Bengals Booth Podcast: Step-By-Step

In any case, I'll talk to lap about what he observed at Tuesday's practice, and he'll share the names of two newcomers to the roster that other players on the team have been raving about without even being asked about them. We'll get a unique perspective on the bengals number one draft pick Jonah Williams as I talked to one of

his former high school teammates back in Fulsome, California. And in this week's fund Fags interview, I'll talk to the Bengals new defensive coordinator Lou and Aumo about a wide variety of topics ranging from coaching rocket scientists literally at Harvard two New York City pizza. All of that is straight ahead, But first, here's a quick reminder that you can add 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 invention since the Access Strength. The Access Strength is fitness equipment designed by a University of Cincinnati grad named Ryan Eater that caters to people of all abilities, including people with disabilities. Ryan began working out it many years ago when he noticed a man in a wheelchair struggling to exercise. It's remarkable story and if you're interested in learning more, you

can check it out at include health dot com. Now, let's get to foot ball is a bringing my broadcast partner Dave Lapham lap Let's start with the progression from week one of OTAs to Week two of OTAs. What did they do a little bit differently today that they hadn't been doing last Monday? Well, a little bit of situational stuff today. Monday was no situational football whatsoever. Today

was a lot of red zone stuff. And I think it's, you know, it's it's a it's a progression, and it's a step by step progression, and I think overall there is improvement, but they're not there yet. But again, when you when you look over on the on the rehab field, you got Pro bowlers galore, AJ Green, the perennial one, Tyler Eifford, a Pro bowler, Joe Mixon, AFC rushing leader,

Pro Bowl candidate. I mean that that's three serious components to your offense, probably your three biggest components to your offense potentially. Um So you know there they are down a few weapons, and honestly, I think it's unfortunate because getting those reps is big. This is a new offense and there is a process to a step by step process to it, and I thought overall, it was better than it was last Monday. I'm not saying red zone doesn't need a lot of improvement. I don't know how

much red zone they've done. We only see one practice a week, but red zone when we were good in eighty one and the eighty eight team, I was part of red zone practices and watched red zone practices where you know, eighty eighty five percent of the time there were completions. I mean the ball wasn't on the ground, whereas you know today it was more toward fifty percent of the time and there were turnout. You don't want to turnovers in the red zone. That happened though. Those

are the kind of things you need to avoid. So there are miles to go before they rest. But I'm telling you Dan standing behind them. You know, I look at Gary Kubiak's offense that he ran with the Houston Texans and in Denver that was inside outside zone and then they ran play action off of that, and they got big chunk plays off that play action. It was remarkable. You'd watch the end zone footage and right at the mesh point you'd stop it and say run or pass,

and you're guessing, and it's a fifty fifty proposition. Sometimes would be a run. Sometimes you pull out out of there and be a pass. Well, think of what the defensive linemen are thinking. Do I need to oh, man, what is this the worst thing that you can get? A best thing the offense can make a defense due And the worst thing a defense wants to have to do is guests. And if you have defensive lineman like man, I can't blow off the field like I want to

because they may be running the ball here. It's the exact same look. You get a little hesitation and then they have to restart. By the time they restart, it's too late. The ball's out. In the National Football League, linebackers looking is it a run? Is it a pass? It's a run, I better get my first step downhill. Oh oh man, it's a pass. If it's a pass, I better get my first step in a drop step. I'm heading down hill because I'm thinking it's a run.

I mean, they got you in between a rock or hard place, and you know, pass rush linebacker, play safeties. It's tough. And if they when they get it down, they don't have it down yet. When they get it down, it's going to be very interesting to watch it from the end zone because the play action passes are right off of those run plays. It's the exact same look. It's not like just a token play action pass just

to do it from a timing or rhythm standpoint. It is off of those play and the alignement of pulling and all the actions going on. It's a it's an identical snapshot photo up until the mesh point of the football. So they are going to get a lot of chunk plays out of this. Uh this offensive football team, and and really a big, big reason for success in those play actions or pressed the digitation by the quarterback having that good play action stuff. Sam Weich was the best

