Bengals Booth Podcast: Tick Tick Boom

among the spectators. In between his coaching stops in Cleveland and Cincinnati. I'll discuss that and much more with the Bengals team president. The Bengals Booth Podcast is presented by bud Light. Seltzer Refreshed the Game and here's a quick reminder that you can have the latest edition of this podcast delivered right to your phone, tablet, or computer by subscribing on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, Spotify, or pod Bean.

It's the greatest thing since a fast gas pump. There's nothing worse than when you go to fill up your tank, squeeze the trigger and the digits on the gas pump begin to turn over very slowly. A job you thought was going to be quick and easy becomes a pain in the you know what. On the flip side, it's highly satisfying when you begin filling the tank and those numbers start spinning so quickly that you feel like you're

about to set a world record. I had that experience this week at a UDF on Beechmont, av not far from the Reeves golf Course. I have dubbed it the Usane Bolt of gas pumps. Now, let's get to football. The Bengals open training camp this week and on Thursday, about two hours before taking the field for practice, Joe Burrow sat down for a TV taping with former Bengals quarterback Boomer Assiasin. The producers of the segment came up with a great idea as the two qbs watched and

discussed each other's game film. I got to listen into quite a bit of it, and I am sure it will be a great segment. It will run on Thursday Night Football when the Bengals host Jacksonville in Week four. This was only the second time that the two of them have seen each other in person. The first time they met, Boomer, handed Burrow a Cincinnati Helmett and welcomed him to the Bengals family on the CBS pregame show

the day after Joe won the Heisman Trophy. After taping their segment for the NFL Network on Thursday, the nineteen eighty eight, NFL MVP discussed Burrow with me and my broadcast partner Dave Lapham. Do you believe in an IT factor for quarterbacks? And if so, does Joe have it? Yeah? You know, I do. I absolutely do. I'd like to think I had it, whatever it was, But I know

what the in factor is. The effect is when you walk into the room, there's an immediate respect that it's accorded you because of the way you carry yourself you're both on the field and in the meeting rooms, and your dedication to the sport, and then of course your relationships that you have. So think about the way that he played last year as a rookie. Think about how he handled the offense and everything else. He's making checks at the line scrimmage, he's calling for his own number

on a quarterback draw when he reads a defense. Ebra Flews tried to flush him out with his own blitz and he stood in there knowing that he had enough blockers and hit T Higgins down the sideline. Those are things I was incapable of doing. I just faked it. But he doesn't. You know, he's the real deal. You can tell, and you could tell that he has that part of it physically, and I think his mental game is really about as sharp as you know you would expect.

What's the first time you met him when when he came to CBS for the Heisman Trophy, you know, ceremony type deal, the show. What was your first impression of What was it about him stood out to you? I was surprised how big he was. He didn't look that big on TV, maybe because he was playing at LSU when he's playing against other big teams and he was on a big team himself. But I was shocked at how big he was. I thought he was two inches

smaller than that. And seeing him now from that was probably about what eighteen nineteen months ago, maybe twenty months ago. He's a man. Now, he's a full fledged man, so he looks great, and I know he was dedicated this offseason to overcoming the knee injury, which is another part of the responsibility of view as a player and of course the ultimate leader of the team. So he's dedicated himself to be ready to go one hundred percent, and

I think all the players will respond to that. So with a segment you recorded today, that's the longest amount of time you've spent with him so far. What stood out in that conversation. He's pretty relaxed. I mean, he could do TV right now if he wanted to. I'm like, what you just did that one? Take hold on. It's not supposed to be that easy. But I guess this generation's a little bit more advanced than our generation is. He knows his stuff. You know, he knows his players,

he knows where credit needs to be given. You could tell that. You know, he wasn't sitting there extolling his own virtues. He was talking about a center. He's talking about his wide receiver, talking about his running back. Look at this block here by this offensive tackle. I mean, so he loves his coaches and you could tell that. You know that part of him that is the biggest question mark for every coaching staff and every organization is easibly answered and he has it. He definitely has it.

