Speaker 1: Hi, get everybody. I'm Dan Horde and thanks for downloading
Speaker 1: the Bengals Booth podcast The You'll miss the magic of
Speaker 1: these good old days. Addition, as I play ten teammates
Speaker 1: in a hat with my broadcast partner Dave Lapham, The
Speaker 1: Bengals Booth Podcast is presented by bud Light. Seltzer refreshed
Speaker 1: the game and here's a quick reminder that you can
Speaker 1: have the latest edition of this podcast delivered right to
Speaker 1: your phone, tablet, or computer by subscribing on iTunes, Stitch,
Speaker 1: your Google Play, Spotify, or pod Bean. It's the greatest
Speaker 1: thing since anything your kid makes for you on Father's Day.
Speaker 1: In addition to giving me a nice gift, my son
Speaker 1: Sam made me a Father's Day card. He didn't need
Speaker 1: to get me the gift. If you're a parent, you
Speaker 1: know there's nothing better than receiving something that your child
Speaker 1: makes specifically for you. When I was still a base
Speaker 1: ball broadcaster and went on long road trips, my then
Speaker 1: four year old son asked my wife Peg the following question.
Speaker 1: If I wrote Daddy a note, could we send it
Speaker 1: to him on the road. She said sure, and I
Speaker 1: received it at my hotel on the final day of
Speaker 1: the team's road trip. At that point, Sam hadn't quite
Speaker 1: grasped the concept of writing and sentences, so the note
Speaker 1: basically looked like a long strand of letters. I grabbed
Speaker 1: a pen and paper and was able to decipher it.
Speaker 1: It read as follows, Hey Daddy, I am sending a
Speaker 1: note to you. Do you know how many years old
Speaker 1: yoda is? I will tell you nine hundred? Love Sam,
Speaker 1: how is your trip? May you bring me a surprise?
Speaker 1: That note is prominently displayed above my desk at home,
Speaker 1: and if her house ever caught on fire, it might
Speaker 1: be the first thing I would try to save. Like
Speaker 1: I said, there's nothing better than getting something homemade from
Speaker 1: your kids. Now, let's get to this week's feature. Four
Speaker 1: years ago, I started doing a weekly segment on the
Speaker 1: radio during the baseball season called ten Teammates and a Hat.
Speaker 1: I quickly realized I had stumbled into radio gold. Here's
Speaker 1: how it works. I go through a player's bio and
Speaker 1: write down the name of one teammate from every season
Speaker 1: of his career on a little slip of paper. I
Speaker 1: put those slips of paper in a baseball hat and
Speaker 1: ask my guests to randomly select ten. He then shares
Speaker 1: memories about each former teammate he draws. The segment works
Speaker 1: best with players who have had long careers in a
Speaker 1: wide variety of teammates, and my guests have included Johnny Bench,
Speaker 1: Pete Rose, Joey Vado, and Dusty Baker, among others, and
Speaker 1: they seem to enjoy it as much as I do.
Speaker 1: Now it's time to bring the ten teammates feature to football.
Speaker 1: Since NFL careers don't typically last as long as Major
Speaker 1: League Baseball careers, I've decided to go through a player's
Speaker 1: bio and write down the names of two teammates from
Speaker 1: each season he played up First a Bengal from nineteen
Speaker 1: seventy four through nineteen eighty three and a member of
Speaker 1: the New Jersey Generals for two seasons after that. Time
Speaker 1: to play ten teammates in a hat with a great storyteller,
Speaker 1: my broadcast partner, Dave Lappham. You played pro football for
Speaker 1: twelve years, ten in the NFL, two in the USFL,
Speaker 1: and I've written down the names of two teammates from
Speaker 1: each of your twelve teams on little slips of paper
Speaker 1: and put them in a baseball hat. You are going
Speaker 1: to randomly pick out ten and share some stories. Are
Speaker 1: you ready to play ten teammates in a hat? Ready
Speaker 1: to rock and roll? Dan? Here we go, all right,
Speaker 1: Here comes teammate number one with Dave Lappham Teammate number
Speaker 1: one nineteen eighty Bengal Jim Breach, the all time leading
Speaker 1: scorer for the Cincinnati Bengals. Kicker extraordinaire got him from
Speaker 1: the Raiders. And the thing I remember most about Jim
Speaker 1: Breach is all around athlete. I mean, this guy when
Speaker 1: we played basketball in the wintertime and we'd go to
Speaker 1: various high schools and we'd have a Bengal team that
Speaker 1: would play faculty members or whatever. Breach was a stud.
