Bengals Booth Podcast: Waiting All Day

we'll be on the call again this Sunday. Offensive line coach Frank Pollock joined me to discuss going into postseason play without two of his five starters. And then you'll hear from ESPN's Coolie Harvey, who has done exceptional work over the last week reporting on Damar Hamlin at his incredible recovery. The Bengals Booth Podcast has brought to you by Kettering Health, the official healthcare provider of the Bengals.

With more than one hundred twenty care facilities and fifth hundred care providers, Kettering Health is committed to guiding you to your best health. Visit ketteringhealth dot org to learn more. Now 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 wherever you get your podcasts. It's the greatest thing since Bad Sisters. At the end of every calendar year, I love reading critics lists, such as

the top ten TV shows of twenty twenty two. When I read those this year, I kept seeing a show I had never heard of called Bad Sisters. So my wife and I started watching it. We've seen five of the ten episodes so far, and we are hooked. It's an Irish show and a black comedy that revolves around the death of the husband of one of five sisters. And let me just say, the husband character played by an actor I had never heard of named klace Bang, might be the biggest a hole in TV or movie history.

So once again, the show is called Bad Sisters and it's on Apple TV. Perhaps you're like me and subscribe to Apple TV in order to watch ted Lasso and then completely forgot that you had it for the last fifteen months. I now feel a little less stupid for not canceling. Now let's look ahead to Sunday night. For the second straight year, the Bengals opened the playoffs at home.

They ended a three decade drought without a playoff victory last year, and now they'll try to do something they have never done before, win playoff games in back to back seasons. If you're not fortunate enough to have a ticket on Sunday and plan to watch the game on NBC, you'll be listening to my first guest on this episode of the pod, my Drico and Chris collins Earth will be in the TV booth on Sunday night, and my old college buddy I shouldn't have said old. My college

buddy from university joins older. Actually you're older. It's nice to be around young people. I always like you. How are you, pal, Mike? I'm great now. I know that you would have been thrilled to call any playoff game this weekend. But what was your reaction to NBC getting the Bengals and Ravens on Sunday night? Well, you look much like marriage. If your other half is happy, you're happy. So Collinsworth getting a home game makes him happy. Therefore,

the entire aura feel around the game immediately changed. We didn't know until that Lions game ended. In fact, like that game ended, we're short and postgame watching Aaron Rodgers, look around, Lambo and all that. And as we're going off the air, I'm handed what the schedule is, and so I looked at Chris and said, we're going to Cincinnati, and he's really happy, and so am. I too wanted to drive, So that's good. I don't have to go.

I don't have to clear security to get to the city, which is always a bonus for me living in Michigan. But secondly, it'll be nice to be back. There was no way in the world when I did this drive fifty two weeks ago did I think the Bengals were about to embark on a run to the Super Bowl. I got a chance called the Raiders game last year, and you know what, now, they're right there in the conversation with Buffalo and Kansas City. Nobody would be surprised

if they repeat and go back. What stood out to you in calling that game, that victory over the Raiders last year in Cincinnati. I'll tell you what stood out Dan. It was that morning. I'm like you, a breakfast guy, an O dark thirty guy, especially on a game day.

I was ready to go. It was a mid afternoon start, so I got up early and just took a walk into downtown round seven thirty eight whatever it was, and people were tailgating, and people were just out, and Bengals jerseys were out, and I remember we're still We're kind of in another COVID surge at that point, so it was just a little bit from being fully opened, right. People were so excited for the game, and I remember walking backing, this is gonna be a really good scene.

And as the bowl of the stadium filled and the entire day was just this great energy and passion that a city dying for a winner would show, and they did in spades. It was a great It was so loud the fourth quarter. That was a fun day to be in what is now Paid Course Stadium. You also hosted the Super Bowl coverage from SOFI Stadium. Did you consider Cincinnati making it that far to be one of

the great Super Bowl underdog stories of all time? Absolutely? Absolutely, because you've gone all the years, as we've well documented, without a playoff win and all of that, and to see this team just keep building and gaining confidence, well, that was nice, that nice little win. Congratulations, you're not going to go on the road. Oh wait, you won that game Tennessee, there's no way you're gonna be kids. Well wait, you went to arrow Hunt. So yes, it

built all the way through. And the odd art is that Cincinnati didn't come in as the unbeatable team this year. So this year has almost been a microcosm of that.