at it. His hands were huge, he'd hide the football and he was a magician. And he was a magician, no question. And he was a magician with that football. But all the guys he coached, Joe Montana, Kenny Anderson, I mean, these guys were really good with play action passing. And that's the biggest part of it is the quarterback hard fake and a Boomer Scienson. He coach Boomer Siensen hard fake with the play action hide the football. That's

a big key to the success. So Andy Dalton had some good ones out there, and he's got to keep continue to work on that because that's going to be his best friend. I'm glad you brought that up because I wrote down the first five plays that they ran. First play play action bootleg to the right, two receivers going out in that direction. Use Zama or Alex Erickson. He passed ericson for a nice game. Second play play action deep ball Josh Maloney was incomplete, but that was

the play. Third play play action role to the right screen, back to the left. Fourth play play action to the right, deep shot down the left sideline for John Ross fifth play run up the metal, big gaping hole set up by what we had seen from the previous four plays exactly. Sometimes in this type of offense, you know people like, well, the run game's going to set up play action. Play action sets up the run two. I mean it's it's a glove fit in the hand type of thing. It

really does. Is particularly if you can get you're in situations where you're second and four, third and two where you can run it or throw it. You know, you don't want to be behind the chains if you stay ahead of the chains offensively. Now you have the defense guessing, big time guessing, and the quarterbacks that the Bengals have on the roster are capable of getting out of pockets. So not only the play action stuff will slow a

defensive lineman down. Changing the launch point slows the defensive lineman down. You don't want to let them get outside of your contain. You have to be, you know, real careful to make sure that you change your course or your path of pass rush to try to contain the quarterback or have somebody out there containing the quarterback. Because it gives him a two way go. You know, he can tuck it and pick up yards running the football.

If there's no pass rush out there and coverage is good, you can you know, not jeopardize putting the ball in danger, tuck it and run and then slide get out of bounds, do those kinds of things. So it's going to be interesting. I think this. I like the concept of what they're trying to get to. They haven't gotten to it yet, but I think when they do, and they have all their weapons. And that's the thing too, because you know, everybody is trying to learn it and absorb it and

the only way you do it is reps. So it's unfortunate that a Joe Mixon, you know, Tyler Eiffort, aren't getting those reps with Andy. And that's why these guys that don't show up at these OTAs, and it is voluntary and they're not getting the reps with their teammates, not getting the reps with the quarterback. I think that's that's too bad. I think I think that's a tough dynamic,

particularly if they're working with a new quarterback. These guys aren't working with a new quarterback, but they're working with a new offense. These other guys that are signing places and not going new quarterback, new coach, new system, knew everything. So in this case, the new coach, new system, same quarterback, which you want. You'd like to get those reps because everybody is working now in the process of taking a step one, step two, step three and assimilating that offense.

Whether it be you know, situational football, red zone, third down, that's something they'll they'll get into third down, fourth down, clock management. All those kind of things are going to be big. We talked a lot about the offensive line last week, and they lined up the same way today. Jonah Williams had left tackle, Corty Glenn left guard, Belly Price at center, John Miller at right guard, Bobby Hart at right tackle. Let's turn over and look at the

defensive line. That's a group that's got some really talented players. Geno Atkins first and foremost, Carlos Dunlap, Carl Lawson assuming he comes back one hundred percent this year. And yet despite those names and again lost in has hurt last year. It was a unit that was not dominant last year. And to me at least, it's a group that should play better than it played. I agree with you. They've

got talent to be much better than they were. And I think lou Anna Ruma was doing a good job of putting it together and I think I think the coaches are doing a good job of communicating his message and they're doing it, you know, with guys that played

in the league, like in Easton. Easton is having a major impact, I think on the defensive line, and I agree with you, Dan, I think if if the Bengals get consistent play out of their offensive line, defensive line, and linebackers, they're going to be pretty good defensive line and linebackers. That's two thirds of the defense right there, and they were having issues, and then of course when they're having issues, the secondary is going to have a

tremendous amount issues. I think the secondary is good enough to play at a high level if the front seven gives them an opportunity. And I think that they're doing a pretty good job of handling this offense right now as they're going through the learning curve and coverage and they're hustling their run to the football. There's very few in to my either's you know, there's always going to be assignment mistakes, but it's not a plague of assignment mistakes.

