Bengals Booth Podcast: Thousand Million Questions

thousand million of them. Those are just some lyrics from a great old Moody Blues song, but we will cover ten good questions that you sent in, ranging from who is most likely to start on the offensive line too, what does lap know about Anthony Muonios's messed up little finger? Plus lap as a few questions for me that's coming up, and in this week's fun Facts interview, I will quiz the Bengals second round pick and this year's draft tight end,

Drew Sample out of the University of Washington. All of that is straight ahead, But first, here's a quick reminder that you can have the latest edition of this pod cast 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 scoring a baseball game. As you may know, I used to be a minor league baseball announcer and I've also been lucky enough to call some Big League games for the Reds, Mets, and Blue Jays. When you're broadcasting baseball, you have to keep a running score book in order to recap exactly what happened in the game. But in my case, I started scoring baseball games as a little kid while watching on TV. In fact, one of the highlights of my summer every year growing

up was keeping score of the Major League All Star Game. Yes, I was a total goober. In any case, I am currently an assistant coach on my thirteen year old Sons baseball team, where my duties include keeping the score book. Now, let's get to football. Sent out a tweet this week asking Bengals fans if they had any questions for my broadcast partner, Dave Lapham. I got a lot of responses and picked out what I thought were ten good questions.

But as we began, lap asked me if he could get things started, all right, lap On this episode of the podcast, we are going to take ten questions from Twitter followers. But before we get to that, you apparently have a question for me. Well, I do. Dan. First of all, I want to congratulate you on your selection to the UC Hall of Fame. That's a heck of a legacy, well deserved going into your nineteenth year of

broadcasting over at U SEE. And I guess my first question is, I know you wanted to do it for a long time. You decided earlier in your life that this profession that you wanted to take your career path down. Who was your first person that you said, I want to be just like him? You know this guy, Lap Van Miller, the legendary voice of the Buffalo bill So a lot of people listening to this podcast have never heard of Van Miller. He was the voice of the

Bills for more than forty years. I think he was the greatest football radio play by play announcer of all time. But if you grew up in the southwest tip of New York State like I did. When I did, Van Miller was everywhere. So he was the sportscaster on the local CBS station. You'd see him at six and eleven o'clock every night. He did the Buffalo Bills games, he did the Buffalo Braves games. That was an NBA franchise in the nineteen seventies. That's now the Clippers. Bob McAdoo

two for McAdoo. That's what the PA announcer said at the Old Odd in Buffalo. Van Miller even hosted a weekly quiz bowl show for high schools. So I watched high School quiz Bowl every week just because Van Miller was the host. That's how much he was my hero. So while other kids, you know, worshiped the athletes or other stars in Hollywood or whatever, Van Miller was my guy. So he was really a big reason why I got

into the business. So obviously, so you're extremely versatile. We always talk about position versatility being a big strength for a professional athlete. For a broadcaster, I mean, you do more from a versatility standpoint than anybody that I know. What's what's the most difficult of all the sports that you've been involved with from a play by play standpoint, What's what's the most difficult, What's what's come the easiest to you? Baseball is the most difficult. Basketball is the easiest.

Here's why. In baseball, a groundball to shortstop might take two seconds and then several minutes go by before there's more significant action other than pitches, but before another ball is put in play. So you really have to be skilled at filling those gaps, whether it's with storytelling, information, whatever. Various announcers do it different ways, so that's why it's a great challenge, and that's why I think it's the

most difficult. Basketball is the easiest to me because there are only ten guys, so it's a limited number of guys. The game can move fairly fast, but it's not at a breakneck pace, and the geography is easy to describe. Corner follow line, top of the key lane, center court. It's very easy to create that picture for the listener to kind of follow the ball. So that's why I think basketball is easiest. And then all the young listeners out there that listen to your podcasts, what's your advice?