Speaker 1: Now he could play. He was a point guard in
Speaker 1: basketball in high school. He played shortstop in baseball, and
Speaker 1: he played quarterback in football. So Jim Breach wasn't your
Speaker 1: you know, I had been exposed to horse movement from Germany.
Speaker 1: Who you know, soccer, not football, American football. He played
Speaker 1: soccer and uh, I mean he was just a kicker.
Speaker 1: Really didn't understand that much about football. Jim Breach could
Speaker 1: have coached. I mean, Jim Breech knew the game and
Speaker 1: he was a great teammate that way. And also when
Speaker 1: we would do look teams, you know, people to line
Speaker 1: up against the first team defense. You want to rest
Speaker 1: your wide receivers. Jim Breech go out there and run
Speaker 1: some routes, you know, and and and take his turn
Speaker 1: in the in the in the look team against the
Speaker 1: Bengals first team defense, getting ready for games. So, I mean,
Speaker 1: Jim Breach was a very very valuable member of the
Speaker 1: football team, no question about it, as well as Clotchman.
Speaker 1: I mean, overtime nine for nine, never missed an overtime kick.
Speaker 1: Breach was money in the bank. We'll have to make
Speaker 1: sure Jim Breach here's this segment because I think he
Speaker 1: would like that description of his playing days. We move
Speaker 1: on to teammate number two with Dave Lappin teammate number two,
Speaker 1: it would be the seventy seven Bengals. Pat mcinnelly, Oh
Speaker 1: my goodness, Where do I begin With Pat mcinelley. All
Speaker 1: I can say is Pat mcinnelley and I used to
Speaker 1: sit in my room or his room at training camp,
Speaker 1: whoever had the better air conditioner, and just try and
Speaker 1: kind of solve the world's problems. I mean, talk about
Speaker 1: anything in everything but football. Because he always, you know,
Speaker 1: got after me and made fun of me for not
Speaker 1: going to Harvard. I get accepted and didn't go, and
Speaker 1: of course Pat mcinally went and got himself a heck
Speaker 1: of a degree and uh and he's still the only
Speaker 1: guy that scored a perfect score on the Wonderlick test.
Speaker 1: So Pat mcinally was just so intelligent. I mean, he could,
Speaker 1: he could carry on a high level conversation about anything. Anything.
Speaker 1: I think he should take Alex Trebeck's place, and I
Speaker 1: think he'd be great on Jeffrey him and there's there's
Speaker 1: not a category he would not be able to run
Speaker 1: the table on. It's one of those kind of guys.
Speaker 1: And the other thing, I mean, he'd sit in his
Speaker 1: room and he wanted to learn how to play the guitar,
Speaker 1: self taught, and he just starts strumming a guitar and
Speaker 1: all of a sudden, you know, from the beginning of
Speaker 1: training camp to the end of training camp, he's writing songs.
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, that's how quick a study the
Speaker 1: guy is on just about everything and anything. And the
Speaker 1: thing about Pat mcinally, you know, like Jim Breech, he
Speaker 1: was a great punter, Pro Bowl punter, but he was
Speaker 1: an All American wide receiver at Harvard, and the story
Speaker 1: obviously sticks out in my mind about him was when
Speaker 1: Darden put the hit on him. Cleveland Browns We're playing
Speaker 1: at the end of the season and he takes it,
Speaker 1: catches the ball over the middle and Tom Darden just
Speaker 1: puts a shot on him and lays him out. And
Speaker 1: it's one of those deals where the Darrel Stanley incident
Speaker 1: was not that far away, so we thought, man, we're
Speaker 1: looking at another one of those kind of deals. And
Speaker 1: he had traumatized and bruised his spinal column, so he
Speaker 1: wasn't moving and we thought, oh, man, So they take
Speaker 1: him off the field on a stretcher and he's in
Speaker 1: the locker room. The doctors are examining him, and he
Speaker 1: starts to get his sensation and feeling back. It's almost
Speaker 1: like when your arm falls asleep. He had, you know,
Speaker 1: like he had that bruising which kind of pinched nerves
Speaker 1: and he had no feeling. But then it starts coming
Speaker 1: back and he starts getting everything back, and he comes
Speaker 1: back out in the field and Forest looks at him
Speaker 1: and says, can you still punt? He goes I think,
Speaker 1: So he goes out there and punts. We have an
Speaker 1: injury at receiver, can you play? He catches a touchdown
Speaker 1: passed in that game that is an unbelievable you know,
Speaker 1: full layout catch, rolls over the body of a Cleveland
Speaker 1: Brown to stay off the ground and scores a touchdown
Speaker 1: a pass from Jack Thompson. Was like, oh my gosh.
