Speaker 1: Hike and everybody. I'm Dan Horde and thanks for downloading
Speaker 1: The Bengals Booth Podcast the how Do You Believe In Magic? Addition,
Speaker 1: as the super Bowl bound Cincinnati Bengals get ready to
Speaker 1: face the Los Angeles Rams next week at the five
Speaker 1: billion dollar palace known as Sofi Stadium, coming up, we'll
Speaker 1: hear from a Hall of fame coach who will be
Speaker 1: part of NBC's broadcast team next week. Former Indianapolis and
Speaker 1: Tampa Bay head coach Tony Dungee. My broadcast partner Dave
Speaker 1: Lapham joins me to discuss Bengals coach Zach Taylor and
Speaker 1: team president Mike Brown, and in Our Know the Faux segment,
Speaker 1: we'll catch up with a radio voice of the Rams, JB. Law.
Speaker 1: The Bengals Booth Podcast is presented by Ultimate Bengals, the
Speaker 1: free to play Next Level Fantasy football game downloaded now
Speaker 1: from the App Store and Google Play and by on Location,
Speaker 1: the official hospitality partner of the NFL. Visit on Location
Speaker 1: exp dot com for exclusive access to the biggest events
Speaker 1: in the NFL, including Super Bowl fifty six. Here's a
Speaker 1: quick reminder that you can have the latest edition of
Speaker 1: this podcast delivered right to your phone, tablet, or computer
Speaker 1: by subscribing wherever you get your podcasts. It's the greatest
Speaker 1: thing since people who don't recline on airplanes. I'm six two,
Speaker 1: so perhaps I'm more sensitive to this than others. But
Speaker 1: when the person in front of me on a plane
Speaker 1: reclines way back, it's brutal. That seat is right in
Speaker 1: my lap. I know it's every passenger's right to recline,
Speaker 1: so I don't complain or shove the seat. But if
Speaker 1: you have to recline, how about just going back a little?
Speaker 1: The person behind you will appreciate it. Now, let's get
Speaker 1: to my guests, beginning with Super Bowl winning coach Tony Dungee.
Speaker 1: He'll be part of NBC's Super Bowl pregame, halftime and
Speaker 1: postgame coverage, and he joined lapping me this week. I'm
Speaker 1: the Bengals pep rally show. They great to be with you,
Speaker 1: Dan and Dave. And I don't know if I've talked
Speaker 1: to Dave since he gave me so many headaches when
Speaker 1: I was back coaching with the Steelers long ago. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's a long time ago, coach, that's a long time ago.
Speaker 1: Great to hear your voice, and I want to because
Speaker 1: you are a guy that every player of yours that
Speaker 1: I've ever talked to loves you, not just respects and
Speaker 1: like you, I mean loves you as a person, as
Speaker 1: a human being. So you know, people throw the term
Speaker 1: culture around so loosely, but you always established an unbelievable
Speaker 1: culture with your football team. Your locker rooms are always
Speaker 1: dynamic that way. What's more important? Culture? Are the equally
Speaker 1: important culture or xs and os? I think the culture
Speaker 1: is more important because you can have all the x
Speaker 1: and os you want in the world and it's not
Speaker 1: going to get you anywhere if you don't have that
Speaker 1: locker room together. And I'd say I was there Wednesday
Speaker 1: doing interviews in Cincinnati Bengal players and coaches for our
Speaker 1: pregame show, and I sensed it. I felt it. I
Speaker 1: felt the same thing four years ago when we had
Speaker 1: the Eagles. I was at the Eagles for four days
Speaker 1: and I said, then, these guys, this is a different vibe.
Speaker 1: And I really came away in press with Philadelphia and
Speaker 1: I had the same impression with these young men. All
Speaker 1: they talked about was coach Taylor and how he had established,
Speaker 1: how he brought winners in, how he brought unselfish guys
Speaker 1: in and I'll tell you what, in that day, I
Speaker 1: really really felt that there is a strong winning culture
Speaker 1: there in Cincinnati. How about Joe Burrow in particular, Coach,
Speaker 1: anything stand out from your interactions with Joe? I actually
Speaker 1: didn't talk to Joe. Drew Brees did that interview, you know,
Speaker 1: I watched it from AFAR and I watched him, But
Speaker 1: just in talking to other players, I asked DJ Reader,
Speaker 1: what in the world, how could you be a free
Speaker 1: agent and decide to come to a two win team
Speaker 1: when you had to switch the point anywhere? And he said, Hey,
Speaker 1: I wanted to play with Joe Burrow. I knew they
Speaker 1: were going to be good when they got this guy,
Speaker 1: and he wasn't even there yet, I don't think, but
Speaker 1: just you know the fact that he was going to
Speaker 1: be there, so many players talking about his impact, his leadership.