So you know that the guys are into it. They've bought in there in the right spirit and the right frame of mind. They're learning it. So I'm encouraged by it. And the thing that you can always tell Dan about players you mentioned, you know a couple of the offensive lineman Corty glenn and John Miller at the guard position. Unsolicited defensive players have said, Quarty glenn Man is so big, he's going to be a tough, tough matchup at guard.

John Miller powerful, strong dude. So pads aren't on yet, but they're still the best recommendation you can get, or probably the most trustworthy evaluation is a teammate, a player going against a guy in practice or a guy that works against him in games, and those kind of things.

The other one sample, multiple defensive players have come up to me tight ends a football player, and when you look at sample, it's like, Okay, he's not like a world class athlete rookie mini camp, he didn't exhibit world class athletic ability, but when he got into football, he's a football player, and he's a football player in this OTAs with the veteran players. He is going to make a lot of plays. He is. I think he's I think he's fooling. I think he's faster than people think

he is. I think he's got functional football speed and I'm interested to see and it was, it was. It was good to my years to hear unsolicited teammates on the defensive side of the football. Tight end play lap tight ends. He's got some He's got some talent. He's a football player. That's the biggest compliment you can make, because a one football played to another. You know, it's not track and field. You know it's football. And I think the kid's going to be a good player. I

was not able to attend the rookie mini camp. It sounded like the quarterback they drafted in the fourth round, Ryan Finlay struggled somewhat that weekend last Monday, so so early today. He threw a bad interception where he overthrew his target and went right into the hands of Demitrius Cox. Then they got to those red zone drills and he

started to look better. Yeah, And I think I think with him usually, I mean, the biggest adjustment for any at any position is the quarterback position, because I mean it's it's like it's rush are you know out there? Sometimes you think he might see things. I mean they were doing some zone blitz stuff today. Defensively, early in practice, I saw Sam Hubbard dropping off, you know, into coverage

instead of pass rushing. And he's athletic enough, as we know, he played safety in high school, played linebacker in college before he moved to defensive linemens, So he's athletic enough to do those kind of things. And you know, you see it some in college, but you just don't see it as much as as big a variation of scheme as you might see in the NFL. With the talented With the talent level of player that you see in the NFL, you'll hear rookie players say it all the time.

You know, I might have played against three guys last year. They're as good as these guys at this level. And this is every day, this is every day of practice, every game. You know you're gonna be tested both mentally and physically. And Ryan Finley's in that boat for sure. As I mentioned earlier, one of their first plays of the day was a deep ball down the left sideline for John Ross, he caught at least one touchdown pass and the red zone drills they gave it to him

on a reverse. Do you see his confidence growing? Can you tell that from watching him in OTAs? I do see it growing. And Andy is definitely they weren't on the same page and early in the red zone drills and the ball was incomplete when it shouldn't have been. And Andy immediately went over to John Ross to make sure or that, UM tell him what he saw and what he thought he should have done and explain it to John. So John, they you know, they do get

on the same page. Um. Yeah, I think I think They're going to try to uh incorporate John Ross's skill set into this offense. I mean he's he's just what the doctor ordered in terms of if you, you know, put into a computer some some talent, some physical abilities that you'd like to have at the receiver position in this type of scheme. John Ross fits that bill. I mean, when that guy goes in motion for a jet sweep,

you have to honor it. But if you give him the football and you're you're lagging behind, you know, your your guests, and he can he can scorch you. Um, and you can you can run routes off of that jet sweep fake Jeff sweep action as well. And I mean he's definitely got got talent, but I think he's still thinking too much. Uh. Tyler Boyd has said that. Tyler Boyd went on record saying that, you know, John Ross is still uh, instead of you know, fluidly reacting