Speaker 1: And at that point Forrest greg was all in on
Speaker 1: Pat mcinelly, all in when he was busting your chops
Speaker 1: about not going to Harvard. Did you ever come back
Speaker 1: and say, hey, the partying was much better at Syracuse?
Speaker 1: I told him I went to the Harvard in New York,
Speaker 1: you know, and uh yeah. But you know, his whole
Speaker 1: thing was bop him the connections, thea lums and when
Speaker 1: he started his column, of course that the column that
Speaker 1: he turned into a book, but it syndicated column. You know,
Speaker 1: Pat mcinelle's advice to kids. Every every newspaper that he
Speaker 1: went to, there was a Harvard connection somewhere. He said,
Speaker 1: it was unbelievable how big a net is cast by
Speaker 1: the by the Harvard of lums and just about every business,
Speaker 1: not just the United States, but internationally. And that's what
Speaker 1: his big thing was. You dummy. You know, you could
Speaker 1: have hooked yourself up big time, but it all works out. Everybody.
Speaker 1: Everybody has their own story and the wrong way of
Speaker 1: getting there. Yeah, you may have blown that, but we're
Speaker 1: proud to have you as part of the Syracuse Mafia.
Speaker 1: Let's move on to former teammate number three with lap.
Speaker 1: Former teammate number three eighty one Bengals Chris Collinsworth. Chris Collinsworth,
Speaker 1: Oh man, where do I begin with this guy? You know,
Speaker 1: he comes in as a rookie, the second round pick,
Speaker 1: the first round pick, David Verser wide receiver, double down
Speaker 1: and go wide receiver in the second round as well,
Speaker 1: and it ends up being Chris Collinsworth, who has an
Speaker 1: unbelievably you know, stellar career, and he came to Cincinnati
Speaker 1: and he was a golly shocks lge, you know kind
Speaker 1: of guy. And Forrest greg had a great line about him.
Speaker 1: He goes, Chris Collinsworth, country, you kidding me? The only
Speaker 1: cotton he's picked us out of his navel. He goes,
Speaker 1: Chris Collinsworth knows exactly what's going on and and exactly
Speaker 1: what you're all about. And he said, this guy sees
Speaker 1: it all and knows it all. I mean, Forrest Greg
Speaker 1: had him, had him figured out pretty quickly, but just
Speaker 1: an unbelievable personality. Um. And you know the thing about
Speaker 1: Chris is he was he was a you know, state
Speaker 1: champion sprinter and the track team, and when you watched
Speaker 1: him run, it was all arms and legs and and
Speaker 1: kind of frenzied. You know. It kind of looked like
Speaker 1: kikobob Crane running a hundred yard dash or something. And
Speaker 1: I remember Kenny Riley talking about it. He goes, Man,
Speaker 1: I'm telling you lab, he goes. Collinsworth came came out
Speaker 1: of his out of his two point stance at the
Speaker 1: receiver position, and man, there's there's like appendages going everywhere.
Speaker 1: He said. Next thing I know, he was right up
Speaker 1: on my toes, he goes. I couldn't believe how fast
Speaker 1: he was, you know, it was it was like the
Speaker 1: steving how fast, how quickly closed space on me? And
Speaker 1: once he got up in my toes, it was over. Man.
Speaker 1: And I can't tell you how many defensive backs in
Speaker 1: his rookie year. No way, this guy's that fast. You know,
Speaker 1: they'd see it on film, but it was like looking
Speaker 1: at him in the fields like I can't believe it.
Speaker 1: And they would always, you know, not give him enough
Speaker 1: credit for how quickly he could close space on defensive backs.
Speaker 1: And uh, and he beat everybody deep. I mean Pro
Speaker 1: Bowl is deep, beat everybody deep. And he was he
Speaker 1: was physically tough too. You know you'd never think it,
Speaker 1: but I mean Chris collins would have put up three
Speaker 1: hundred fifteen pounds in the Brench bench press, you know,
Speaker 1: and looking at him, be like, no way, but he was.
Speaker 1: He was strong. Um, you know, really good athlete. His
Speaker 1: dad played on the Kentucky basketball team Reps Runts. Um.
Speaker 1: He was. He was a gifted athlete and uh, you know,
Speaker 1: obviously understood people. He had a great way with people.
Speaker 1: I mean, he just had just understood how to treat people.
Speaker 1: And very very popular teammate and of course has gone
Speaker 1: on to be leon a legendary well after the game
Speaker 1: of football was over, and again another guy all these
Speaker 1: people were talking about, Paul Brown was always what are
Speaker 1: you going to do for your life's work when football's done?