I mean, all all the young guys that want to do what you're doing, how do you advise them to get there? Biggest advice I can give is to get as much practical experience as possible. You know, broadcasting is not taught in a classroom. We both went to Syracuse. It has a very well known school of public communications, the New House School. But pretty much everything that I use,

I hope my professors are not listening. But the things that helped me today are the things I learned from doing it on campus radio and campus TV, learning it from my fellow want to be sports announcers that have gone on to accomplish great things in the business. Just bouncing off ideas off each other and picking each other's work apart. That to me was more advantageous than anything I learned from a professor. So, just like in anything, repetition breeds comfort level, right. I mean, if you can

call a tittle lunx match, go do it right. Just get used to doing it over and over and over again. Get any practical experience you possibly can. So if you are a young student, a high school student and early in his college career student, and this is something you want to pursue, sign up for the campus radio station or the online equivalent. Do anything you can to practice, even if that means sitting in the stands with a recording device and just broadcasting to yourself to get the reps,

because that's the only way to do it. All right, are we ready for Twitter questions? I hope that didn't bore people to tears, but I appreciate it all right. Question number one, will the Bengals add any additional free agents now that the compensatory draft pick period is over. You know, I think what Zach Taylor's doing here in terms of building a culture, I think they're going to

be very careful about. You know, a guy that's been around the league for double digit seasons and people are like, oh, I mean and Dominican SU's out there, how can you not add in Dominican Sue? I mean the guy if so moved, and that's a big key, if So moved can do this or that for you well, And Dominican Sue has gotten a lot of defensive coordinators over the

years fired as well. I mean, he's a difficult guy to deal with at times, and there's always there's always pros and cons to every situation, so I think everything's going to be heavily weighted out. I don't think that Zach Taylor is going to do anything to jeopardize the culture that he's trying to build, you know. I think with decisions that have been made with respect to Mark Walton Vantez Burfett, I think they definitely have an idea in picture in mind of what they want to do

from a cultural standpoint. So I'm not sure they want to do anything to tarnish that question. Number two, who's going to start on the offensive line. That's a good question, you know, I think, honestly, in my philosophy, it's always been the best five players, you know, start on the offensive line. And the good news is so many of these guys have position versatility. You know. I do think Billy Price will probably line up at the center position.

You know, It's not like he's a KG veteran. I mean, he missed a lot of his rookie season, you know, due to injury, unfortunately to the foot. But Billy's a very sharp guy and he's got he's got a very strong skill set. So he's going to be given you every opportunity, I think, to hold down that center position. But you know, after that, if I'm if I'm an offensive lineman, I'm going into training camp saying that just about every position is opening season, it's open game, nobody

including Billy. I mean, Billy should not take this mindset a posture that you know, it's a given. I'm a I've been ordained the starting center. I don't think anybody's been ordained anything at this point in time. And I think Coach Turner is going to basically conduct a very very competitive training camp, and it's going to be best man wins philosophy and and the best five guys are

gonna gonna start. And you know, it could be anybody lining up anywhere, and he'll probably try a few different combinations, particularly early in training camp and early in preseason games. But you don't want to mess with it too long. You know, you'd like to have an idea of these are the guys who are going to line up these spots, because you know, you want to get some reps under their BELTU offensive line play that's very critical. I've often said over the years that it's like making a fish.

You don't think about wrapping your four fingers and curling your thumb. It just happens. It's involuntary. And when an offensive line's play in that way, that's when you get, you know, you get really good as a group. You don't even have to verbally communicate. You know, it might be a look, it might be you know, just a body movement that everybody knows what page everybody else is on. That's down the road. I mean, that's that's after years

of experience together. But you do want to get on the same page as quick as you possibly can from a communication standpoint, if nothing else, And you know, get a feel for you know, when there's an et to penetrate, tackle twist or tackle penetrate end loop. You have a feel for what's how your partner's going to handle that. You don't want to be passing things off into space. You know, you think one thing and you guys doing another.

Those kind of things are very very important and the only way you can you can gain trust in each others to have repetition of that. So versatility is great to have, but you do have to have some work, you know, some repetitions right next to guys who need the side of you, so you feel comfortable going into into game battle. But um, you know, you think Jonah Williams picked where he is, eleventh pick in the draft.