Speaker 1: It was just it was great to hear it. Really
Speaker 1: that it reminded me of our guys talking about Peyton Manning.
Speaker 1: It really did. Yeah, that's what I was going to
Speaker 1: ask you about, Coach. When you got a guy like
Speaker 1: Peyton Manning, who's football menza, I mean, he has a
Speaker 1: beautiful mind. For the game. It's just it's incredible how
Speaker 1: much information he can absorb and be able to sort
Speaker 1: through it at the most opportune time to answer a
Speaker 1: problem that a defense is presenting. Whatever. And do you
Speaker 1: think if you felt like Joe Burrow, I'm not staying
Speaker 1: he's Peyton Manning. I mean that that would be very
Speaker 1: premature obviously, But do you think he could track along
Speaker 1: those ways with that mind that he has football wise?
Speaker 1: I do, and I think his players since that it's
Speaker 1: the poise, is the confidence. It's not getting rattled when
Speaker 1: I have a couple of bad series, We're going to
Speaker 1: have the answer. When it's that third and man critical
Speaker 1: third down in the Kansas City game and Chris Jones
Speaker 1: comes almost untouched yea, and some way just able to
Speaker 1: get away, keep his wits, make the first down and
Speaker 1: not you know, oh, how did we blow this blocking assignment?
Speaker 1: But no, I'm going to make something happen. And I
Speaker 1: think that's what the players since, you know, no matter
Speaker 1: what happens, Joe's in control. He's going to make something
Speaker 1: good out of it, and we're going to move forward.
Speaker 1: And when you had that type of confidence in your leader,
Speaker 1: it impacts everyone Hall of Fame coach Tony Dungee is
Speaker 1: our guests. Before being a great head coach, you are
Speaker 1: highly successful for your work as a defensive coach. And
Speaker 1: let's talk about the Bengals defensive performance last week. Seven
Speaker 1: possessions in the second half of the Chiefs without scoring
Speaker 1: a touchdown. How remarkable was that in your opinion? Well,
Speaker 1: it was really remarkable, especially after the first half where
Speaker 1: in the first half there were four drives that went
Speaker 1: right up and down the field and the fourth one
Speaker 1: stopped at the one yard line. But everything Kansas City
Speaker 1: seemed to do was working, and they made some adjustments,
Speaker 1: they kept their poise and came back with a confidence
Speaker 1: And you don't normally see that. I mean sometimes you
Speaker 1: see people come in and hey, we blanketed the Chiefs
Speaker 1: and we had a great game plan. But to do
Speaker 1: it after being struck so quickly that that was very
Speaker 1: impressive to me. Coach, How big a deal is position versatility?
Speaker 1: You have a Swiss army knife like Sam Hubbard, who
Speaker 1: you know, in his high school days at Mulla High School,
Speaker 1: a very successful program here in Cincinnati, was a safety
Speaker 1: and then ended up getting bigger and strong, moved to linebacker.
Speaker 1: Ohiose State went from linebacker to defensive lineman. So he's
Speaker 1: got some athleticism. So they plant linebacker or some spying
Speaker 1: and you know, and then the late rush. To have
Speaker 1: a guy like that or guys like that on your
Speaker 1: defensive football team, How does that What kind of an
Speaker 1: edge does that give you? To have that athletic versatility? Well,
Speaker 1: that versatility helps, and you always want athletes, But what
Speaker 1: I love is the guys who understand what's going on.
Speaker 1: So Sam is able to play in different spots but
Speaker 1: know what to do right. And I was speaking to
Speaker 1: Von Bell and hey, we've got a couple of things
Speaker 1: going on here and we had to make some changes
Speaker 1: and we had to show this. But look like this
Speaker 1: because this is what Mahomes was seeing. And Jesse Bates,
Speaker 1: you know on the big interception, Well here's what was
Speaker 1: going on. We had a double on Tyreek Hill, but
Speaker 1: I knew that's where Mahomes was going, so I just
Speaker 1: was able to come out of center field and shift
Speaker 1: over that way a little bit. Guys who understand the game,
Speaker 1: it makes such a difference. Tony Dungee is our guest.