to coverages, he's stinking a little bit too much. That indicates that four to two speed, you know, when you're thinking, when you're unsure an athlete, it's not confident, affects the functional football speed. And I think he's still fighting through that phase of it. But he I think they're looking to him to make a lot of big place for this football team this season. It's late May. This is week two of the OTAs. They have three weeks of these OTAs a total of ten practices. What were you

doing in late May in your playing career. Yeah, we only had one one mandatory you know, camp was right after draft, rookies and veterans would get together. The rookies would have like an orientation day and then get together with the with the veterans for a mini camp. And really, I mean my entire career. I had an offseason job. You know, it was my first three years salary twenty six thousand and twenty nine thousand and thirty three thousand. It wasn't you know, a gold mine. But but and

I wanted to do something. You know, I was married and already had kids, so you know, I wanted to do something to prepare myself for life after football, not knowing when that life was going to start. One was gonna end and one was going to start. So every off season I had a job to at least eliminate vocations or to see if I was, you know, choosing the right path. Maybe to make sure that when I was done playing football that I'd be in the right arena.

So had offseason jobs. And then would you know, make sure that at lunchtime I was doing my workouts. If I took a two hour lunch or an hour and a half or something to make up to have a strong workout down in Spinny Field, I'd either come in earlier stay late, you know, just on the off season job. So did a bunch of different things. Worked in public

relations at the Savings and Loan. I worked with Bob Johnson and Imperiallydhess when he bought that selling that you know, substitute top one year, did a whole bunch of different things and eliminated some vocations pretty quickly. What was the worst off season gig and you're playing days, I'd have to say substitute teaching, because you know, it's like when when the when the teacher's out, let's take advantage of

the situation. You know, it's like you're a babysitter, you know. Yeah, but I and I would try to lay the law down a little bit. And I mean the other teachers are like, oh no, yeah, it's great, you're doing a great job. But I always felt like, you know, I try to follow along with the teacher's lesson planning. You know, I didn't want the kids to fall behind her if I had the same class for three days and um, you know, sometimes successfully, sometimes not. But at my respect

level for the teaching profession dramatically increased. I didn't really have behavioral problems or anything in the class. I think probably because they you know, I don't want to mess around with this uh, with this guy potentially, But I did have one in excuse me, one instance that though at a vocational school. Um and uh, the principle. I go into the school and he goes, you've got the pit.

I said, oh, I know what the pit is. It's where when kids get kicked out of class, they had to go signing at the pit and find something to do. I'm like, that's what you want me to do? All that I can make a better contribution than that. No, No, you're perfect for the pit. And so two periods go by, I'm just sitting there reading books and I'm stealing money. Third period, this kid shows up, big kid, and I

slid a piece of paper. I said, put your name, clash you get kicked out of and reason and sit down and open a book and find something to do. F you drops it off. So I'm like, maybe you didn't hear me. So I get up from my seat and slide the thing over again. And I am walking around the table and the last thing the principal said to me is don't touch any of the kids. I'm not going to touch any of these kids. You know there's no way I wouldn't. Do you think I'm stupid.

Kid swings at me and I stepped back and I drill him, drop him. I hit him right in the chest with my fist goes up under his chest and his solar plexus. I hear all the air come out of him. He goes down to his knees. He's like yeah. He gets up and sits down and signs in. I didn't hear a thing, not a peep out of him, So then you know, I at the end of the day, there were two or three other kids signed at the end of the day that the Prince was like, any

promise that first name right there? He was what happened as well, I'm gonna be honest with you. I had to drop He goes, drop him. What do you mean drop him? That's what he took a swing at me, And I responded, you know, self defense, and he goes, really, he goes, that's your story. I said, yeah, that is my story. It's the truth. So but I never the principal never heard anything from him. I never did. I went home, and of course Lynn wasn't happy you did.