He's playing somewhere, and he probably deserves to play somewhere the level of player he is and the technique that he has and everything that goes along with it. But um, it's going to be interesting to see who's going to line up at both guards in both tackle positions, because you know I would, I would right now. It's like you're going to a new team. You have a new offensive line coach, a new offensive coordinator, a new head coach.

You might as well be in another city in terms of you have to you have to prove yourself all over again to all those new sets of eyes. What you did in the past doesn't mean a hill the beans. You've got a new evaluators now, so it's it's wide open from day one. This isn't a Twitter question. This is a Dan Horde follow up question. A few years ago, Andre Smith was here and going into the season or going into camp. The talk was he's going to move to guard. It's a natural move for him at this

stage of his career. And he said all the right things until practice started and then it was obvious he did not want to play guard. What do you think about Cordy Glenn based on your interactions with him, do you think he would be cool with a move to

guard if that's the way it plays out. I think he's played it more than Andrea did, and I think that you know, his quote is very apropos You know, a guard, you're playing on a phone booth, and when you're in the tackle position, you're you're out in space. And he feels like he can play in space and in a phone booth. Sometimes though even though it's in a phone booth, it happens quickly. I mean, there's quick

stuff that goes on. There's a lot a lot of recognition that has to go on, and again a lot of coordination that goes on passing things off to the center and the tackle. You know, at the tackle you only have to worry one way guard you've got, you've got action on both sides of you have two guys you have to worry about getting in sync with and knowing how this guy handles this stunt. That guy handles

that stunt at the tackle and guard position. So there's a little bit, you know, there's a little bit to it. But athletically and technique wise, um, you know, the toughest place to play, in my opinion, haven't played all five positions, is left tackle and pass protection and center run blocking. When you have a nose guard right over your face mask and you can smell his breath, I mean, that's that's tough when you're when you're trying to run block

and move people off the line of scrims. There if you have a really good nose guard so um uh, you know it's it's going to be interesting. It really is to be going to be very interesting to see how it all unfolds. Twitter Question number three, Will Malik Jefferson contribute this year? You know you would hope so. Physically athletically he's got He's got what it takes. Um That's why he was drafted as high as he was,

but he had an mental adjustment period to it. Now you know there's new a new sheriff in town in terms of his position, coach has coordinated and his head coach as well. The good news is that it doesn't matter what the evaluation was on him last year. These new sets of eyes have nothing to do with that. But he has to prove himself to this group that he can handle what they're asking of him to be able to handle mentally in terms of their playbook and

what they want their linebackers to do. The mantra is keep it simple and play fast. That should fall right into the sweet spot of Malik Jefferson's game. You don't want to confuse him. A player like Malik Jefferson, you do not want him sitting there trying to solve an equation before he makes his first step, you want him just being very comfortable and just fly into the football. So I think the simpler the better for Malik and for the entire defensive football team in the early stages

for sure. Twitter question number four, what's the biggest positive with the new coaching staff. I think that everybody's talking about the energy. You know, it's it's contagious. It's infectious. Um, it seems like there's a tremendous work ethic. I mean when you talk to everybody, you talk to the players, uh,

they're impressed with the preparation that's already gone on. You talked to even the guys in the film room that the demands that the coaches uh, you know put on them to put things together, for them to uh to put together their schemes and their their playbooks for their players. It's it's it's obvious on every level that these guys are all very intelligent football guys, all hard working football guys.