The thing that a trait that you and he have in common. In my opinion, you both have unbelievable people skills, and you make everybody feel important, you know. I mean, there's not one guy that's involved in the mix that you don't make feel like he's the most important guy and his contribution is the most important. That's a hell of a talent to have. Hell yeah, it is probably the most important talent. Especially when you're in a huddle with ten guys games on the line, They're looking at you.

They know whether or not you have what it takes to call the right play, to get the team into the right play, to make sure you have the right pass protection, communicating with your other ten players within five second sound bites at the line of scrimmage, whether it be hand signals, whether it be yelling something at the top of your lungs, but just generally leading your football team. So it's an attribute that you want to be able

to check the boxes of a player. So he's got the size, he's got the arm strength, he can run, and now he has the most important aspect to who he is, and that's the dedication to the game that everybody else feeds off of. But he does it in a way that is not condescending, which is really important for a leader to carry himself that way. So, if I know one thing, he's a better player than I ever was already. You know, I can see it. Really, yes, I do think it, and he's a much more accurate

pastor than I was. But he's also fearless. He's not afraid to throw the ball down the field, which is in today's game, is going to be valuable for them to move forward and to be successful. I think he's going to be. He'll be in the running for Comeback Player of the Year. I believe even though he played ten games, he's still got hurt. He's still had to overcome an injury here this offseason, and I think they

have like an underrated, sneaky kind of talent here. I'm not going to sit here and tell you they're going twelve and five, but I think that you know, they're going to be in the mix because these other teams in this division aren't perfect. They all have scars or wartz somewhere along the line. And you know, Cleveland is probably the best team, I think, but that doesn't mean that Cincinnati can't sneak up on them as well. Ken Anderson told me last week that Burrow is going to

be better than he ever was. You're saying that he already is. I think that might be a little bit of an exaggeration, but that's pretty extraordinary that the two best quarterbacks in this franchise's history have seen a guy play ten games at the NFL level and are already saying those types of things. Well, the only reason I said that is because Carson Palmer told me that. And

he's another one. You know, Jordan worked with Joe a lot when he was coming out in college, and Carson told me, Boomer, this kid is great and he was not wishing for the Bengals to draft him. And I'm sitting there going, wait a minute, he's from this area, that he's this is the perfect guy for this team, can't miss. And I think we all think that because, look, he won a Heisman, won the national championship, so his arc of success is far ahead of where we were

at this time in our and our careers. And I think that's why we all feel this way. So it's it's a good thing to feel this way. There's a lot of pressure on the young man, but he seems like to absorb it. Seems like he absorbs it very well and probably fuels him to be even greater, and hopefully he does. Oh, we all want a Super Bowl championship. That would be great, and maybe that would kick off this whole new kind of reflecting back on the great

players of this organization, which has been long overdue. When I played in the seventies and eighties, the game was one way. When you guys were playing in the late eighties and into the nineties, that Super Bowl era, it was a lot different. How different is today's game from when you played? More wide open now than ever before. You know, the rules are such where offenses really need to be able to throw the ball down the field to big, wide receivers, and this is exactly what the

Bengals have. They're loaded at these positions. Jamar Chase, you know, has a potential to be a Rookie of the Year. That's how good. You know. I think that this team can be offensively, especially with Joe and Jamar in their history at LSU. But you know, back an hour day, you know, it was more run oriented. I still think you have to run the ball effectively. You still have to be a more physical team than the team you're playing against. You can only especially in outdoor weather stadiums

like we have at Paul Brown Stadium. You have to be able to run the football. It can't always be about throwing the ball forty five times and completing you know, you know, thirty five passes for four hundred yards, because you're gonna up losing those games if the other team is controlling the football. So I think there still has to be balanced, but there's definitely an uptick in the big play capabilities of the offense since we were playing.

