, so he's gonna have to throw his hat in that mix. But you know the way he can perform the red zone. You're thinking, can I find a

roster spot for him. I mean, can he do more than just red zone or third down things for us? Can he play some special team snaps? So that's what he's looking at down the road. Those are my offensive guys. Defense. Gino Adkins again, another news flash, he's pretty good. He's Georgia Bulldogs. Man, they've been good to the Bengals. He had that quarterback sack, causal holding penalty. He's just you know, you try to single him up. I don't care if

it's preseason, regular season, you know, playoffs, whenever. If you single him up, he will destroy you, and he did so watching him perform inside is you know, a defensive coordinator's best friend is a three technique that can man handle people, and Gino Adkins can do that. Carlos Dunlap the tackle he had was a tackle for loss, So it's like a quarterback sack. It's a disruption, it's a it's a it's throwing them off schedule. They're behind the chains.

So both of your Pro bowlers make players on the other side of the line of scrimmage, and coach Austin wants to play on the other side of that line of scrimmage and be aggressive and and have that translated into turnovers and all that sort of thing. So to see you know those guys who was impressive to watch Carl Lawson hustle. I mean, the guy motor City, you know, just ran down plays from behind Daniel on a on a scramble captain short of a first down quarterback he hit.

I think it was Tyler hitting in the arms. He was trying to release to football and causing incompletion by hustling. So to see him doing those kind of things was good and then didn't show up on the stat sheet. But watching Will Jackson play is fun to me. Smooth, confident, I mean, fluid. It's just he he has that mindset. Nobody's gonna beat me about the Bears testing him deep on the first play of the game. That yeah, that was that was interesting, and he's like, bring it on,

you know, that's fine, give me a pick. I'll be good with that. I think he's going to have. I think Mixing and Will are going to have big, big years, you know, breakout type years. I think they're both primed and ready for that. But watching him play that cornerback position, seeing a lot of good cornerbacks, you know, over the years with the Bengals and others around the NFL and his whole demeanor, mindset, length, speed. There's not a whole lot of people like him out in the streets. Man,

He's a rare, rare breed. There's no doubt. Special teams m Hardy Nickerson three tackles all in special teams tripled his production of last year. I mean he showed up on special teams. C J. Goodwin showed up. But Dan, you know, I would expect him to. You know, he's fast and he's experienced, been on other NFL teams, twenty eight years old, playing at the stage he was playing that in the game, I think he was he should dominate,

and he showed up. He did, he flashed. Now you have to now it comes to the chess match of okay, play who do I play against better competition to see a better evaluation. This guy dominated people that he should dominate. Now can he hang with the big boys? You know, let's graduate him from kindergarten to the next level of school. So that's that's the process. That's that's that's going on

now for the coaches and the players. Offensive line question for you, do you expect to see different starters on the line in game two, potentially, you know, you may have a situation where you know, Coach Pollock says, I just want to I just want to make sure. I just want to see, you know, Westerman stepped up big at the guard position. He to me, plays with the most explosiveness and power of those inside guys. He is a knee beender, a true kneebender. When you watch him

come off the ball, he is in. He's a coaching reel for the football position to be in to deliver a strong blow as an offensive lineman. And he's never bending, he's never leaning. I should say he's never leaning forward. When an offensive lineman's chain gets in front of his feet, you're in trouble. You can't lean in pass protection. You shouldn't lean in the running game. You have to be in a good power position, like a squat sitting position, explosive. And he does that as well as any or better

than anybody on the offensive line. And I've got to remember, he missed a few practices and lost twelve pounds. He had food poison. He lost twelve pounds, So he is feeling funky, you know. And I thought last year he finished the season strong physically, and you know, based on the way he performed, he may get a shot. He may get a shot at you know, at right guard,

um and see see what he can do. I thought, I thought Bobby Hart, you know, did find Bobby Hart has a tendency when I watch him, he has a tendency to lean like I'm talking about in pass protection when he and and it's a natural Tennessee, Dan, I mean, these guys are at the You're coming at you. They're going to deliver a blow. So you want to you want to go get them. You have to fight that you I can't. Don't don't over expose yourself, don't commit yourself.