And the youth it's gonna just it's gonna be contagious in terms of getting out on the football field, flying around the football field, in the meeting rooms, just a just a younger vibe. And I think that's the one thing the players are talking about, uh, you know, almost to a man, is that it's a different day in terms of the energy, the enthusiasm, and see if that continues to be a big plus all season long. I never thought I would be considerably older than an NFL

team's head coach. I mean, I guess that happens eventually to everybody, but it seems too soon, I know, it really is. I mean, you have you have so many thirty something coaches, you know, if you have a you know, a Mark Duffner, it's refreshing to see a Mark Duffiner on the staff working on the defensive side of things. We're of the same year or just like a month apart or two months apart. Other than that, I mean, it's it's, uh, there's there's not much not much age

on this football team. Boby mcnello was just talking to him earlier today. He turns fifty here pretty soon, and he feels like he's a graybeard, you know, and a fifty year old coach. It's almost like you're writing the prime of your career normally in the National Football League, which he is. Twitter question number five and we had a bunch of questions about this particular person, I will kind of distill them into one question, what kind of impact is the coaching change going to have on John

row Us in trying to get more productivity out of him? Yeah? I think I think that again is is um, you know, a fresh set of eyes to evaluate and a new scheme potentially to evaluate. He seems to be very excited about about what Zach Taylor is going to bring to the table in terms of his offensive mindset, his offensive philosophy. Um, He's been very very vocal in his support of what John Ross can bring to the table with his offense.

And the one thing about John Ross I think that that people don't really understand is uh, He's He's a pretty good blocker as a wide receiver. He will be physical in that in that area. He doesn't shy away from it. He will stick his nose in there. And I think that will be uh something that will pay dividends for him in this in this scheme. I think that's going to be something to keep an eye on.

And Um, he does have continuity in his position coach with Bob mcnell, but he again a new offensive coordinator, a new head coach, coach, new sets of eyes there. It is. It is very interesting though, Dan, when you look at it. I mean Marvin Lewis made wholesale changes on his coaching staff right right before the final season that he coached. So I mean there was there was a new system defensively, new system offensively, and here they

go again. So in a three year span, they'll have run three different offenses, three different defenses, three different techniques taught by coaches, and a lot of position groups, so that there's a lot for you know, a football team to uh, to comprehend and to adjust two and so I think I think the players are looking forward to this being you know, the last change for a while. Let's really hone in on this. Let's take it a

step at a time. Let's build a foundation and then keep adding floors to it, you know, over time, and see what we can build this too. Because I can speak from experience, it is tough when you have that much turnover in terms of you know, you're in your position room as a coach, the coordinator and now the head coach. That's that's a lot of turnover, you know, over a two or three year time period for a lot of players Twitter question number six. Now the Bengals

any better at linebacker? I think they are. I think they are a better at linebacker. I think Jermaine Pratt is going to push to start. I think that. I think Danny, you know, when you look at it, there's there's five guys out of the drafted players that will probably push to start this year. Wouldn't shock me at all. I mean, they drafted players that they've not not just to make the roster, but they felt can contribute in

significant sub packages or some starting roles potentially. Um So I think Jermaine Pratt is going to push to do that. He's going to definitely be involved in special teams for sure with Darren Simmons, but I think sub packages and potentially starter I could see him lining up as a starting linebacker as a seventy second pick in this year's draft for sure. And you look down a little further in the draft, Deshaun Davis out of Auburn sixth round pick.

That is another guy that will see significant time I think in terms of special teams, in some form of defensive contribution on that side of the line of scrimmage. So just with those two players, I think it's going to look a lot different at that line packer position. Then if others can stay healthy, you know, and get through a season and have, you know, another year to

build on. You get some young players that sometimes you know year one to do year one to year two, it is like the light goes on and you didn't know what you didn't know, and all of a sudden you start to see it. Year two to three can be another big jump for players next. So they've got some players at the linebacker position that fall into that category as well. Again with a new position coach, a new coordinator, a new head coach. You know that theme is consistent all the way up and down the line

of scrimmage. Twitter question number seven, Well, Joe mix and rush for two thousand yards. I assume the person meant this year he could. But I'm not sure that I would like to see Joe Mixon. I shouldn't say that. I'm not saying I don't want to see Joe Mixon rush for two thousand yards. But I think I think Giovanni Bernard is going to make significant impact on this

football team with this offense. I think this offense fits not only Joe Mixon to a T. I think it fits Giovanni Bernard to a T as well, and I would love to see two back sets with both those guys in the football field at the same time. Not necessarily in the backfield. Giovanni Bernard can line up, you know, in the slot. He can do a lot of different things for you. I think position versatility, you know, at that running back position is going to be a big deal.