What He's gonna own us, But I think I think it was the first time it was ever really maybe discipline in his life. I don't know him a favorite. Yeah, when he sat down, hushed up, and I never heard a peep out him the rest of the time, but the whole time and thinking, oh man, do I say something this kid or just let it ride out decided to just let it ride. Why decision? Yeah for sure. I don't know about you, but I never had a

substitute teacher that resembled Dave Lapham. We've learned quite a bit about Jonah Williams since the Bengal selected him with the eleventh overall pick in this year's draft, but on this episode of the pod, you're about to get a unique perspective on the twenty one year old offensive linemen. One of his teammates at Fulsome High School in northern California is now the starting tight end for the University

of Cincinnati Bearcats, Josiah Deguara. I spoke to Josiah over the phone and we started with his first memories of meeting Jonah after the Williams family moved to California from Georgia. I mean, first thing you think when you see him is this is a freaking nature. I mean he was. I mean he does. He doesn't look like he didn't look like he does now, I mean he was still he saw to be development he was, you know, six to five six six, just a massive, massive dude for

only being sixteen years old. And that's on. And I've read some stories in your hometown paper about him at practice, you know, just destroying guys stuff like that. What do you remember whoever lined up against them? They weren't They weren't very happy at that point. He was until by a senior high head that he just demolished anybody that was on his way. Um, not to obviously continued until that, so that he's just he's just a beast in every sense of the word. Describe him as a person, super

humble guy. I mean, you wouldn't even know who, like, who he is or what he does besides the fact that he's just huge. You know, you would you would never know that. Um, he said three you know, two time All American. You would never know any of that. From the time he stepped on into folsom I mean he was just there to work. Um, he put his head down and grind. You know, he's quiet guy at first, but when he gets to know, super funny, awesome dude. Um. But yeah, I mean first, first one in, last one

out kind of guy, last one out the building. The type of dude, um just put his head down and grind him and would always stayed humble. You guys were on one of the great high school teams in California history. How important was he to the success? Oh? Huge? I mean we had a pretty dominant team um before before he got there, and then when he got there, he just took our whole offense and defense for that matter, to the next level. Whenever he got in, he just

dominated the game. What's your best Jonah Williams story that you can share? Man, So my senior year, he and him tad for our for our football coach together. Um, so like an hour of the day, we'd always be together. Um. This is when he was trying to like put on muscle and gain a lot of weight because he was still, um you know a little bit smaller than he wanted. And every day I just remember he had this huge bag of food. Um, it was like a freezer bag.

You know, it was a huge freezer bag of food, just full with sandwiches, protein bars, um, being much anything you can imagine. Um. And out of every story of Jonah, I think that's one that I distinctively your member just end bringing that bag of fade to school every day and just eating it like it was nothing. Could Yeah,

he could shot down my thanks. Do you see tight end Josiah Deguara who had thirty eight catches last year, including five for touchdowns, and should be one of the top tight ends in the American Athletic Conference this season. Now time for this week's fun Facts interview as we get to know one of the newcomers on the Bengals coaching staff. Time for some fun facts for the Bengals

defensive coordinator. Lou and A Rumo from Staaten Island, New York, one of the five boroughs of New York City, tell us a little bit about growing up on Staaten Island, just a short ferry ride from the Big Apple. It was great. I wouldn't want to grow up in any other place in the country. Obviously I'm biased, but I have perfected the art of eating pizza. I can eat

pizza every day. I mean, it's kind of like when I went to coach at Harvard up in Massachusetts, as a Dunkin Donuts on every corner every two hundred yards. It feels like well in Stunt Island, as a pizza reay every block or so and you get to try it every day. So it is a great place, great people. I love going back to visit. It's a terrific place. And it's a New Yorker. I'm guessing you must fold your pizza. Yeah, there's no other way to eat it.