Speaker 1: A lot of US coach look at this matchup and think,
Speaker 1: all right, if we've got to pick out a specific
Speaker 1: positional battle, it's the Bengals offensive line trying to block
Speaker 1: Aaron Donald, von Miller, Leonard Floyd, etc. Is that the
Speaker 1: matchup that you kind of have your eyes on at
Speaker 1: this stage. It absolutely is that, David, I know you
Speaker 1: got to relate to this, But they're evenly match across
Speaker 1: the board. You know, the Rams has some really really
Speaker 1: good receivers, well, so so do the Bengals. The Bengals
Speaker 1: have a great quarterback who's playing well and playing hot,
Speaker 1: well so do the Rams. And you can go up
Speaker 1: and down the line. The one difference seems to be
Speaker 1: here's a team that creates a lot of pressure with
Speaker 1: their front, the Rams, and a team that struggled in
Speaker 1: pass protection, Cincinnati. And that's where it's going to be
Speaker 1: one or loss to me. If Cincinnati gives Joe Burrow
Speaker 1: time to throw, they're gonna move the ball. These guys
Speaker 1: are gonna get open, he's gonna throw it accurately, and
Speaker 1: they're gonna make plays. And I think if I was
Speaker 1: sitting in the Rams seat, if I'm Raheem Morris, I
Speaker 1: would say, you know what, the one chance we had
Speaker 1: you guys up front. You have to dominate the game.
Speaker 1: You have to get pressure. That's the way we're going
Speaker 1: to win the game. And if Cincinnati can come up
Speaker 1: with a way to protect, I think they will move
Speaker 1: the ball and score and win the ball game. So
Speaker 1: special teams the all important third phase, you know, the
Speaker 1: hidden yards, And I think there's only been one punt
Speaker 1: return touchdown in Super Bowl history. I believe so there
Speaker 1: haven't been, you know, those unscripted, unconventional scores as such.
Speaker 1: But field position is always a huge factor. The bigger
Speaker 1: the game, the bigger the hidden yards are you see
Speaker 1: it that way in this one? Yeah, that's always important.
Speaker 1: And you've got to catch the ball in your punt returns.
Speaker 1: A kickoff game in today's game is pretty much neutralized.
Speaker 1: You're getting the ball at the twenty five most of
Speaker 1: the time. So how is it going to change decision
Speaker 1: making by your coaches? Who's going to be aggressive? Hey,
Speaker 1: we're going for it on fourth down rather than punt him,
Speaker 1: but rather than punt him in there, And so coaching
Speaker 1: decisions can make that difference. Hunting the football one or
Speaker 1: two opportunities to pin people down and close. Don't let
Speaker 1: the ball, bounce as a return man, don't fumble a
Speaker 1: return and change the field positions. But I think the
Speaker 1: field position will be turnovers and takeaways, and I think
Speaker 1: it'll be pretty balanced if neither team turns the ball over.
Speaker 1: Final question, coach, and we appreciate you so much for
Speaker 1: carbon time out of your schedule. I know it must
Speaker 1: be crazy busy. If you as a Hall of Fame coach,
Speaker 1: super Bowl winning coach, what would your piece of advice
Speaker 1: be if you could sit down with Zach Taylor and
Speaker 1: McVeigh Sean McVeagh the day before the game and say,
Speaker 1: I'd like you to say this to your football team
Speaker 1: before the Super Bowl. I would go back to something
Speaker 1: my coach, Chuck Mole used to tell us when I
Speaker 1: was with the Steelers every game and it didn't matter
Speaker 1: for the first preseason game or the Super Bowl. He
Speaker 1: would say, you win with fundamentals. You don't have the
Speaker 1: bigger the games get. You don't have to up your production,
Speaker 1: you don't have to raise your level of play. You
Speaker 1: have to do what you always do in crucial situation.
Speaker 1: So to me, the team that can play their game
Speaker 1: not worry that it's the super Bowl and not I
Speaker 1: think they have to do something special or something spectacular,
Speaker 1: but do what they do, play in and play out.
Speaker 1: That's who's going to win the game. Coach Dungee, you
Speaker 1: are a Hall of Famer in every sense of that expression.
Speaker 1: Congratulations on a remarkable career, and thank you so much
Speaker 1: for joining us on our show today. We really appreciate it. Hey,
Speaker 1: thank you. Looking forward to sending the game and very
Speaker 1: very excited, and I was, I'll tell you what, just
Speaker 1: coming into Cincinnati and seeing the excitement there, it really
Speaker 1: made me feel good. The flight attendance on the flight
Speaker 1: coming in, Hey are you going to cover up Bengals?
Speaker 1: The rental car plays everywhere, was just excited and you'd
Speaker 1: love to see that. And you know what, let me
Speaker 1: say one more thing too. I really have to commend
Speaker 1: Mike Brown in this day and age, he hired a
Speaker 1: coach he believed in. The coach. The first year they
Speaker 1: won two games, the second year they won four games.
Speaker 1: How many other places of the other thirty two teams
Speaker 1: when the head coach won six games in two years
Speaker 1: do they make a change. And Mike Brown said, no,
Speaker 1: this is the staff I believe in. And it paid off.
Speaker 1: And I think that's a message to the rest of
Speaker 1: the league. Stick with your guys and have confidence, have
Speaker 1: faith in the choices that you've made. And I just
Speaker 1: there's a part of me I want the Bengals to
Speaker 1: win just for that. So that makes the rest of
Speaker 1: the league get that message. Here here, coach, you're the best, sir.