And to get to two thousand yards, you have to grind, you know, a back with a lot of touches of the football, and Joe I think can handle it. But you know, Joe's not invincible in terms of injury. I mean, nobody can avoid injury. So you know, it's just a numbers game. The more touches of the football you get, the higher the percentage of you suffering some sort of an injury is going to be. So two thousand yards would be great, but he certainly would have a very

productive season. If he came up with only fourteen hundred or something of that nature, I'd be happy with as well. And you know, not not just rushing to football, but you know he's capable of having some impact catching the ball as well. So I think scrimmage yards are almost more significant to me than rushing yards with this offense, and I think Giovanni Bernard will have his input and scrimmage yards as well as Joe Mixon and the rookie running backs as well might get some touches, no doubt.

I mean, you've got you've got guys that are extremely talented. I mean Rodney Anderson, you know, injury is the only thing that held him back from potentially being a superstar at Oklahoma. I mean the year that he played healthy, he had a phenomenal year. He rushed for eighteen touchdowns and a ton of yards, So you know that's that's pretty significant. Trade Yon Williams h no treviaon rush for eighteen touchdowns at A and M. Rodney Anderson, I think

rush for eleven and Cotson touchdown passes as well. Trevion Williams out of Texas A and M. You know, you have a case where offensive line coats certainly knows him. I mean, Jim knows him as well as he knows any of the offensive line that he worked with. And he signed an offensive linean out of Texas A and M as a free agent and was instrumental I'm sure in they're drafting a Trey ViOn Williams, So yeah, I mean there's there's a lot of running backs that can

contribute to the cause for sure. Twitter question number eight is nine and seven possible. I think it is possible. Yeah, I do think it is possible. I mean the thing is getting off to that good start is going to be the challenge. Three out of the first four on the road for six I think it is on the road, and then after the bye week it's just the reverse three out of four at home, four out of six,

you know, at home to finish things off. So it's great if you if you can get to the bye with all those road games, um, in one of those road games being in London, that that with a with a winning record, that set you up very well on the for the back half of the season. But if you if you go there a little bit under water or treading water, then it puts a lot of emphasis and it's good to have, you know, those games at home on the back end. But man, um, you know,

getting off to that good start. I can't think of a tougher road trip than Seattle. That's a tough road trip. I mean, it's Northwest corner. It is up there. I feel like you're flying forever, getting the Seattle in the in the Continental USA. But um, and then of course playing there. They have a good football team. It's a tough venue. Um. They get a lot of tradition up there. That's that's a tough opener, there's no question about it. But but Zach, you know, understands what Seattle is all about.

You know he's got experience there obviously. Um. And then playing the Pittsburgh Steelers on Monday Night football to and that in that month of September. Those are two tough road trips, no doubt about it. But if you can somehow come out of there still in the hunt, I definitely think they could go nine and seven. For what it's worth. The Bengals are one to know in Seattle in the Lapham Wore era. That's right, That's right. A nice road win for sure to visit too, isn't it?

Sure he has loved that place all right? Question number nine, were you on the team when Anthony Munio has messed up his little finger? Yeah, Anthony, Anthony, that bad boy was a problem for a while. And back then it was like you know, just taping together and just just let it roll, you know, and you know, get through it and and then um, it got where all right, Well, if I put surgery off, you know, I could still

have a pretty good function out of it. Now it's to the point where, I mean he has to have a major, major surgery just to get it to function at all. And there's no pain there. So he says to heck with it, and it's it's a great conversation piece, but that I mean, there's there's nothing left in that joint anymore except cartilage. I mean there's nothing, and U time,