What's your folks do for a living? So my mom was a secretary at Wagner College for forever thirty plus years. My dad was a elementary school principal New York City public school system for for a long long time. So he coached um JV basketball when I was young, So I got kind of the coaching. Uh I guess bug back then. But but yeah, so high school coach and administrator. He was a college athlete, correct, Yeah, my dad was a good basketball player. Played at Wagner College, the Division

one back then. Played uh really really good competition back then with NYU and those teams being great, and uh he was a point guard and um, you know, he could shoot it. He still he still beats me and my sons every time we played twenty one or something. He could still shoot the rock. So that could mean you're not very good. Yeah, yeah, I could shoot a little, but he shoots it better. We're doing fun Facts with

lou Anna Rumo. So you mentioned that your mom worked at Wagner, your dad played sports at Wagner, and you

went to Wagner. Describe your college football experience. Mine was shortened brief for me as a as a player, you know, once I got there, played just that first semester or half of the semester or whatever it wasn't remember, but then got quickly into coaching, and you know, I found out that the playing part stopped for me basically in high school and then just moved on to coaching right away. And I jumped right in and at my old high school, and I was able to go school during the day

and go help those guys out in the afternoon. You were the JV head coach as a college student, correct, I was, So, I think there was about six months difference between There wasn't a whole lot of difference between me and the and the guys, but we had fun and won some games, and I really really figured out what I wanted to do kind of early in my life that this was something that you know, I really got the bug for then. So I was I was

all in, do you know why what it is? About the profession that captivated you from such an early age. I don't know, it's just you know, you're I think it's like the players now when you talk to them about potentially retiring or getting away from the game, you just meet, you miss being around the guy. So I wasn't playing anymore. I still love the game. It was just the detail of trying to figure out an opponent

and then you know, implement it with the players. And I don't know, I just liked it right away and kind of haven't stopped since we're doing fun facts with lou Anna Rumo. Like all coaches, you've made several stops on your journey to the NFL. And you mentioned you spent time at Harvard. Five years at Harvard. In fact, is coaching at Harvard different from anywhere else you've ever coached, just because of the caliber of students. Well, some of those guys, if you'd ask them, and I'm friends with

most of them today. But sometimes the book smart doesn't apply to the football field, and I would I would make numerous references to that in a very colorful way back when I was a youngster. And uh, but no, they're great guys, you know, and and some of them are doing you know, as you can imagine doing so well these days. But uh, you know, I would say all the time in the meeting room and say, hey, this isn't rocket science, and like one of the one of the guys raised his hand said, yeah, coach, I

am in rocket science. And it's not. Okay, Well then do it right, you know. So it's it's funny, but no, it was great, great experience. Would we recognize the name of anybody you coached who has become a CEO or a politician or anything like that. I there's probably not that in that realm. But there's there's been a handful of pro football players. Matt Burke the center for the Ravens all those years, and uh, you know, Isaiah Kazvinski played tight end and obviously fits I just missed him. Um,

but there's been a few players. And then the guys that are CEOs and that nobody off the top of my head that uh, but they're out there. I just don't know which ones they're running right now. Eventually, I'm sure we'll recognize some of the guys you coached. Your longest college stop was eight years at Purdue, so you've got an extended taste of life in the Midwest. What did you think? Oh, I loved it. You know, it

was funny. We you know, my first time away from the East Coast, and you know, my family sees that as home. Today. You talk to my kids, you know, we want to go back to Indiana. You know, we want to go see our friends. And so it's great. I mean, the people are terrific, and um, it's just it's just different, totally different from the from the from

the Northeast. And I realized I was back when I made my journey from here in Cincinnati to Columbus on a pro day a couple months ago, whenever the heck it was and I saw corn fields on my left and corn fields on my right, I knew exactly where I was. Your first NFL job was with the Miami Dolphins. Can you describe what it was like to get that offer? After you've been uh j V high school head coach, now you got the opportunity to coach at the highest level. Yeah,