Speaker 1: Thank you all right. Thanks. Guys's comments about the Bengals
Speaker 1: sticking with Zach Taylor are the perfect segue to our
Speaker 1: next topic, because Friday mark the three year anniversary of
Speaker 1: the Bengals naming him head coach. Before I discuss Zach
Speaker 1: with Dave Lapham, here's what team president Mike Brown had
Speaker 1: to say about coach Taylor just before his first season
Speaker 1: got underway. You're getting ready to start a new season
Speaker 1: with a new head coach. What about Zach Taylor impresses you. Oh,
Speaker 1: he's a great young guy. He's dedicated coaching. He is
Speaker 1: offensive oriented. I like that. I think my father was
Speaker 1: that way. I have never been a coach, but I
Speaker 1: like to think in those terms, and I focus on
Speaker 1: the offense first and foremost too. It'll be interesting to
Speaker 1: see if we can get things together and be the
Speaker 1: kind of team we want to be in. We'll see
Speaker 1: how quickly that can come about, but I think has
Speaker 1: write ingredients. Well how quickly part turned out to be
Speaker 1: three years. But interesting to hear Mike at the time
Speaker 1: talk about his feelings for why the Bengals chose Zach
Speaker 1: Taylor as the head coach. Yeah, and you know, obviously
Speaker 1: the head coach prior was defensive oriented with Marvin Lewis,
Speaker 1: there was some success there, but Mike Brown is predisposed
Speaker 1: to the offensive side of football. I think he feels
Speaker 1: more comfortable, you know, in dialogue on that side of
Speaker 1: the football from a philosophical standpoint, And there's there's no
Speaker 1: question whenever anybody spends time was Zach Taylor and does
Speaker 1: a deep dive into what his mind is like from
Speaker 1: an offensive standpoint, This guy's you know, we talked about
Speaker 1: Joe Burrow all the time, you know, being a football sumount.
Speaker 1: Zach Taylor has a reliant offensive mind. I mean, he
Speaker 1: knows his offensive football, there's no question about it. And
Speaker 1: you know, other coaches on the staff, I mean, Brian Callahan,
Speaker 1: there's these guys are all you know, and Pitcher just
Speaker 1: go right down the line. Frank Pollock. The coaching staff
Speaker 1: has jelled, and that's important. Everybody knows their role, everybody
Speaker 1: knows their lane, everybody knows what they're responsible for. Nobody,
Speaker 1: you know, tries to step on another guy's territory, another
Speaker 1: guy's toes, and it is clicking right now. And that's
Speaker 1: what that's what Paul Brown was so good at. Paul
Speaker 1: Brown was like, I know what I want, I know
Speaker 1: what I'm doing, and I'm gonna hire guys and designate
Speaker 1: them with responsibilities and if they can't do it, I'll
Speaker 1: fire them. But once I hire them, I'm gonna let
Speaker 1: them do it. But if they prove to me they can't,
Speaker 1: they're gone. So that's that's what I think. They've found
Speaker 1: a combination of guys that just jelled and hit it
Speaker 1: off in terms of the coaching staff and then the
Speaker 1: players as well. As we talked about, you know, it's
Speaker 1: it's like it's like one big we are family. That's
Speaker 1: what it is. It's like another another redo of that lyric,
Speaker 1: we are a family. Darren Simmons has been the Bengal
Speaker 1: Special teams coordinator now for nineteen years, the first sixteen
Speaker 1: under Marvin Lewis, the last three under Zach Taylor. So
Speaker 1: He's got an interesting perspective about the two most recent
Speaker 1: Cincinnati Bengals head coaches haven't been with coach Lewis and
Speaker 1: Zach that they have very different styles. You know, Marvin's
Speaker 1: probably more of an old school guy. Zach is more
Speaker 1: new school. So it's been I say new school. It's
Speaker 1: been great to be a part of seeing uh, you know,
Speaker 1: how you deal with players. Um, it's been different in
Speaker 1: the fact that you know, Marvin was more of a
Speaker 1: head coach. I mean he you know, he really managed
Speaker 1: the whole team. He didn't really call defenses that much.
Speaker 1: You know, he had a defensive background. He didn't call
Speaker 1: a lot of defense except for you know, a couple
Speaker 1: of spots that he did. But you know, Zach has
Speaker 1: to deal with with calling offensive plays, trying to manage
Speaker 1: the in game situations, and trying to manage the whole team.