it just just has eroded. So yeah, you catch it and shoulder pads or you catch it in a mess shirt and you know, you get that little your pinki's caught and then they were sprinting up the field on you and your finger goes where it's not supposed to go. Um, And you know, I've I've dislocated my pinky a couple of times, and a couple of other fingers as well. But I mean I can't straighten out. But it's not like Anthony's where that is the gnarliest looking thing that

you'd ever want to see. I mean, you know he can. He can point to people in all directions with that bad boy. All things considered, your hands are not too gnarly for a guy who spent more than ten years playing pro football. No, they're not too bad, not too bad at all. I do have a broken bone in my hand that it's like there's a divot and then there's like almost like a little golf on the other side of it, and it's it's harder. You are pounding the back of your hand. It sounds like you're hitting

a wall. Yeah, like it's calcified. And so I'm sure. I'm sure there'll be some arthritis at some point in time that'll that'll set in. But but I was I was pretty fortunate. Uh. Of course, we weren't allowed to know, use our hands in the early stages of my career. We had to you know, make fist cup our hands and uh and then down the stretch though I did have a few years where I could reach out and grab someone. All right. Tenth and final Twitter question, did

you ever see yourself as a coach? Yeah? I thought about that, uh, you know, quite quite a few times. And Forrest Greg was interested in seeing if I'd have an interest in going up to Green Bay when when he was up there, and over the years, college coaches when I was doing Big twelve games, would would inquire from time to time about, you know, maybe coaching with their respect to schools University of Texas, Oklahoma State, and UM. The recruiting part of that was I thought, man, that's

that's that's a big time uh task. There you're you're on you're on call twenty four to seven. They're recruiting players. If I were going to do it, I would have tried it at the NFL level, I think, and I just decided, okay, either coach or a broadcast when I was done playing, and for the sake of the family,

I honestly wanted to coach. I did want to give it a try because I felt like it was always easier to go from player to coach to broadcaster instead of the other way around, from a you know, player to broadcaster to coach, because you've gone to the other side when you go to the broadcast end of it. But you know, from a family perspective, family wasn't as

excited as I was about the coaching possibility. So I decided to stay in Cincinnati and get into the broadcast end of it and let my kids stay in the same city and grow up as Cincinnati was born and raised here, and now they're here with their children, are married with children themselves. So from a family perspective, a

great decision, I think. I think you know, it's appreciated by them, but you know, I still every once in a while, I still think about it, and you know, at the age I'm at now though, I'm just glad to be in the booth of the Hall of Famer like you, Dan well On behalf of Bengals fans and myself, I'm glad you chose broadcasting because obviously you're You're awesome at what you do and we appreciate it well, thank you very much, and it's awful easy to work with

you and your joy you really are. You make you make the game fun. In your Hall of Fame shows that you're the best there is man. Thanks buddy, I appreciate that very much. All Right. That concludes ten Twitter questions with Dave Lapp them. Thanks Lap. The Bengals two Day Rookie Miniicap is coming up this weekend Friday and Saturday, May tenth and eleventh. In this week's Fun Facts interview, we get to know the person under the pads with one of the rookies who is expected to play a

significant role this year. Time for some fun facts for the Bengals second round draft pick in twenty nineteen, Tight Andrew Sample out of the University of Washington from Bellevue, Washington. Tell us a little bit about your hometown. Describe Bellevue Bellvie's definitely a booming city, really nice area, big city, just somewhere I grew up my whole life. So met

a lot of family. I have a lot of family there, um a lot of connections there, met a lot of different people from lot different places, so it's it was a special grown up there. What did or do your folks do for a living? Uh? So, my mom's a VP at Nordstrom um and my dad is currently stay at home dad, so he he looks after my brother and sister. Right now, we've got a Nordstrom here. Do you get like a thirty percent employee child discount or something? I think once once I got married, I think that