It makes it easier for the defensive playoff. You have to be patient except those blows. I mean, give ground grudgingly. It's no fun being an old lineman. You're going backwards. These studs are coming and beating you up going forward. But that's why not many guys can play it. And so it's going to be interesting see how that how

that shakes down. One of the couple other things about the game, Dan, four, you get away from the first preseason game in the third quarter, there were two players that people aren't going to want to talk about much or notice much in a three point when the Bengals win thirty twenty seven, and it happened in the same drive. First and ten from the Bears eighteen yeard line, goes sixty nine yards, breaks it out to the right side, Brandon Wilson runs them down, saves four points. They have

to kick a field goal. If he doesn't make that tackle, Bengals lose a three point game. As it shakes down, he makes a four point saving tackle by just sheer speed. This kid, and he flashed on special teams that he can run. We saw him last year run. You saw him in college. The dudes a stud he's an athlete. And then later in that drive, second and twenty from the Bengals twenty three yard line, Brey overthrows Gentry wide open, I mean wide open by fifteen yards on any side

of him, and he's got to walk in touchdown. They have to settle for four three points again, so a four point overthrow. So on that drive they gave up. They spit the bid on four points two different plays. Early and late in that drive Bengals and Bengals keep at twenty three, twenty lead and ultimately win the game thirty twenty seven. So it's plays like that, you know that you look back on and say, man, you know, if either one of those go the other way, Bengals

don't win that first preseason game. And when you look at him like, man, yeah you don't, you don't really think of those as big plays because the defense gives up a big play, But it could have been bigger if Wilson doesn't hustle. For rookies playing in their first NFL preseason game, that's obviously very exciting. Then you come back a day or two later for reviewing the tape and getting graded by an NFL coaching staff, is that a big deal? It is? It is a big deal.

And I think most of the players I know I was as a rookie, I was my own worst critic. Even if I did a good job, I'm like, oh, man, I could have done that better. You know, you just it's like you you feel like you have to be perfect, and you know you can't get in your own head. That's the biggest thing. If you overanalyze it, you just you're gonna kill yourself. You won't be able to sleep at night. You're gonna have ulcers instead of win a job on a football team. And my rookie year, I

learned that valuable lesson. I was drafting third round Daryl White, the other All American guard from he was from Nebraska. We both get drafted in the third and fourth round to battle for a guard spot. We were on the AP All American team and I'd got an a normina and great guy. So we're going at it, and uh, six preceding games, first three, I'm playing a lot, you know, I'm getting my share of snaps. And then all of a sudden, all I'm playing is on the wedge on

the extra point field goal team. I'm like, oh, man, I must have not done as well as I thought, you know, And I thought maybe I was right. Maybe I should have been harder on myself when I was doing the self evaluation because the coach's grades must I must suck in those grades and those evaluations. So Darrell's playing and I'm not, and uh, I just getting married to Lynn, and you know, I'm calling Saved, Saved the classified ads. I'm coming home. I think I have to

be looking for a job. So last cut go into the room, and as it turns out, I couldn't find my desk. It put tape on the desk on the names of the players. Well, Stan Walters, our Syracuse boy, had hidden my desk in the closet. So I got in there. I thought I was cut the turk didn't. Frank Smiles didn't asking me for my playbook. I go in and get dressed. Now I'm embarrassed because I think

I'm gone. So I looked for Darrel. He's not there either, and uh, I find out I'll make it well like Paul Brown comes up to me after the meeting, says, congratulations, young man, I said, coach, I thought, don't think, I said, well, when I didn't play in the last week, don't think I don't think. We were getting taped from a film on Daryl. So we shopped him. He's a green Bay packer. We traded in green Bay, and so that was a

valuable lesson. Just play, keep your head down, play, don't overthink it, don't try to take on roles and responsibilities aren't yours. You just play. Coaches, coach general manners, decide who makes it and the owners and and then you just play. And as it turned out, Daryl get traded made the Green Bay Packers, So you know, you just you just never know. When you're in these preseason games,

you're not just auditioning for one team. You're a just thirty two teams, and the players all have to bear that in mind. Your competitive nature is I don't want to get caught. I don't want to get traded. I don't want them not wanting me. I want to be you know, I want to prove that I belong here. But you know, the jobs are competitive. There's only so many of them. You just can't get in your own head.

That's the biggest advice I can give. So following up on that, we know most of the guys that are going to be on the fifty three man roster, and so do they, But there are jobs at the bottom of the roster and on the practice squad that are well paying jobs. Even the lowest guy in the roster on the practice squad's going to make six figures. Here do the preseason games elevate the level of wondering where you stand on the totem pole if you are one of those guys, or are you doing that every single

day from the first day of training gap. It's funny when when you're in your own head, and I really figured out pretty quickly, I'm just not competing with the offensive lineman. If I'm toward the back end of the number of keeping eighth lineman and I'm the eighth guy, I'm competing with, you know, the sixth defensive back, the seventh line, I'm competing with the end of the roster of all those guys. So at that other linebacker and defensive back, they're all playing on special teams. I'm just