Final question for me, what do you think the biggest challenge is he faces coming back from his knee injury. Just trusting that he's one hundred percent, you know that first couple of times he gets hit. I'm sure every running back will tell you that, every wide receiver will tell you that. Anybody who's ever played and had a knee injury, we'll tell you that. So it's going to be trusting that it's stable and that he can that

he can take a hit. I think he feels pretty comfortable about it just talking to him, but that's probably the biggest thing, and I bet you he's itching to get on the field. You know, he sat there and he told me he watched all of Justin Herbert's games and how much fun it was to watch Justin Herbert. He wants to be that guy again, and I know he can't wait to get back on the field. So I think he's going to be ready and rare to go, and it's gonna be fun to watch. A quick question,

I have one more follow up to what you're talking about. Hit. Everybody has boxes to check after surgery and getting a hit, that one hit is the final one. Get up. Yeah, I'm good. Do you think he should play in the preseason. He seems like he wants to take some snaps in the preseason in the organization doesn't want any part of it. What do you what do you think? You know? I think I would think like him. I'd want to play. I wanted to play in the preseason. I wanted to

get hit. I wanted to feel the rush of the game, even though the game didn't mean anything. You're still out there with your teammates. You're calling your plays, even though they may be the most basic of plays, but you still want to feel like you can go out there and do it and I hope they let him play at some point. I'm not saying that they. I doubt the third preseason game any starters playing, so it's probably

going to be the second preseason game. I would think at least give him a couple series, or give him a quarter, or give him two quarters, and just let him wet his feet, let him know that that need's okay, and let him take some hits. I mean, it's part of the game, that's part of the whole situation. And look, he's been out now for what eight months? I guess there are nine months, yeah, nine months, So I think

it's he's ready to go. And he's not a running back, he's a quarterback, and you know he needs to feel the pressure and feel the pocket and live hitting. So that's why I would want him to play. And I know that I would want to play me too. I mean that's the same thing as a players all want to They want to get before the regular season starts. You want to take that hit and get up and

say final box checked. Everything's good. All right. My last question, I can't talk to you without talking about Gunner and we're all Dad's here. What you've done as a father chokes me up. I mean, it's unbelievable. And your son, you've extended his life, You've given him a better quality of life. He just got married. I mean, Boomer, it's unbelievable what you've done. You know, I will tell you. It's probably my proudest moment is watching him walk down

the aisle. But right prior to that, a lot of people didn't know that it was on Father's Day weekend. I don't know if they set that up. I'm not really sure because Darcy, his wife, is really close with her dad as well. And the Thursday night before the wedding, he and Darcy handed me my Father's Day gift and it was a sonogram in a plexiglass frame, and I've started bawling. I've never been so emotional in my life.

And the interesting thing about Gunner, because of cystic fibrosis, if you want to be the biological father, they have to go in and they have to take your sperm out of your testicles, which is not a very which is not easy at all. But you have to be dedicated to do this and he is and obviously is dedicated, and his wife was going through ivy app on the other side for the woman, which is not easy either, and they had to go through all the genetic testing

and everything else. And they had four eggs. And I'm always saying this publicly because they've written about it and they've talked about it. They placed one end, they didn't know whether it was going to be male or female, and then after four about four months, they found out that it was a baby boy. And I've always said this about everything that I've ever done in the world of the fibrosis, that my only two goals are one that my son outlived me in the second is that

he becomes a father himself. And when they handed me that thing, I just I couldn't talk. My daughter was laughing at me, and that whole weekend was like a blur to me. And it's everything that I could have ever asked for. That is tremendous. Yeah, this is such a treat. Thank you so much for your time. We always appreciate it. It's fun. It's fun to see you guys. Since its inception, the Boomeris Siasin Foundation has raised more than one hundred and fifteen million dollars to support research

toward a cure for cystic fibrosis. As well as programs directly benefiting the cf community. The Bengals Booth podcast is presented by Bud Light Seltzer. It's light and refreshing with a hint of fruit flavor. At the beginning of the week, just before training camp got under way, the Bengals held their annual media luncheon, where Zach Taylor and his coordinators

discussed the upcoming season with Cincinnati area reporters. It's also the one time each year the team president Mike Brown does an extensive series of interviews, including a few offbeat questions from me. Time for a new round of fun Facts with Bengals President Mike Brown and Mike As we record this interview, the Olympics are going on in Tokyo. The last time the games were there in nineteen sixty four, your father wasn't coaching at the time, and he attended.