would away. But I did get a little bit of discount for a while. But my mom helps She helps us out a lot so yeah, it's it's great. She's great. What were some of your interest growing up. I've always been I've always been big in sports. Uh. My dad ran track at CAW. My mom played field hockey and softball in college too, So I just grew up around sports. Actually, um, I grew up a water around hockey. I played hockey for about ten years. Football I started didn't start playing

football tells in high school. So I kind of grew up playing hockey. Um, that was kind super what I was into, and then fell in love with football, started playing that in high school and then kind of just went from there and ended up working out pretty well. I'm trying to picture you on skates. That had to be pretty intimidating. Yeah. I wasn't as big as I am now so, but I was definitely one of the

bearer kids. But you know, hockey, I still enjoy you know, watching hockey, and it was it was a really cool sport. So your dad ran college track, he said, what was he a sprinter? Was he a distance guy? Yeah, he was a sprinter and a hurdler, so he did he did a little bit of both of that. So that's where um, yeah, that's where I get a lot of my GenEx from both my parents, so it's good we're visiting the Drew sample. How'd you wind up playing tight end? Uh?

So my first football practice I was playing the offensive line and I think just during a water break, one of the coaches like, go along, ran just like straight on like a little baseball field. Caught. He threw me the ball. I caught it, and he's like, all right, you're a tight end. So that was that was kind of that, and then played played that all through high school in college and and got here. So we ended up working out very scientific method for winding up at

the tight end position. I read a story in one of the Washington area newspapers that you originally going to go to Boise State. How'd you wind up at Washington instead? Yeah, so, you know, I wasn't very highly recruited out of high school. I played at school. We ran like the triple option wishbone. We caught like ten passes or twelve passes my senior year, so I was basically a six offensive lineman. You know, we ran the ball. So I had to go to

a lot of different camps. I had a couple of small offers from like D one double, a couple of smaller D one schools, and so I went to a Boise State camp like full padded camp, did like three days there and at the end, my dad and I went in to coach Beat's office and they offered me and he kind of went into you know, his built for life, his vision for me, you know, outside of football as a man and as a football player, and

I just kind of fell in love with that. That kind of just embodied everything that I feel like I'm about and I just really connected with that. So basically committed there. Was really excited to be a part of that kind of the underdog mentality there at Boise I was. I was excited. And then he ended up getting the job at Washington and asked me to come with him, and it was a no brainer. You know, I live like fifteen minutes away, so um, I was really excited to be able to play for you know, be in

the program with coach Pete. And then the other cool thing was I was able to we were able to kind of start it. I was part of his first class. Um, you know, we hadn't had a ton of success in the last couple of years, and then you know, we kind of restarted everything and got ended up getting you know, winning two Patrol Championship, getting to New Year's Six Bowls, So you know, I feel like it definitely left left better than I found it. So I think that's pretty special.

We're talking to tight end Drew sample Coach Pete. For those who don't know, is Chris Peterson, the head coach at Washington. I have seen you refer to him as one of the best coaches in any sport. That's high praise. Yeah, I mean, I think he's amazing just you know, not only from a football side, his attention to detail, his willingness to learn, to grow, to change, but just his you know, he's just so humble. He's such a man

of high character. I think that's I don't want to say it's hard to find, but I think, you know, in college football he's he definitely, you know, stands out to me as someone who who I think does it right. And I think, you know, the program is the last couple of years has been reflective of that. So you know, he's definitely someone Ever since I met him, I looked up to him and I'm really everything that he has said and brought to me just really hit home with me.