on the field goal extra point. You know. Now you start your mind starts racing, and I did. That was part of it in my head too. I'm like, I wonder if I'm the last lineman, am I they going to keep me over this other guy or this guy and this guy. So you do start thinking about all that. And I'm not saying everybody does. Um. Pat mcinelley, who

is a year behind me. After my rookie year, Pat mcinelley came to the team out of Habvid and he and I hit it off pretty well, and he always killed me for getting accepted and not going to Harvard. Beat the heck out of me. But he said that you know, I thought, you're smart. That's the stupidest thing anybody could do is get accepted and not go I beg to differ. You chose wisely, That's right, I said, Pat, Harvard's not the only institution of academia in this country, sou.

We would do, we would do a roster every single meet me in my room after dinner. Let's let's let's figure this out, and we would We just trying to, like, you know, try to plot and plant a little bit of maybe think, to try to think what the coaches were thinking. And we knew it was an exercise of futility. But we'd always bet on who could come up with the most players at the end of the year, and you know, just to fun exercise. But yeah, you do.

I mean you start thinking about what's the worst case scenario, what's my best case scenario, what's my worst case scenario, and then you know kind of go from there, let the chips fall as they may. You don't even the other thing. You don't even think about injury. I mean, at that age, it's impossible you don't get hurt. Man. You feel like you know you're invincible physically that way, and that's obviously, you know, a big consideration would be a concerned as well. But that's one thing I never

ever thought about. I never thought about, well, cheez, if I get hurt, what happens. It never even ended my OWD, which is dumb because one hundred percent risk of injury every snap in the NFL final question, this is our eighth year together. I can't believe I've never asked you this after ten years playing for the Bengals and two years playing for the USFL. Did the turk essentially get you at that point? Or did you walk out on your own accord? Yeah? I was, I was done. My

contract was was over. UM and the league, the league. That's when Donald Trump was kind of the master of UM. You know, let's try to compete with the NFL. Sue the NFL for monopolistic Sherman and I trust, and they won. They won the decision, but they were granted a dollar which is trouble tripled in UH in those kind of legal monopolistic things. They get three bucks plus interest in the league. NFL had to pay all their legal expenses, so they were a whole on that end. But UM, so,

you know, at that point in time. Um. You know that league. That league was folded, um, And I'm not even sure my contract was up. I don't even really know what would have happened. But but I was ready. I mean, i'll be honest with you, played ten years in the NFL and took two weeks off on that ten season and then went to training camp in the USFL. Insane crazy. I'm not kidding you, Dan. I was like I was taking Anderson, which is an anti inflammatory race

horses take. I mean, the trainers, like we're gonna give. I could not pick my hands above my head. I'd shuffle up my sidewalk to our house in New Jersey and learning the kids, and I'd lay down on the couch and I can't move, watched get up go to bed. I mean, I felt like I was a one hundred years old. And so that season, that first year ended and I was, you know, now I'm thirty two years old. It's not like if you're twenty three, twenty four, that's one thing, but at thirty two, going to be thirty

three years old? And I went to the Atlantic Ocean when that season ended and used it as a natural whirlpool and let those waves just whap away on me and kind of heal up for about a month. But man, it was that was hard. That was really really hard that back to back season. And I had an old school offensive line coach, Bill Austin, who coached with Ins Lombardi in Green Bay. It's like, you don't practice, you don't play. And Brian Sipe was my roommate in the

quarterback and he's like, bay man, give him. I mean, let's come on now. You know, you know if you don't practice, he ain't playing. So you know, every practice, every game, and you know I was, I was beating up, but in my mind I wasn't injured. So I felt like if I could go out there and play, I was going to go and play. But man, that was that was a biggest challenge physically I've ever had in

my life. We have a sound bite from Dave Lappham's first USFL season after taking these drugs intended for horses. Here it is, I shared a stall with mister ed. All right, let's do it again next week after victory over the Dallas Cowboys. Sounds like a plan, my man. Next Saturday's game and Dallas starts at seven o'clock. Our pregame coverage on the Bengals Radio network will begin at five thirty. Now. Time for this week's fun Facts segment, as we get to know the person under the pads,

in this case, place kicker John Brown. We discussed his remarkable story prior to last week's victory over the Bears. Time for some fun facts with Bengals kicker John Brown and John of the nearly three thousand people on NFL rosters right now, you might have the most interesting story because you are an NFL kicker despite the fact that you have never attempted a field goal or a point after in an actual game. Does that sound as crazy to you as it does to me? Yeah, it definitely does.