You know, haven't lost since wat Hollowey Night right in Cleveland and run eight in a row here through November and December, and it really has a feel like it's been sneaking up on people because Buffalo was the hot team to start, and then as they went through many many things, even before the Hamlin tragedy, Kansas City had kind of emerged as okay, well that can't beat them. But nobody nationally has buzzed enough about Cincinnati until the last two or three weeks ago. Wait a minute, they've

won eight. I think maybe it was the second half against Tampa when everybody saw them do that and go, oh, they can do that on a defense that we think is pretty good. This team might be just as good again. So I think that buzz is now starting to happen. So you've got that Syracuse banner over your shoulder, so I'm going to test your new House School of Public Communication Education. Give give me one word to describe Joe

Burrow and why you would choose it. I've got like seven, only one, all right, I got I got one going, dude, And now there are a bunch of adjectives you can put on the front front end of dude to kind of build that out a little bit. He's a cool dude. We know that, the Joe cool, the cigar, the whole deal. He's a talented dude. Like man, I wish I was talented as that dude. I said it on the Super Bowl pregame and it got picked up in a couple of spots. He has an embraceable cockiness that's a super

hard lane to fill, you know what I mean. I mean most cocky guys are jerks, right, He's not a jerk. There's just like you know, he comes in dressed to the nines, the cigar post game. Most guys you make come on for some reason. With him, everything he does has a cool dude And there's that when he throws the ball, you know, he's just like a stunt. He's one of those great passers of the ball. And I think Dann when I watched at scramble. I guess it

was the first drive last week out of trouble. It'll throw people in around and gaining seven yards down that right sideline, and he's like all the way back from that ACL injury. Right. He's a really tough, talented dude. So I'm gonna go, dude, and I hope that I hope that answers the question sufficiently for me to keep my three zero in your class. Your new house professors would be proud. We're visiting with Mike Rico at this point.

We're having this conversation on Wednesday. There's no official word as to whether Lamar Jackson will play. He apparently did not practice on Wednesday. For the Ravens. Is Baltimore's formula for victory at this point essentially the same, whether he plays or doesn't, it is it's just not as dynamic, right, whether it's Tyler Hunley or Anthony Brown who played okay, I thought he played pasably well in the second half, especially given that was his first full game in the NFL.

You know, Dan, there's no one who can do what Lamar Jackson does, which is the conundrum that the Ravens are facing. This is about the playoffs, and it's one game, and that's really more important than a contract deal. But I am fascinated by this story playing out because you want to give him a lot of money because he's supremely talented. Look at this offense, like twelve and a half points since he's been out per game. They need

him to be dynamic. How many times has he been trapped in trouble and he's scooted to the skates and he's got a first down, he's gained thirteen yards, he goes out of balance, right, But the last two years he has not been able to finish the race. Four games last year. Five. If it's a playoff miss this year,

that's six. And I don't know if you say, hey, I'm comfortable guaranteeing him all this money considering that he can never get this all the way through or hasn't gotten it all the way through the end of the last two seasons. So there's a big conundrum there to the specifics of this game. You can't be as dynamic. The receiving corps is not one of those elite receiving corps by a wide stretch. It's probably as weak as any receiving Corps in the NFL playoffs. That's not disrespecting

those players. But Tyland Wallace hasn't done anything. James Prochet only caught eight balls this year. Sammy Watkins, we know he's bounced around because the top five pick. His best days are behind him. And they brought into Marcus Robinson to be a three. They could not be faulted for Rashad Bateman and Devin Duvernet getting injured with foot injuries going out, so you don't have that. It's Mark Andrews and a very unique, very dynamic run game, and I

don't know you lived every snap in the game. I just wonder if they ran the ball less than they normally do last week, just so they could keep a couple of their run game looks and tricks off tape for the Bengals for this week that the Bengals can go find them on tape. But this is one of the more unique running games in the NFL, and I wonder if they just kind of kept a few, And if they did, that's great. Great coaching by Roman and

by Harball and all those guys. So it is a somewhat unusual situation to have teams meet in the final game of the regular season and then in the first round of the playoffs. It has happened before, but it doesn't happen very often. The Bengals are pretty candid after the game last week, saying they didn't like some of the Ravens behavior. What kind of game do you expect on Sunday night? Right, So let's just start the game disliking each other. Let's right, division rivals in a playoff game,

that's good. And if you just played last week, that's even better. If you've just played you kind of ticked each other off, it's great. Now for the teams, go take a stupid penalty, right, you know what's that line?