Speaker 1: And these guys that were mentioning here and Chris Collinsworth
Speaker 1: in particular, I know Paul Brown would be like, Wow,
Speaker 1: that's what I'm talking about, you know, I want to
Speaker 1: see you guys succeed just well more success after they
Speaker 1: were playing days than they actually generated during their playing days.
Speaker 1: That's what he was looking for. Three down, seven to go.
Speaker 1: We move on to former teammate number four, as we
Speaker 1: played ten teammates in a hat with lap number four
Speaker 1: the seventy six Bengals Bob Johnson. Bob Johnson was the
Speaker 1: original Bengal. Bob Johnson jersey number fifty four is the
Speaker 1: only one that's retired in Cincinnati Bengals history, and he
Speaker 1: was the very first draft pick. And Paul Brown said
Speaker 1: that besides the quarterback he handles the football every single
Speaker 1: play the center quarterback. He believed in building a battery
Speaker 1: in the center of quarterback positions were vitally important to
Speaker 1: Paul Brown, and he wanted wanted to build it that
Speaker 1: way and build his team kind of from the inside out.
Speaker 1: So he, uh, he went and got the All American
Speaker 1: out of Tennessee, Bob Johnson, who was, you know, just
Speaker 1: a heck of a football player. And another case of
Speaker 1: looking at Bob Johnson captain, you know, played at a
Speaker 1: high level of football, unbelievable leader on and off the
Speaker 1: football field, huge locker room presence respect around the National
Speaker 1: Football League, not just by the Bengals, but all players
Speaker 1: around the National Football League. And then he's gone into
Speaker 1: the business world. And I worked with him when I
Speaker 1: was a player in the off season and Imperial lead
Speaker 1: heases and he purchased imperiallydhases from from Bob sticks at
Speaker 1: us Shoe and put together an investment group in purchased
Speaker 1: that and then built it and sold it, and his
Speaker 1: bought and sold companies. Bob Johnson is an unbelievably successful
Speaker 1: entrepreneurial businessman. And now his daughter's doing the same type
Speaker 1: of thing. Bob's involved with his daughter as well in
Speaker 1: companies and and it's it's an unbelievable story. Bob, Bob
Speaker 1: is a very very astute businessman, and I think he
Speaker 1: probably took a lot of the football practicality, you know,
Speaker 1: the discipline and teamwork and all the concepts from the
Speaker 1: football field of the business world. And I know he
Speaker 1: did in a very very effective manner. Bob Johnson was
Speaker 1: definitely a very very wise choice, a very successful choice
Speaker 1: to start the franchise by Paul Brown, who obviously knew
Speaker 1: what he was doing. No doubt about that time to
Speaker 1: reach into the hat for former teammate number five seventy
Speaker 1: eight Bengals Ken Anderson. Oh boy, what can I say
Speaker 1: about my man ka? We roomed together for like eight
Speaker 1: years and the most accurate pastor I've ever seen. And
Speaker 1: the game against the Oilers when he completed twenty straight
Speaker 1: it was that game comes to mind because you know,
Speaker 1: it's almost like when a pitcher's pitching a no hitter,
Speaker 1: you don't talk to him about it. You don't say
Speaker 1: I don't think he's throwing an incompletion. I mean, guys
Speaker 1: were like thinking and looking and no one was talking
Speaker 1: to him. But you know, you just didn't want to
Speaker 1: be the one to bring it up. But Isaac Curtis
Speaker 1: made an unbelievable catch to keep the streak alive. And
Speaker 1: you know, at that time, Kenny had the record twenty
Speaker 1: straight completely in the same game, twenty straight completions in
Speaker 1: the same game. But he would just remember at football
Speaker 1: camps when he would just work out and you'd tell me,
Speaker 1: you know, ball right shoulder, ball navals, I mean just
Speaker 1: from like thirty yards he'd pinpointed like that. He was amazing,
Speaker 1: unbelievable and it's it's basically a tragedy, I think, a travesty.
Speaker 1: But he's not in the Hall of Fame. He's won
Speaker 1: back to back passing titles in two different decades with
Speaker 1: two different offensive coordinators, two different schemes. I mean, it's
Speaker 1: it's amazing. No other quarterback in NFL history could say that.