Did you ever talk to him about him making that trip, what events he watched, people he met, etc. I did, and he was very impressed with the nation of Japan. He came back and said how ordered and cleanly everything was, the people were. They behaved towards visitors in a way that you would want. They won him over and he was a guy was in the service during World War Two, so that just speaks to the Japanese nation. That was

the nineteen sixty four Summer Olympics. In sixty eight, Tommy Smith won the gold medal in the two hundred meters and famously did a Black Power salute on the metal podium with bronze medalist John Carlos. Shortly after that, Tommy joined the Bengals and he was with this franchise for three years. His only catch went for forty one yards and he dislocated his shoulder on that play. What are your memories of Tommy Smith? I remember him fondly. He

was a nice young man. He was the fastest sprinter in the world at the time, but oddly in football, speed is majored in a shorter distance and his takeoff was not as fast his ending spurt, if you will, which was phenomenal. Once he got up and running, he had this mammoth stride and he just ran away from people.

But over forty yards we had a number of players who could match him, and that was something that registered with me because it showed how quickness counts in football we believed at the time, and I believe still that people have the right to have their say. He did what he did. I don't know how much planning went into it, but it made such an impact. It was incredible, but it didn't seem hostile. It was more a statement

about we're here, part of everything, don't forget us. I took it in that sense, and I can say is once more as a person. He was a wonderful young man. I know you love baseball and watch Red's games regularly. Are there any other sports that you enjoy watching the NBA, golf, the Olympics, anything else? Pretty much anything I like watching sports. I watch golf. I find those guys incredible. The pressure on them is just something that has to be seen to believe, and they have to bear up under it,

and they do. I watch the NBA games. My prospective grandson in law affiliated with the NBA basketball and he on occasions tolerates my questions and helps me understand what's going on. But they're incredible athletes. They have this huge ability to run, jump, shoot at the far out distances. I don't know how they do it. They're fun to watch. We're doing fun Facts with Bengals President Mike Brown the Cleveland Indians are in the news for choosing a new name,

the Guardians. The Browns, of course, were named for your father. Did he like that or did it make him a little uncomfortable? This one will amaze you. I never talked to him about it, and as far as I know, neither did anybody else. It was a dead topic what the name was. And I do know that there were suggestions by some that it was named after Joe Lewis,

the Brown Bomber, and I don't think so. As all I can say there, the story was that they ran a contest in a Cleveland paper to name the team, and they came out with the name Panthers as the winner. My father felt that Panthers had already been taken by the University of Pittsburgh and he didn't want to have the same name. Then they paid the guy the award for picking the winner and chose another winner instead, and he did that. And if you find out, let me

know why. Once Cinnati got a franchise, was there any talk of taking the Brown's name in Cincinnati. Well, it was in Cleveland at the time, obviously, and what happened there was unlike what happened in Cleveland recently with the Indians, where they had some sort of massive study to come up with the name Guardians for the future. You can say that's a great choice or not, but ours was very simple. There was a luncheon. It was my father

and John Sawyer. Dave Gamble was there and that was it, and they discussed how to name the team, and my dad said, well, someone thought we should name it the Rhinos because that would tie into the German background in Cincinnati. Rhine, and it's an animal, big and powerful. And my dad said his sister, my aunt had called him and told him, Paul, whatever you do, don't name that team the Rhinos. A rhino is a big, dumb, slow animal, and you don't want your team known in that way. So they settled

on Tiger. John and Dave both went to Princeton. That was all right with them. My dad said it was all right with him. He had coached the masslind Tigers for nine years and he said, I know how to use that kind of symbol. And since I didn't have a vote and was just sitting there, I said nothing. So that's how the name came to be. Among your father's many innovations was the use of game film as a teaching tool. You rarely miss a practice. I know that.