That line's always hard to find. But don't give a free fifteen to a team that and either side, it's true, fifteen yards could mean given one of those really really good kickers a field goal opportunity, and no matter who, I feel like, if they threw us, well maybe not us, but but somebody of reasonable athletic ability under center or taking the pistol and shotguns snaps of the Ravens, I feel like they're gonna end up in some four point

sixteen to twelve game in the fourth quarter. Their defense is good and I think it's gotten better, and they were not too awful last week. And Marcus Peters wasn't there. So if you add him back into the mix with the guys up front, and they they got a Jabo ninety their defensive end who was drafted and who was on the other side of Aidan Hutchinson in Michigan. They've got people who can put some pressure on the quarterback. We know that has not been a strength of the

Bengals this year. Protecting Joe Burrow wasn't last year. It's better, but it's not great right now. So they're gonna They're gonna stay in the game. They always find a way to hang and stay in the game. So with all this little dislike amongst the teams, here, between the teams and amongst the players, don't don't give him a free fifteen because you know Tucker can hit a fifty five yard or you know from sleep pretty much the atmosphere

is going to be tremendous. We can't wait, appreciate your time, look forward to seeing you on Sunday, and not wait to be there back in the jungle for a playoff game. Hey, if it's gonna start. If it's just start an annual tradition, this is a really good one. I get to see you, I get to be in Cincinnati, Collinsworth gets a home game, I get the drive. So life's good. Look forward to being there. Thanks for having me on you the best.

I'll take it a step further. Mica schedule to call his first Super Bowl for NBC after the twenty twenty five season. Here's hoping that's one of his future Bengals postseason broadcasts. The Bengals Booth podcast is brought to you by Paycorps. More than twenty nine thousand customers trust Paycorps to help them recruit, pay, engage, and retain employees. Learn more at paycorps dot com. For the first fifteen games of the season, the Bengals had the same five starters

on the offensive line. Then right tackle l Collins tore his ACL on Christmas Eve even New England and was replaced by Hakimadenage and now right guard Alex Kappa suffered an ankle injury and last week's regular season finale, meaning that twenty six year old Max Sharping will take over. The timing couldn't be much worse and I discussed it

this week with offensive line coach Frank Pollock. Frank, injuries unfortunately are part of football, but can you describe the emotional toll on your group when you lose two of your starters in the final three weeks of the season. Yeah, I mean, the guys have built a bond up with each other over the course of the season, so when you when you lose two kind of mainstays that have

been their steady through most of the year. Both those guys kind of got off to a rough start with some injuries in camp, but they've been there since week one and and grown and improved that throughout that course.

So just losing those two guys, especially what they bring to the table from a tangel standpoint, leadership and the veteran roles that they really played for us, I mean, it's you miss those guys, and you know, guys, guys are going to rally around him, and you know it's just a cap, but obviously guys will worry on the sideline, you know, how bad is it? And so so we're hopefully he can come back at some point. Hopefully we're

still we're still around. Dave Lapham has been saying for at least a month that Alex Kappa played at a Pro Bowl level this year. What stood out to you in your first year. It's his coach, his awareness and smarts as a as a football player. He's very, very aware, very knowledgeable on schemes, not only from what we're trying to do offensively and then but what the defense is

trying to do, and he sees things. It's really impressive that he can a lot of times players don't see everything on the field when they're up in the trenches, even to me as a coach on the sideline trying to see everything. He talked to guys in a booth to get a better vision, but you're looking at the

pictures to get confirmation. He sees everything, and you can tell you right away, like he'll ask me, hey, did we get a pressure on that on the backside, He's I don't know how to check that out because yeah, because I feel you know, it's amazing because he knows the movement of the d line or the linebacker where he was playing or triggered wasn't normal, out of the ordinary,