Speaker 1: It's it's unbelievable how he can manage all that and
Speaker 1: shows his capacity and it's it's been really neat to
Speaker 1: be a part and see all that. But it's unbelievable
Speaker 1: the way that he deals of the players, that the
Speaker 1: level of confidence that he brings to our guys. I
Speaker 1: think our guys trust him, our guys believe in him,
Speaker 1: and uh, you know, he's really made great strides, you know,
Speaker 1: from twenty nineteen so now, it's been really an unbelievable
Speaker 1: credit to him, how he's really evolved and developed. And
Speaker 1: I've learned a ton from that too. Well, Darren Simmons
Speaker 1: used the term great strides. Do you see any obvious
Speaker 1: ways that Zach Taylor improved in his three years as
Speaker 1: the Bengals head coach? I think that the log that
Speaker 1: he keeps, I think it's served him well. You know,
Speaker 1: he has a journal like a football diary as such,
Speaker 1: that he keeps on a daily basis, and it's pretty
Speaker 1: extensive and it's all handwritten and it's his reference, you know.
Speaker 1: And I think you know, as the old saying goes,
Speaker 1: make make them stake once. You know, shame on you
Speaker 1: make the mistake twice, shame on me. It's he's not
Speaker 1: gonna He's not gonna make the same mistake multiple times.
Speaker 1: And that's all you can ask for. You know, you grow,
Speaker 1: you learn, you grow from your experiences. And honestly, on
Speaker 1: the one franchise that Zach Taylor could have survived six
Speaker 1: twenty five and one in the first two years is
Speaker 1: Mike Brown and Cincinnati Bengals. And I think Zach is
Speaker 1: acutely aware of that, and they just feel, I think,
Speaker 1: at this stage now with a payoff, the greatest turnaround
Speaker 1: in NFL history, no question, the greatest turnaround in NFL history.
Speaker 1: They feel comfortable with each other right now. And and
Speaker 1: but the thing that was very, very a credit to
Speaker 1: all even when they were struggling and going through the
Speaker 1: tough times, they had the same vision and they're like,
Speaker 1: you know, let's just keep plugging. Let's just keep plugging
Speaker 1: and try to get there. And the patients that everybody
Speaker 1: showed with each other and the persistence that everybody showed
Speaker 1: with each other, it paid off. And you got to
Speaker 1: tip your cap to them. I mean, there there really
Speaker 1: isn't It would not take long to call roll on
Speaker 1: other owners and franchises in the National Football League. They
Speaker 1: would have gone through six, twenty five and one in
Speaker 1: a two years stretch and said we're good. Let's take
Speaker 1: that a step further. Because there were a lot of
Speaker 1: people at the end of last year that said, well,
Speaker 1: if they're going to keep Zach Taylor, at least they've
Speaker 1: got to change defensive coordinators right, and when the Bengals
Speaker 1: did not make changes either with the OC Brian Callahan
Speaker 1: or the DC lou Ana Rumo, there are plenty of
Speaker 1: people that said, well, that's you know, that's just a joke.
Speaker 1: Well you're happy you have lou Anna Rumo now, because
Speaker 1: last week was his ultimate masterpiece, the second half performance
Speaker 1: against Kansas City in a year where the Bengals defense
Speaker 1: has consistently performed well, and I think that's a tribute
Speaker 1: to Zach, because you know, Zach in the meetings with
Speaker 1: the family said he stood up on the table for
Speaker 1: his coordinators. He said, if you're gonna, if you're gonna
Speaker 1: be patient with me, please. You know, I'm working with
Speaker 1: these guys every day. I know what I see, I
Speaker 1: know what's happening. I know all the ins and out,
Speaker 1: so why things are happening. Some things are beyond a
Speaker 1: lot of things are beyond these guys control. You know,
Speaker 1: let's just let's just let it play out. And uh,
Speaker 1: and they did. And sometimes the best decision you can
Speaker 1: make is to not make a decision like that. You know,
Speaker 1: it's it's like, uh, stay status quo sometimes can be
Speaker 1: the best decision. It'll it'll frustrate people, There's no question.
Speaker 1: I mean, human nature is quick change, you know, move on,
Speaker 1: move on, and get away from that. That's we don't
Speaker 1: want to have. If you're having success over and over
Speaker 1: and over again, obviously that's that's great. But if you're struggling,
Speaker 1: you know, multiple consecutive years or whatever or whatever it
Speaker 1: is in your workplace, I mean, you feel like you're
Speaker 1: gonna get fired or if you're a manager, you're going
Speaker 1: to fire somebody. It's it's very rare to do what
Speaker 1: the Bengals and Mike Brown decided to do. It really is,
Speaker 1: particularly in this era of football, and it paid huge
Speaker 1: dividends going to the Super Bowl, and if they can
Speaker 1: win this Super Bowl, oh my god, it would be unbelieving.
Speaker 1: It really would be unbelievable. From two and fourteen and
Speaker 1: four eleven and one to a super Bowl trophy, a
Speaker 1: Lombardi Trophy is sticking in the lobby. What it's crazy.