Your final college game was the Rose Bowl against Ohio State. The end result wasn't what you wanted, but you caught a touchdown pass in the Rose Bowl. What a way to finish your college career. Yeah, no, I mean the game, you know obviously didn't go how he wanted. But to be able to go out, you know, with a touchdown,

I guess selfishly was was pretty cool. But you know it was special to be able to get to the Rose Bowl, to win another Patrol Chamanship, and then you know, to play on that stage was definitely something that I'll remember forever. You got married prior to your senior year of college. Your wife, Angelina is sitting nearby as we do this interview. Did your teammates used to give you a lot of grief for being the married guy your

senior year? Actually, no, because I wasn't the first. So Gray Gaines RG tackle he got married this summer before, and then we had another office line in the year before that getting so there was it wasn't It wasn't like the first, so I definitely didn't get probably teased as much as maybe those guys, but you know, they were super supportive, so it was it was pretty cool. How did you two guys meet? So we met at I was a freshman at Washington. She was a senior

in high school. She was visiting you dub on a college visit and played football with some of the guys she was with. They kind of introduced us, started talking dating when from there, and now we're married expecting So it's pretty special. Congratulations, that is awesome. We are doing fun facts at Bengals tight end Drew sample. What was the strangest thing about the draft process for you? Uh,

the strangest thing just PopEd and prodded at the combine. Yeah, like that was probably up there, like when we're doing our medical and you there's like a couple of guys, a couple like medical guys on each limb and then other guys are trying to talk to you and you kind of just feel like a little puppet. But that was probably the strangest. I didn't get too many, um crazy question, which was good, so, you know, I enjoyed it. It was long, but it was you know, obviously it

was definitely worth it. So but yeah, that was probably the craziest thing. All Right, A few wildcard topics, your favorite athlete in any sport. I really like I'm a big Tom Brady fan. I think just the type of competitor he is, just what he's been able to do for such a long time, I think that's pretty special.

So he's someone I always always look up to, and you know, read stuff about just his mentality and his mindset, and you know, the type of work he put said, I think that's something that I kind of gravitate towards. So I would say him, you may have not even taken a deep dive into the schedule yet this year, but you will see him here at Paul Brown Stadiums. Yeah, no, I saw that. Yeah, look at the schedule, you know last night, and so we play some good team. So

I'm going back to Seattle game one. So it'll be it'll be fun. I'm excited. Yeah, let's talk about that. I mean, your first NFL regular season game will be in your hometown. How surreal is that going to be? It's it's gonna be pretty special. You know. Uh, you know obviously growing out there, I know that's a that's a pretty tough place to play. So, um, you know, one of my best friends is tight end for the Seahawks will so, um, definitely a lot of cool aspects

of that game, and I'm excited for it. Other than football, what do you do well? I feel like I do a lot of things. Well, I don't know that. I feel like I'm a I'm a good husband. Hopefully I'm would be a good dad. You guys chose to find out the gender before your daughter was born, right? Was that a no brainer decision? It wasn't at first. I wanted to for sure. Once we once we kind of got into it though, we both were like, we we

really want to know. So we had a little gender reveal and stuff, and I'm really excited to be having a baby girl. Oh, you did the gender reveal? So how did we find out the pink? There was like a box and so we lifted the box up and my dad rigged this crazy like smoke thing and some balloon. So we lifted the box off and there was pink smoke and pink balloon and so it was pretty cool. I'm old enough that the gender reveal did not exists. It's crazy, all right. So I asked you, other than football,

what you are good at? How about what you're terrible at? I'm sure my wife has more answer. I should just walk over to Angelina and ask her. All right, I, for example, and the world's worst dancers. So if somebody asked me that question, that would be on the top of my list. But I'm not trying to, you know, suggest that you can dance it. Now, that's pretty spot on dancing singing. I'm not very artistic. That's like that, drawing, dancing, singing,

any of that. I don't really have much artistic talent in that regard. So I guess that's that's something that I do not do well. I can sing, but I'm not going to prove it to you. All right, you're off the hot seat. Congratulations, I'm being a second round draft pick. It's an extraordinary achievement, the result of a lot of hard work, and we look forward to seeing you play in Cincinnati. Yeah, thank you. I'm looking forward to getting to work and getting back to 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, Stitcher, Google Play, Spotify, or pod Bean, and if you have a minute, please give it a rating or leave a comment. Your feedback has been very helpful in five Star race things help more Bengals fans find this podcast. I'm Dan Horde and thank you for listening to the Bengals Booth podcast