and he sees all that's got great recall. So it's fantastic because that allows us on the sideline to have better, more meaningful conversations, to get to adjustments quicker and get to the right adjustments. Before he suffered his knee, entry Al Collins had been managing a bad back. He'd managed to answer the bell every Sunday. What did he show

you this year? He really showed me the maturity having him as a young player, saw him grow from a really a green rookie kind of wide eyed even coming from a big program as LSU, Just like, oh my god, because a lot of the guys that we had at that time in Dallas two are very very professional, very veteran, a a lot of young guys around, and him being kind of the young guy trying to come in and earn a spot, his eye opening for him and just

seeing his growth and learning everything. And then now having him come out here playing that role of mentor as the veteran and teaching the younger guys. It was kind of fun and neat to see him because he was the guy getting mentored when I was really there with him his first three years, and then now he's kind of, you know, graduated, if you will, and then providing that veteran leadership and that mentorship for some of the younger players.

That was awesome to see. We're visiting with Frank Pollock. One of those younger players is Hakim Adenigi, who's now playing right tackle, and it's basically taken virtually all of the snaps the last couple of games. Does he look more comfortable back at tackle, his college position than he looked last year playing guard? Yeah, I mean I think so. I think that's natural for everybody if you've played so long in one position, especially as a young guy, young

player to try to learn something new. It's different in the NFL, especially to go from outside the inside. Some guys make the adjustment. Some guys have a little harder time with it. But yeah, he looks play more comfortable. He looks more comfortablecause he'd be getting a ton of reps too, So like you mentioned LC, you know, we gave him a veteran day's rest to keep him healthy throughout the course of the season, so keem guy all those reps. So that's that's really paying dividends for him.

And you could see the comfort and the confidence that he's playing with and and doing a nice shot before is going to commend him. So he stepped in and done a really nice job. So the Bengals picked up Max Sharping off of waivers at the end of training camp. He'll make his first start as a Bengal this Sunday night. He was a three year starter in Houston. What did you know about him before you got him and how

valuable is that experience under these circumstances. Yeah, we obviously when he came out in the draft, really really liked him. In fact, we Frasier when I worked together with the Jets, we went out and worked him out. Frasier did out of Northern Illinois, so we were very aware of him. We liked him when he came out of the draft, like when he brought to the tables and tangibles his grids, toughness, is smarts and on top of his football skills. But and then him starting in the league is why we

really were excited to get him here because he brought experience. Obviously, we were gonna roll with a young rookie and Cordell who's proven that he belongs, which has been found tastic. But just to have that, for lack of a better term, in insurance policy, guy has been there, done that, and played a lot of games that came available to us. It's kind of a no brainer. Really excited because I knew that we liked him, and he's played a lot,

He's played a lot of good football. So we're fortunate enough to get him, and now we're fortunate enough that he's a guy's able to step in for Kappa. Ted Carris is one of those guys who makes me chuckle every time I see him. What has he added to your room? He's added leadership, He's he's added an attitude, He's added a mindset with how the room needs to prepare, how the room needs to view the game. As he's helping the younger guys, really learned to what it means

by being a professional. This isn't This isn't college. You're not on scholarship. There's no twenty hour rule. There's no limit on how much film you could watch or should watch, no limit on how much work you need to put in outside of the mandatory meeting and the practice time. What it means to take care of your body. Just having that veteran guy that's been there, done that, and just kind of the road that he's taken to get there, right.