Speaker 1: I mean about flying back from the Super Bowl with
Speaker 1: a Lombardi Trophy and flash back to that first year,
Speaker 1: how many road games in a row. It was just like,
Speaker 1: I mean, you were you were getting on a plane
Speaker 1: and flying to you know, hell basically, you know, I
Speaker 1: mean it was it was just there was no pleasure
Speaker 1: in those road trips. It's fly back, you know, just
Speaker 1: kind of shaking your head again, scratching your head and
Speaker 1: shaking it. And I can't imagine what the coaches were
Speaker 1: going through. I mean, it's Zach. How about how about
Speaker 1: the story he told when he and brianon Callahan when
Speaker 1: they played the Rams the first time and they said,
Speaker 1: you know, let's just figure out how we can get
Speaker 1: a yard against Aaron Donald and they're having trouble even
Speaker 1: figuring that out. I mean, you talk about coming a
Speaker 1: long way, baby, that's that's a man, That's that's memories
Speaker 1: where all those building blocks, all those foundational building blocks
Speaker 1: that you had to you had to put in place
Speaker 1: in the right way before the thing would wouldn't be
Speaker 1: able to be built upon. And that's that was a long, long,
Speaker 1: arduous process. More from Lap in a moment, but first,
Speaker 1: here's a quick reminder that the Bengals Booth podcast is
Speaker 1: presented by Ultimate Bengals, the free to play fantasy football game.
Speaker 1: This year, Ultimate Bengals awarded a weekly winner during the
Speaker 1: course of the season with tickets, autograph, merchandise, and money
Speaker 1: can't buy experiences all up for grabs. Find Ultimate Bengals
Speaker 1: in the App Store and Google Play. Imagine this one
Speaker 1: week from Sunday. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell lifts the Lombardi Trophy,
Speaker 1: turns to his right, and hands it to Mike Brown.
Speaker 1: What a moment that would be. Here are Tyler Boyd
Speaker 1: and Zach Taylor sharing their thoughts. I'm the Bengals owner.
Speaker 1: I think the good thing about Mike is I think
Speaker 1: he's one of the few owners in this league that
Speaker 1: actually comes to every practice, every walkthrough, and just they're
Speaker 1: supporting a team no matter what the conditions are, you know, cold, hot,
Speaker 1: you know, he's always out there and every time, you know,
Speaker 1: I'll go over there and chop it up with him
Speaker 1: and just talk football, you know, like like like we're friends,
Speaker 1: you know. And and he's always been a good guy
Speaker 1: and always respectful, and um, I'm very appreciptive of the
Speaker 1: opportunity he gave me. He's been tremendous. You know, I've
Speaker 1: been here for three years now. You know, he's one
Speaker 1: of the most genuine people I've ever been around. He's supportive, understanding, realistic,
Speaker 1: and so again we've gotten a support from ownership. Everything
Speaker 1: that we've needed to discuss and talked through, They've been
Speaker 1: nothing but supportive. They've given everything we've eat it since
Speaker 1: I've been here, and so certainly they are. They're as
Speaker 1: valuable as anything and where we're at today. In the
Speaker 1: last two off seasons, the Bengals have spent more than
Speaker 1: two hundred and fifty million dollars on free agents, most
Speaker 1: of them on the defensive side of the ball. That
Speaker 1: has completely turned the defense around. They have added a
Speaker 1: ring of honor and in talking about what Tyler Boyd
Speaker 1: was mentioning, how Mike Brown is there for every practice,
Speaker 1: every day, regardless of the weather conditions or whatever. I
Speaker 1: asked Mike about that once. Why he feels that it's,
Speaker 1: you know, so important to be there, Why he enjoys
Speaker 1: that so much? And he said, there's literally nothing I
Speaker 1: would rather do. I would rather sit in my cart
Speaker 1: watching a practice than be on a beach in some
Speaker 1: spectacular location. It is what fascinates him more than anything
Speaker 1: else every day of his life. It's it's he's not
Speaker 1: the typical owner, and that he has other business interests
Speaker 1: and ventures and just it's a little hobbied, little side
Speaker 1: like a little way to entertain your rich buddies. You know,
Speaker 1: this is his life, it's his business, it's his life.
Speaker 1: And how great at the age of eighty six to
Speaker 1: have your daughter, your son in law, your son, their children.
Speaker 1: I mean, he's got three generations that are experiencing this,
Speaker 1: and they're experiencing together. I mean, to be blessed at
Speaker 1: the age of eighty six to see it happen with
Speaker 1: the franchise when you know it's truly a family organization
Speaker 1: and it is everything to them, and you know, people,
Speaker 1: you know, people are gonna be like, ah, yeah, whatever,
Speaker 1: I'm serious. Now, this is as important to him as
Speaker 1: anything is to anybody. I'm not kidding you. It is.