I always want to be playing soccer a whole entire life, but just something I've prayed about and God let me here, So there I am. Have you visualized that first opportunity, hopefully in the preseason opener against the Bears, to kick in an NFL game? Uh? Yeah, I guess it doesn't. It doesn't really hit you because I never like visualize it like before. But now you're like, in the week of the game, you're like, oh, Danny, like the game

is literally in three days, you know. So yeah, it's definitely very exciting at the same time, Yep, people asked like, how are your nerves and stuff like that, but it's like, I'm not nervous at all. More excited, yeah, than nervous than anything, to be honest, because yeah, this why I prepared for, you know, all these years, just to be able to kick, you know, so I finally get the opportunity.

We're visiting with John Brown. Let's tell the backstory a little bit because you mentioned that you were a soccer player, so you grew up in Mississippi. You did play high school football as a wide receiver, but soccer was your primary sport. Yep, soccer was my priory sport. I'm yeah, like I said, I grew up in Mississippi, but I actually went to IMG for high school because I was playing with the USA team. We're trying to for the year.

We were training for the World Cup and everything. So yes, I'm used to being away from home and everything, so I went there for a few years in high school. So that's why me coming out of college, it's kind of crazy because that I'm we really do any school work because mostly guys on my team they went straight pro for soccer. Mom obviously wanted me to do the whole college thing and everything. She's real bigger education, So yeah,

that's all. I ended up going to college, playing first two years soccer, then switched to football, so I didn't started kicking football to my junior year at college. I've never kicked in high school, despite everybody try to give me a kicking in high school, but I just never did it because I was like, I've never said a black person black kicker, so I just never. I was like, I don't want to, you know, there's no way that I could be a kicker. That's I always looked at it.

So as a member of the junior national USA soccer team, you were trending toward possibly being in the Olympics or you mentioned the World Cup or playing in MLS, Yes, sir, yes, sir, yep. Definitely, um, because I had the kids that were on our team. It was just like the top obviously the top forty kids in the country in our class or whatever. So yeah, and I actually was, yeah, with the n I was actually playing a year the first time I got called to them. Yea. I was went with the older group

of guys actually with the USA team. So definitely, yeah, if I played obviously stuck with soccer, yeah, definitely could have been obviously that's why everybody sld me playing like MLS. But you know, God let me here. So if you definitely very thankful they worked out this way. We're doing fun facts with a kicker, John Brown. You went to Kentucky on a soccer scholarship, played for a year there, transferred to Louisville, played soccer for a year there, and

then you make this change lane. How it happened, It's kind of crazy because I went back home. I remember I was talking to my family about everything, and I just felt like just something to my spirit. Just felt like I had to pray about everything. So I went to my yea, I talked to my parents about it. I was like, yeah, I was like if I keep

going this way. Obviously for soccer, I loved it, but I was just looking at as far as like if I make it to MLS, I won't be able to really support a family because the salary is, you know, solo for soccer players over here. So I was like, I'll have to get like another job afterwards. I kind of I talked to my parents about it. I prayed about it. So I was really laying in bed one night until something told me to go to Texas A and in football roster. So I'm like, I've never looked

at the FULLBA roster before, you know. So I went to the roster or whatever it was like scrolled out, so I told me that the kickers. I was like the kickers, So I went to the kickers at the first guy clicked on was Josh Lambo. He's actually in the NFL right now, and he was a soccer player as well, who playing in the USA team like I did, Like he did the whole yeah national team and all other stuff. He did exact same thing. So now he

switched to football. So now he's Yeah, now he's in the NFL kicking for the star kicker for the Jacksonail Jaguar. So I was like, God, is this you telling me you want me to kick? I was like, I was like, no, it can't be. So I kind of pushed it away or whatever. But he just literally it's like, you know, guy wants you to do something, He's gonna get his way. So he just stuck with my spirit for like lately flight though that whole week or whatever. I can, I get it out of my get it out of my head.

So I was all right. So I talked to my parents about it. Of course I thought it was crazy. They're like what And then my mom was like, whoa the guy? You feel like this school guy? I told you, dude, he said, you need to go with it. So yeah, So that's when I didn't return to soccer. I didn't even go back to Louisville the falling semester. I just stayed back at home and I trained with my trainer,