What about watching game film? Is that something that you enjoy? Well, I am curious about it. I take time to look at our game film. I do it after every game, and then I go home. It satisfies curiosity. You build up false ideas of what really happened, and then when you run it back and forth a few times and look at it closely, the reality of it comes across and you accept it for what it is. I am astonished anymore at how quickly we have that available. It's

a nice thing. In my book, Seattle coach Pete Carroll turns seventy in September, Bill Belichick is sixty nine. Your father was sixty seven when he retired, and the team won eleven and three in his final season. That's the best winning percentage in franchise history. Why did he stop at sixty seven? And did you try to talk him out of it? Believe me, I would not have tried to talk him out of anything that he had decided to do. It would have just said yes, sir and

marched on. He called me over and told me he was going to retire as a coach. He thought it was time. He was aware of some other guys who were active and he thought stayed too long and he didn't want to just front. It was the term he used, and it was a decision that he wrestled with, but he felt it was proper time and did what he thought was best for him, his reputation, and for the team's future. We had good people. We had Bill Johnson and Bill Walsh as coaches on the team. We had

people to turn to. This is the anniversary of the nineteen eighty one Super Bowl team, and if you pulled fans on the greatest game in Bengals history, the overwhelming winning answer would be the Freezer Bowl January of eighty two. Air temperature nine below windshill fifty nine below, beat the Chargers to go to the Super Bowl. San Diego owner Gene Kleine tried to get you to move that game

to San Diego. Correct. Yes, he ran into me upstairs in the press box area close to it and had this good idea of postponing the game and moving it to San Diego because it was so cold. No one should win to have a game in this temperature should they. That was an easy one for me. We saw that as a considerable advantage. We were able to play in that kind of weather. It fit us. They had fouts, the top quarterback who probably would have played better in

the sunshine. It was something that amused me at the time and still does. But I don't fought him for asking. It doesn't hurt to ask, that's for sure. Did you have any issues that day along the lines of did your car start, did the pipes freeze at riverfront? Anything like that? Well, we went through a cold time in Cincinnati.

I don't know much about weather, but for two or three years around that Super Bowl year, the weather was just The winners were just colder than here, a colder here than they have been otherwise ear in my lifetime here. And you got used to things. You really did the kid icicles in the living room. But that he would, uh, it was just phenomenally cold, day in and day out. To his credit Forrest, Greg was our coach and he

had played up at Green Bay. That was his background, and he did not give into the cold, and he would not allow the players to give into the cold. We practiced just as normal, We did everything just as though it were sunny and eighty degrees, and it was a leadership he generated on that that our players began to see it as an advantage, something that they could manage, and whoever we were going to play would have problems with. And I think they were right on that. You and

Forrest were great friends. You and your wives socialized together. What would people be surprised to learn about Forrest greg Well, he was seen as a big, strong guy, and he was that, and he was seen as a tough guy, a demanding With the football team, he was that, but away from the football team, in private, he was just a big pussy cat. He was a wonderful guy. I really delighted in his company. I loved the guy. We were good friends when he was here, and I think

back in those times with great fondness. You've said before you consider that eighty one team to be the best Enfranchise history. What was it about that team that makes you feel that way. Oh, we had all the pieces, and we were ahead of the curve and some of the things we did head of the wave. It was a combination of both. We had a good quarterback and

Ken Anderson. There wasn't much lacking on that team. So when we lined up against people, we were confident, and unfortunately in the Super Bowl we lost to the forty nine ers. I honestly think we were the better team. I felt that. It just I still feel that we fumbled the ball away. Things happened, but if we played them ten times, I still believe we would have won the majority of them. This has been a treat As always, I appreciate your time. Thank you very much. Okay, I

appreciate visiting with you. Thanks the Boomer and Mike. And that's going to do it for this episode of the Bengals Booth Podcast, brought to you by Bud Light Seltzer refreshed they If you haven't done so already, please subscribe and if you have a minute, give it a rating or share a comment that helps more Bengals fans find this podcast. I'm Dan Horde, and thanks for listening to The Bengals Booth Podcast