I mean, he wasn't a high draft pick, so he's had to work and learn and grow to become that guy. And he's he's transferred or passed that along to a lot of these guys and it's been fantastic. He's what you want in the center. His leadership he exudes, and he's kind of in that same mold as cap as I mentioned earlier. He's very smart, knowledgeable of football. It just adds to the conversation throughout the week in the room, but also on the sideline on game day to make

meaningful adjustments. So the information that that he gives me, I know it's accurate and we're not speculator or guessing or just don't know. We're chatting. Frank Pollock. It took a little while for the offensive line to gel as anticipated. But were you concerned in weeks one and two or did you think it's only a matter of time. Yeah, I mean it's it's a matter of time. Tim. I knew the type of guys that we had. I knew how we work and how we prepare here, just with

my experience that men. Of course, you wanted it to be sooner than later. I think anybody with the right frame of mind in this business has a sense of urgency. I hate the varsity glide, I hate the too cool for school type of attitude. You cannot be that way in our room, the offensive line room, and they're not

coached that way. So I just knew with that room, having that type of a mindset and sense of urgency and the veterans and the leadership that we had in the room, that it was just a matter of time guys getting in the groove. And it's this is hard game. It's a hard business. The league got what you wanted, parody. The players on the other side and the coach on other side are excellent and damn good, and the margin

for errors razor thin. And if you're not working all three training camp to get yourself developed, to have that cohesive unit, especially on the offensive line, because it's not five individuals, it's five plane is one every play, you're gonna have a little chinks to get until you get that. And so it was just a matter of time that regards and those guys answered the bill that way. Let's talk about this week's opponent, Baltimore. When Wink Martindale was

the defensive coordinator. They were one of the blitz happy teams in the NFL this year under Mike McDonald. I think their twentieth in blitz percentage, but their third end points allowed, third and rushing yards allowed. They're tied for fifth in sacks. They're doing it differently, but they are as good as they always are. Correct. Absolutely, they're they're talented. They've got a lot of savvy veterans along their defense affront.

They've got really good linebackers that know how to run, read, diagnose, and pull the trigger. And then coupled with a good solid scheme and they and they pressure win an opportunistic times they would want to or need to if you will. So you pair that together with talent, then they're gonna be informable defense. And so you know, they're good. And we've played them a couple of times now and so we understand that they their quality opponent and we're taking

them with that approach. That there, damn Bill, we got to bring ready game. Last question for Frank Pollock. He played in a Super Bowl in ninety four, won a Super Bowl ring with the forty nine ers that year, coached in a Super Bowl last year. Did last year's Super Bowl run wets your appetite to get back there as soon as possible. The Super Bowl run wedding my appetite the moment I was dreaming as a kid, I

want to be part of the NFL. So playing and now coaching, it's just being able to come to work every day. That's what weps my appetite to go to a Super Bowl run. So that's that's why we're all here, It's why we all want to be in this profession.

It's for those moments. So that's something I always try to exude and remind the players that at the end of the day, I mean, there's a lot of ways you can go out and make money in the world, but you cannot experience this any other way except for playing and coaching and being able to earn that opportunity. So I'm excited and happy to be a part of this and in the role that I'm playing, and just

fired fired up to be here again. Very well, put appreciate your time, best of luck on Sunday Night, Beyond Bet, Thank you very much. The Bengals Booth podcast is brought to you by Bengals Picks and Ultimate Bengals they're free to play with tickets and signed merchandise up for grabs. Find both inside the Bengals app. Before we get to our final guest on this episode, I want to mention something that's coming up on Sunday's Countdown to Kickoff on

the Bengals Radio Network. My fun Facts guest will be Bengals President Mike Brown. I always get a lot of great feedback when Mike joins me, and here's a brief clip from this week's conversation. The players enjoyed victory cigars in the locker room after finishing twelve and four and winning the AFC North. Many of your fellow owners like to be in the middle of those postgame celebrations. You

choose not to why. I think it's their thing and I have a role here, but it's in some sense is important in in other ways, once machine gets going, it runs on its own. They deserves the credit they're doing it. I'm not doing it. I'm just sitting there watching like all the other fans are, and they do it. And I don't smoke cigars. I light his fun Facts interview with Mike should run at approximately seven forty five

on the radio pregame show on Sunday. I will also include it on the next episode of this podcast, brought to you in part by Alta Fiber future proof fiber Internet capable of delivering multi gigabit speeds designed to take your home, business, and community to a new level. Elevate your connection with Alta Fiber. In the last week, the recovery of Buffalo Bill's safety to Mar Hamlin has been nothing short of miraculous. He is now out of the

hospital and continuing his rehab at home. Since that incident last week, you've undoubtedly see Cooley Harvey covering the story for ESPN. Cooley used to cover the Bengals for that network, and he joined Dave Lapham and Wayne box Miller this week on the Bengals Game Plan show. They started with

Wednesday's uplifting developments from Buffalo. Really great news is the fact that DeMar Hamlin is not only out of the University of Cincinnati Medical Center, but he's also out of Buffalo General Medical Center here in Buffalo, which is where I am currently, and he's back home at his apartment here in the Buffalo area. To the doctors signed off completely and they say that now it's on the bills and him to allow his rehab to take the place.