Brent Bear. Yeah he's from Louisiana. Yeah, well he's from Mississippi, but he says in the Lafayette So I always dropping four and a half hours every weekend to train with him on Saturday, then dropped back so night our trip every Saturday. Yeah, it's just to train with him. Because I wasn't going to school. I was just taking oldline classes. So I was just training for football that whole time. And then when Kentucky Derby came around, we got some film on me, so I sent it out of Louisville,

where they never replied. So I was like, Okay, I'm gonna drive the tape up there then and give it the coaches in persons as they want to reply to me. So I drove up to Louisville by myself and gave ye try to get them the coaches, but they weren't there, so I'll say, oh man, So I had to sleep my friend's couch, and then the next morning I went back there again they were there, so I gave my film that they were in prison. They called me the following week, so it took off from there. Yeah, so

that's when I reported for workouts in the summer. Then I saw it all started. We're doing fun facts with kicker John Brown. You did get to kick off ten times at Louisville, but as I mentioned earlier, didn't get the opportunity to kick field goals or extra points. So how does a guy with that resume get a chance to kick for an NFL team. It's one of those things like you can you can't wrap your head around in it, you know what I mean. But it's like

that's all always. I give all the glory to God because I knew a guy put him my spirit and I know, yeah, he hasn't filled me yet, So I knew were gonna start filing me. So I always get the faith and yeah, this is all guys doing. I really don't have any words for it. Like I can't even explain it. Like I knew what God showed me, but never in my life I thought that I would actually, like now you hear, you're like, dang, Like it's just

crazy how guy works. You know you did kick in a pro day in Louisville, Matt caught the Bengals eye. Did you make a seventy yard field goal in that? Did? I? Did? I read that correctly. I don't think it was in pro day. We hit some blown field goals whatever, but yeah I did hit a seven yard day in practice or whatever, but I don't I don't. Yeah, I don't know if it's in pro day and I I wouldn't even pay I don't even paying attention to the dises or whatever.

I really don't because I know if I pay attention to what dis is, I'm met, I'll try to like switch on my mechanics. So I literally just go out there and kick. To be honest with you, So we're doing fun facts with John Brown, the Bengals kicker. You've been with a team for a couple of years now, at least in the off season in mini camps and last year for a while in training camp. But you haven't been with the team during the season. What have

you been doing during the season the last couple of years. Uh, Yeah, I've just been staying on top of my trending, um my trending. John Carney, he stays out in San Diego. Yeah, you probably heard him at the NFL in like twenty two, twenty three years. Yeah, so I literally go out there all the time to get a lot of work in with him. I go out there for like a month at a time. This is all the way in San Diego,

so get a lot of work in with him. And obviously yeah, he spoke to Koe Simmons when they were out when Coch Simmons came out to California, and they had like a lot of good things to say about me as well. So yeah, that's what I've been doing, going out there at training whatever, just staying on top of everything, keeping the faith. Yeah, know, you guy work everything out for me. So it's good to be back

here for sure. John. As you mentioned, there are not a lot of African American kickers and When you first showed up in the Bengals locker room, people assumed you were a defensive back, right, Oh yeah, yeah. We had team introductions yea, and then I said, yeah, I was a kicker or whatever. Everybody looked back and they were like what, They're like, this whole time we thought you were Yeah, we thought you were a receiver. DV. Because like even though rookies, they were like John, there's like

where you There's like, where are you doing cracks? I was like, what are you talking about? There's like rickommunicat this past time. I was like, dude, I'm on the opposite field just chilling or whatever. He's like, he's like, yo, He's like, I wonder why I never see you in drills or whatever. You say. This whole time he said, I thought you were a receiver. He was like, I'll be looking for you on the field. He so, I had no clue you're a kicker. It's definitely, definitely very interesting.

Nobody ever relieves when I tell him a kicker. If I meet him in person, Yeah, they like look me up and everything. It's like there's no way he's lying. So all right, final fun fact for Bengals kicker John Brown. What is your father's first name? Cleveland yet four name in Cleveland Brown. Everybody, everyone always gives me a hearts out of that. Yeah, if I'd use a card to use their card when they look at it like Cleveland browns all this one night and make jokes about it.

So yeah, definitely interesting. A Cincinnati Bengals kicker who is the son of Cleveland Brown. We look forward to seeing you kick, hopefully against the Bears best to fluct this preseason. Thank you, yes, sir, thank you. Brown made both of his kicks against the Bears, hitting the bengals first extra point and a twenty four yard field goal. However, Randy Bullock made all four of his kicks, two pats and two field goals, and barring injury, is almost certain to

be the Bengals kicker when the regular season begins. That's going to do it for this episode of the podcast. If you haven't done so already, don't forget to subscribe on iTunes, Stitcher, or Google Play and give it a rating or leave a comment. Your feedback has been very helpful and five star ratings help more Bengals fans find this podcast. I'm Dan Horde. And thank you for listening to the Bengals Booth pod cat