I mean I spent my time. I feel like I say this all the time. I came up the right way because I coached at every level. I coached in high school. I coached at Division three, I coached one Double A, and I coached major college football and then to the NFL. So you kind of learn. You learn more what not to do than what to do, and through your experiences of hey, I've already seen this work

or that not work. And to me, I would take no other path than the one I did because at the end of the days is about teaching and coaching the guys, and you learn you got to implement. I was at Marshall, I was at Harvard and two different type kids, you know, I was at like I said, as you mentioned, Perdue, and you just learn how to teach. Everybody's different and you you find what reaches each individual player. Or visiting the lou Anna Rumo on the Dolphins staff,

you got to know Zach Taylor. What were your initial impressions of him? Great? You know, Zach and I would get together all the time, you know, just about Hey, what's this offense trying to run here? And I would go down to his office and asked him about particular routes. He would do the same with me on defense and hey, what's the defense trying to accomplish here? And so we kind of hit it off right away and been kind

of friends ever since. You were with the Dolphins. When the team was featured on Hard Knocks, did you have a Hard Knocks moment? I think I did. It wasn't too bad. Those guys are great. The NFL film guys are tremendous. You don't even know they're there half the time, but there are cameras and microphones everywhere, so you got to be conscious. But you know, I didn't have anything too bad. No, let me let me rephrase that. I

really didn't. I really didn't have to rethink in it. No, you spent last year coaching with the New York Giants. Was it surreal to go to work every day so close to where you grew up? And I was a Giant fan growing up, So it was the first time I got there, and you know, I went to visit and walk by the trophies and and LT's jersey and Phil said, all those guys. When I was a kid, that was you know, that was my team, and so yeah,

I was great. And then on Saturdays a lot of the alumni would come by and I'd be I know him, I know him, I know him, and um, it's just such a great, great organization and great place, um, you know, and it was it was unbelievable to be there. All right, A few random things to wrap this up. Your happiest moment as a sports fan was anytime the Yankees beat the Red Sox. Um that um, I would have to say,

I don't remember. The ending wasn't great, But this time of the year was a spring of like, uh, I don't remember late eighties or early nineties when the Rangers were in the Stanley Cup and the Knicks were in the NBA finals. Um, and it was when the OJ thing happened. So whatever spring that was, what every year that was, I don't remember off the top of my head. There was like three or four Game sevens throughout that run.

So every night we would go home or after this whenever the heck it was, we would get together with the guys and we were watching like the most meaningful games that you've you know, when is that ever gonna happen again? Two of your favorite teams are going to Game sevens and you're battle and it was unbelievable. I still remember vividly. I was leaving King's Point, where I

was working. I was driving home on the Bell Parkway in traffic, of course, and Mike and the Mad Dog were on the radio and the Knicks were down four to two. Excuse me, they couldn't have been four to two. I think they were down three two to the Pacers and they were playing in Indy and all of them said, this is it. You know, there's no way the Knicks are going to pull it off. And they came back and won both games and went on to the finals. So it was just it was unbelievable. I love it.

Your all time favorite athlete in any sport is I would probably say Derek Jeter, just because of who he is and what he's done in his career and unscathed through the media for twenty years, and it's it's almost impossible what he accomplished in all of his achievements, and both on and off the field. He also dated nothing but tens, which is I consider his greatest achievement. Last fun fact, last fun fact for lou Anna Rumo, of all the tourist attractions in New York City, which one

is your favorite? I think, unfortunately, I think the one that everybody needs to go see is the nine to eleven Memorial I lost a few friends and buddies that were firefighters that day, And not that it's my favorite. It's just as I would say the pizza places is my favorite. But that's something that everybody, if they ever go to New York, they need to take the time and go do it because it really gives you an understanding of what happened and those poor people that died

that day. It kind of shakes you up. And can you actually go through the museum. You can hear the terrorists voice. They have it on the voice recorder saying, you know, blump whatever they said. But it gets you, so yeah, I would advise everybody to do that. The Bengals went as a team a few years ago before they played the Jets, which is really cool. It's very to me, one of the most. Like I said, it'll bring you, you know, to realize how lucky we are.

You've got a meeting. I appreciate your time. Look forward to watching your defense play this year. Same here. Thanks very much, appreciate it. And that's going to do it for this week's podcast. If you haven't done so already, don't forget to subscribe on iTunes, stitch your Google Play Spotify or pod Bean and if you have a minute, give it a rating or leave a comment. Your feedback has been very helpful in five star ratings help more

Bengals fans find this podcast. I'm Dan Horde and thanks for listening to the Bengals Booth podcast