Speaker 1: It's it's that big of a deal. And I'm sure
Speaker 1: he's uh, I'm sure he's thinking about his father quite
Speaker 1: a bit at this stage. There's no question about it.
Speaker 1: All the all the time he spent with him, and
Speaker 1: all the lessons learned and everything else, and his brother Pete,
Speaker 1: who had a big, big impact on the organization from
Speaker 1: a personnel standpoint for many, many years. I mean, it's
Speaker 1: all about Mike Brown is fiercely loyal to family. I mean,
Speaker 1: family is first and foremost a number one, no questions asked.
Speaker 1: I mean number two is a long way down from
Speaker 1: that number one. On the list of being family. There
Speaker 1: are twelve NFL franchises who are yet to win a
Speaker 1: Super Bowl. The Bengals obviously are on the list. They've
Speaker 1: been twice nineteen eighty one and nineteen eighty eight. They've
Speaker 1: been close. We'll see if the third trip to the
Speaker 1: Super Bowl is the charm. In previous conversations with Mike Brown,
Speaker 1: we have discussed the Bengals two previous Super Bowl trips.
Speaker 1: You went to your first Super Bowl in nineteen eighty one,
Speaker 1: and you've told me in the past that the loss
Speaker 1: to the forty nine Ers was the most painful one
Speaker 1: in Bengals history because you thought Cincinnati had the better team.
Speaker 1: Aside from the game, what stands out about that first
Speaker 1: Super Bowl experience, Well, it was bitterly cold. We were
Speaker 1: up in Detroit, and the day of the game, I
Speaker 1: remember a story about that. Jerry Richardson, who went on
Speaker 1: later to buy the Carolina team, came to the game
Speaker 1: with his two sons. He told the story how they
Speaker 1: got there before the gates open. They had to stand
Speaker 1: out in the cold, and it was so cold and
Speaker 1: so bitterly cold with the wind that they all got
Speaker 1: into garbage camps to shout at himself for the wind.
Speaker 1: There was literally three inches of ice in the parking lot.
Speaker 1: But the game came on and we just couldn't hang
Speaker 1: on to the ball. I don't mean to say they
Speaker 1: weren't a good team. They were fine team, a great team.
Speaker 1: I think in my heart that if we hadn't stubbed
Speaker 1: our toe, we would have won. But we didn't, that's
Speaker 1: for sure. And then afterwards, Vice President Bush was right
Speaker 1: next to where we were and they had to get
Speaker 1: him out of the stadium. That meant that all the
Speaker 1: rest of us had to sit there and wait for
Speaker 1: about a half an hour before we were allowed to move.
Speaker 1: We went down to the locker room, and this had
Speaker 1: been a season of celebration and jubulation, and I walked
Speaker 1: into our locker room and it was just quiet as
Speaker 1: a tomb. There wasn't anybody in there. The media wasn't
Speaker 1: in there. They were all across the hall in the
Speaker 1: forty nine ers locker room. That made an impression on me.
Speaker 1: Driving back to the hotel, I had a headache like
Speaker 1: I have never had since. It got me to the
Speaker 1: core that one. The second one, we weren't the better team,
Speaker 1: but we hung in there and we had a chance
Speaker 1: to win. At the end, Louis Phillips had an opportunity
Speaker 1: to intercept the ball in the end zone. It went
Speaker 1: right into his stomach and he didn't catch it. We
Speaker 1: dropped it and we lost the game, but we fought
Speaker 1: hard in that game. Both teams were memorable teams to me,
Speaker 1: and I have wonderful memories about both of them. We
Speaker 1: might not have won our chances at the super Bowl,
Speaker 1: but those teams were special and there's still that in
Speaker 1: my mind. I love talking about Bengals history and football
Speaker 1: history with Mike Brown, like you, he is a great storyteller.
Speaker 1: I love being a fly on the wall when you
Speaker 1: two guys go back and forth through their stories that
Speaker 1: we've enjoyed at breakfast on road trips over the years.
Speaker 1: And I really hope that this is the year that
Speaker 1: he gets to hoist a Lombardi Trophy. So do I.
Speaker 1: It would be awesome. It would be great. And one
Speaker 1: quick thing about when you mentioned George Bush when we
Speaker 1: were going to the Super Bowl, they were escorting him
Speaker 1: to the state. It took us forever to get there.
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, the the police escorts and all that.
Speaker 1: I mean, we're like, what the hell's going on? Oh
Speaker 1: the President, Oh my gosh, Canny go at a different time.