So very positive news for him. He clearly passed all the tests that he had to go through yesterday and today. Um yeah, DeMar Hamlin has is here, you know, I being in the stadium of the night. It's it's amazing that we're at this point nine days Coolly, It's it's Steve Lapham. I just wanted to mention to you that my wife Lynna and I would wait until you came on ESPN to deliver an update because you're so factual,

but you're so compassionate. I mean, the way you delivered the reports about this young man was just riveting, you know, and uh informative. I mean you you're a pros pro man. You handled you handled yourself in a tough situation as well as I've ever seen anybody handle themselves. Man, kudos to you, man. Dave. First of all, it's really good to hear from you and and to talk to you again.

It's been a while, but um but yeah, man, it's I'm just glad that we're on this side of things because I feel like I can truly accept that right now. I had a hard time a few days ago, accepting people who were kind of saying the same things to me because we didn't know at that point what things look like with Tamar m So thank you. I just just doing my job in a week's time here now,

or maybe a little over a week's cut time. This young man, I mean, I guess twenty four years old and peak physical conditions that got unbelievable care from teams that stepped up and from a medical standpoint, handled themselves as well as it could be handled. A lot of factors there, but you saw a lot of things. What was the most impactful thing you saw over the last week or so, or maybe not just one, if you can't pick one, but maybe a couple of three things.

What impacted you the most, colle Something that really hit me Monday last Monday night was seeing how many fans just wanted to show up in the at that point

beginning to drain. It was beginning to drizzle at the hospital, and obviously most of them being Bengals fans, because although there were Bills fans in the city, I don't think they necessarily knew how to get to the hospital, but so many Bengals fans there and offering their prayers, offering their support, holding a candlelight vigil, just kind of at the drop of the hat. That's something that'll stick with me. Probably the biggest thing though, is, and I tweeted about

this the other teamwork. I felt like when I got on the ground at the hospital, you know. And what's kind of crazy, Dave, is the last time I heard your voice was when I was in an uber leaving the stadium. My uber driver had the radio onto the game and I heard Dan Hoord talking about the Bills stripping the sideline and hey, it's looking like this game might be over. We don't know. I remembered hearing that in the uber as I was headed to the hospital.

But when I got there on the ground, you know, other reporters, it didn't matter what outlet you were, you were, you were trying to help each other with, you know, just some nugget of information or or trying to connect you with the media relations person from the hospital or whatever the case may be, or holding an umbrell up or somebody. You know, it felt like it was a

really compassionate moment, uh that night. And that's always kind of gonna be my takeaway from this Um, you know one of my my sidewalk partner who I stood next to for those six seven days, Cameron Wolf. You and I used to work together ESCN belt work now and you know we shared that that time in that bond, So a teamwork is something that I think I'll take

away from from that as well. You know, Cooley, if I could ask you, we obviously and for dag on good reason, praise the first responders and how they handled this situation and the trainers on both sides and the coaches. Can you walk us through the moment that you had to transition from covering the game to covering the story going from pay Course Stadium over to UC. Yeah. I would say it was probably within ten minutes of the

medical emergency or so. I mean, you know, as we all when we all saw the ambulance come on the field. Of course, at that point, all the red flags are up. We know something serious is happening. Um, everyone in the press boxes making phone calls, the editors and producers, whoever the case may be. And you know, I actually I have to credit my colleague Ben baby H from ESPN. He was the one who jumped up right away and said we got to be at the hospital. I'm out

of here. He's the first person who actually got to the hospital from the stadium, So Ben Baby's hustle for for getting out of there when he did. You know, the thing that I'll always remember watching the tragedy, you know, the trauma that took place on the field, was the reaction of the players vomiting, vomiting, crying, turning their backs away from it. They didn't want to witness it, you know, rubbing their heads when they did see things they didn't