Speaker 1: I took forever. But you know, those are the things
Speaker 1: you deal with for sure. But yeah, I would like
Speaker 1: to see Mike Brown have that that moment of pure,
Speaker 1: unadulterated joy of winning a world championship, being a Super
Speaker 1: Bowl champion. That would be incredible. I had the opportunity
Speaker 1: to do a one on one interview with Mike this week,
Speaker 1: and you will hear it on this podcast later in
Speaker 1: the week. The Bengals Booth Podcast is presented by on Location,
Speaker 1: the official hospitality partner of the NFL. Visit on location
Speaker 1: exp dot com for exclusive access to the biggest events
Speaker 1: all season long, including next week Super Bowl. Now time
Speaker 1: for our Know the Faux segment as Lap and I
Speaker 1: visit with the voice of the Rams, JB. Long. Our
Speaker 1: first topic, Andrew Whitworth. He spent his first eleven NFL
Speaker 1: seasons in Cincinnati before spending the last five with the Rams. Now,
Speaker 1: I was just kind of updating my Pro Football Focus
Speaker 1: rankings by player by position as I do as part
Speaker 1: of my weekly game prep, and it continues to baffle
Speaker 1: me that even at the right page of forty and
Speaker 1: I think, giving pretty clear signs that this is going
Speaker 1: to be his last professional football game, he was a
Speaker 1: top five tackle, and I think that speaks to Andrew's diligence,
Speaker 1: the way that he's taken care of his mind and body,
Speaker 1: and the way he's kind of reinvented himself with each
Speaker 1: season of his career. The years that he's given the Rams,
Speaker 1: I think have been the underpinning for almost all of
Speaker 1: their success, Protecting Jared Goff, protecting Matthew Stafford, but also
Speaker 1: leading an offensive line that in many instances was cobbled
Speaker 1: together and didn't have a ton of resources devoted to it.
Speaker 1: Other than his free agent signing. He's been a pleasure
Speaker 1: to be around. I don't have to tell you or
Speaker 1: this audience what a great person he used with a
Speaker 1: great family man. And how on the Whitworths are I
Speaker 1: think as much as anything, when we look at why
Speaker 1: the Rams and the Bengals are going to be playing
Speaker 1: the final game of this season, the commonality is Andrew
Speaker 1: Whitworth and it's poetic in so many ways. Stafford obviously
Speaker 1: put all the chips on the table, but slid all
Speaker 1: the chips to the middle of the table. They wanted
Speaker 1: to be not only good at the quarterback position, they
Speaker 1: wanted to be great. Are they great at the quarterback position?
Speaker 1: I think they are, especially down the stretch and especially
Speaker 1: when it matters most. I mean, if I'm ever going
Speaker 1: to come around and believe in the so called clutch gene,
Speaker 1: these are two of the quarterbacks that would have me believing.
Speaker 1: Like what they do on third and fourth down, what
Speaker 1: they do in the fourth quarter really has me convinced.
Speaker 1: I go back to a late game Week seventeen in
Speaker 1: Baltimore when the Rams division hopes and two seed were
Speaker 1: really on the line, and I think that was the
Speaker 1: moment more than any other. Matthew Stafford overcame a handful
Speaker 1: of turnovers, led them down the field sound Odell Beckham
Speaker 1: Junior on fourth down and then subsequently the game when
Speaker 1: he down and that was really felt his Detroit Lions magic.
Speaker 1: But I here to point out the Rams kind of
Speaker 1: put their chips in the build of the table, and
Speaker 1: I tried to level up at the most influential position
Speaker 1: in sports. But I'm cognizant of reminding all audiences that
Speaker 1: Matthew Stafford really put this in motion, right Like, after
Speaker 1: a dozen seasons in Detroit, where he was beloved and
Speaker 1: he's a record setting quarterback, he asked to move to
Speaker 1: a different venue, in a different franchise so that what
Speaker 1: was left of his prime could be spent pursuing championships.
Speaker 1: And he did so respectfully and in a way that
Speaker 1: I think maintained his great relationships in the Motor City.
Speaker 1: But he was the first mover here, and I think
Speaker 1: while he has been everything that the Rams had hoped
Speaker 1: he would be, Sean McVay and the Rams on offense
Speaker 1: and defense and special teams have also been everything that
Speaker 1: he could have been looking for in his second NFL franchise.
Speaker 1: I thank JB. Long and that's going to do it
Speaker 1: for this episode of the Bengals Booth podcast, brought to
Speaker 1: you by Ultimate Bengals, the free to play next level
Speaker 1: fantasy football game, and by on Location, the official hospitality
Speaker 1: partner of the NFL. If you haven't done so already,
Speaker 1: please subscribe to this podcast and if you have a minute,
Speaker 1: give it a rating or share a comment that helps
Speaker 1: more Bengals fans find us. I'm Dan Horde and thanks
Speaker 1: for listening to the Bengals Booth podcast