want to see, and crying. I was like, wow. And then see Joe Burrow go up to Josh Allen and say I'm so sorry, and I'm thinking, oh my gosh, how bad is this? You know, I will I will never forget that. What comes to your mind about the actual event itself, the unknowing, you know, I didn't see the actual collision live, you know, is when you're in the press box, you're kind of looking at the computer,

you're looking around, you're looking at TV. You know, I obviously saw a play happen, but I wasn't aware exactly what took place until you know, instantly the training staffs were both on the field and I even saw a couple of the the Bengals trainers very quickly, not too aggressively, calmly, but but basically telling their guys, think, get out of the way, get back to the sideline. So it was clear to me in that moment that even they realized

something very serious happened. And I again, I think we cannot think all of the training staffs enough, all of the members of these staffs enough, because when you look back on it now, it is clear that within those first couple of seconds, first couple of minutes, they realized that they had to act swiftly in order to save this young man's life. And if it wasn't for that,

we'd be telling a whole different story today. Can you imagine the courage that the assistant equipment manager who got the face mask and the shoulder pads off to the assistant trainer that provided the CPR. They they've been praised and rightfully, so the courage took for them to step up and do what they did as quickly as they did.

I mean, it's just it's unbelievable how everybody you know, an hour before the game, all these things are talked about and you hope you never have to do it, but for it to come off as flawlessly and as professionally as it did by everybody is stunning. Yeah, it is.

And I mean it speaks to the training. It speaks to the fact that UM and that that's these are professionals, and these are professionals to step up when the moment matters, you know, when when when the bullets are flying, so to speak, and you're a journalin is pumping, you just you just execute. And that's Steven with what I was doing this past week. I I kind of don't really remember a whole lot from Monday in terms of live

shots of various things that I was doing. And it's kind of because I got into this tunnel where Okay, this is the job at execute. We've got to get this fact right to make this phone call UM, and I would imagine in a in a much different way that's sort of what happened to them, where they're just in that that tunnel mind of you know, we just have to make sure this young man is okay and give them the care that we know we can give.

Right Coley, Before I let you go, I want to ask you quickly about the mood and Buffalo today yesterday has to be more of an air of relief and just it kind of you know, you just fill it into air when you get that good news, and even when you got the good news here that it allows people to move a little bit closer to normal. Yeah, you know, I shared this believe it was last Thursday, whenever we started to get our first inkling. You know that that was actually the day he ended up getting

the breathing too taken out. But before we knew about that, we knew that he was awake, we knew that he was responsive, we knew that he was geologically int and so the fact that we could hear all of that Thursday just you know, not even a full three days after this event happened. Um, you know I remember saying lanaire that I'm smiling for the first time all weekend. Yeah, the sun came out. You know, it was cloudy all week and Cincinnati and all of a sudden, in that moment,

the sun came out. And and that's that's how it feels here in Buffalo. The sun's not out right here right now in Buffalo. It's been it's been very overcast here. But um, but when you talk to people on the street. Uh, there's this this relief, this this side, this collective side, so to speak. It felt like they've needed a little bit and a lot of where they got that lift in the city of Cincinnati and the way that the people a sign one three really looked out for them

and their places of the last two days. Thanks to Cooley Harvey from ESPN. And here's a quick reminder to join Lapping Box on Friday for the Bengals pep Rally show at the Wings and Rings location at King's Mill. The show runs from three to six and long snapper cal Adamitas will be there in the final hour and all food sales will be donated to Damar Hamlin's Foundation.

That's going to do it For this episode of the Bengals Booth podcast presented by Kettering Health, the official healthcare provider of the Bengals, by Bengals Picks and Ultimate Bengals, They're free to play with tickets and signed merchandise up for grabs by Paycred, the official HR software provider of the Bengals, and by Alta Fiber future Proof Fiber Internet elevate your connection with Alta Fiber. If you haven't done

so already. Please subscribe to this podcast and if you have a minute, give it a rating or share a comment that helps more Bengals fans find us. I'm Dan Horde and thanks for listening to the Bengals Booth podcast