Speaker 1: So when you do something like that, I think you know,
Speaker 1: that's that's Hall of Fame worthy. And uh and Ken
Speaker 1: Anderson was just amazing. He and Isaac Curtis looked up
Speaker 1: on some of the most beautiful deep ball I think
Speaker 1: I've ever seen in my life. To this day, they're
Speaker 1: about as pretty as anything you want to see. And yeah,
Speaker 1: he was special. There's there's no question about it. And
Speaker 1: people you can't underrate his athleticism. Mean, he ran a
Speaker 1: four to six I mean year we went to the
Speaker 1: Super Bowl the first time Super Bowl sixteen or second
Speaker 1: leading rusher with like over four hudred yards rushing was
Speaker 1: Ken Anderson high three something like that was around four
Speaker 1: hundred yards rushing. And we just used to run a
Speaker 1: naked bootleg and he'd have a run pass option off
Speaker 1: the thing, and boy, when he saw the opportunity, he
Speaker 1: tucked it and ran, and he could run. Kenny was
Speaker 1: a great athlete. He went to Augustana on a basketball scholarship,
Speaker 1: grew up with Danissell and they played basketball together in
Speaker 1: high school. And obviously Kenny was a very very accomplished
Speaker 1: basketball player. So that's what you find is a lot
Speaker 1: of these great athletes, you know, obviously played more than
Speaker 1: one sport well. But could go on and on about
Speaker 1: my man k number fourteen in year program, number one
Speaker 1: in your heart. All right, five down, five to go.
Speaker 1: Here's former teammate number six with Dave Lappot eighty three Bengals,
Speaker 1: Stanley Wilson. Wow, this one is ah, this is probably
Speaker 1: the biggest tragedy that I you know, that I can
Speaker 1: remember being a part of with respect to the Cincinnati Bengals.
Speaker 1: And that's a Stanley Wilson. Because here's a guy that
Speaker 1: came out of Oklahoma, had a great collegiate career, but
Speaker 1: that's where his dependency on drugs started, you know, with
Speaker 1: Barry Switzer and teammates at Oklahoma and that playing career.
Speaker 1: But this guy, he was he was a great football player.
Speaker 1: I mean he could he could do it all. You
Speaker 1: talk about complete running back, could run the ball, very
Speaker 1: very good catch of the football, and he would block
Speaker 1: and that that was the big thing, you know with
Speaker 1: Stanley Wilson, as well as playing special teams and uh,
Speaker 1: you know, obviously the thing that comes to mind first
Speaker 1: and foremost is in the Super Bowl eighty Super Bowl
Speaker 1: twenty three in nineteen eighty eight, when you know, Sam
Speaker 1: White and police Chief Whalen, who was working security for
Speaker 1: the Bengals in that Super Bowl week, went into his
Speaker 1: room and caught him in a you know, in a
Speaker 1: drug and du stooper in the bathtub and and he
Speaker 1: just you know, ran away and ended up getting suspended,
Speaker 1: couldn't play in that football game, and sad the most
Speaker 1: important game, you know, the biggest game of his life
Speaker 1: was when he had the biggest problem trying to deal
Speaker 1: with all the emotions of it and relapsed badly into
Speaker 1: a huge stupor um. But and they missed him in
Speaker 1: that football game. You know, he talked about it, the
Speaker 1: injury to Tim Crumrye and there's a lot of things,
Speaker 1: but that, the Stanley Wilson suspension mentally, you know, had
Speaker 1: an impact on the football team. And then physically he
Speaker 1: was a great blocker for Ikey Woods and they missed him,
Speaker 1: you know, and he was a he was a great
Speaker 1: special teams guy, you know, field position, dictating field position
Speaker 1: and and things like that. So um, that was I
Speaker 1: do remember when when he was having his battle. I
Speaker 1: remember it was after the New England Patriots. The Bengal
Speaker 1: started six and oh one season and they lost the Patriots.
Speaker 1: And I remember the only available scene in the bus
Speaker 1: was next to Stanley Wilson. When I sat down next
Speaker 1: to him, I said, you okay, and he kind of
Speaker 1: looked at me, and because I thought, you know that
Speaker 1: might be when you think about, well, the winning streets over,
Speaker 1: you know, any reason that you might laughs, you know,
Speaker 1: you're looking for patterns or whatever. And he looked at
Speaker 1: me and water in his eyes, and he looked at
Speaker 1: me and he said, it's the first thing I think
Speaker 1: about when I wake up in the morning. It's what
Speaker 1: I think about all day long, before my wife and kids.
Speaker 1: It's the last thing I think about when I go
Speaker 1: to bed at night. And just tears come start coming
Speaker 1: out of his eyes. And I thought, boy, you know
Speaker 1: that's that's obviously not good. And then that year ends
Speaker 1: with him getting suspended in the Super Bowl just a tragedy.
Speaker 1: Let's move on to former teammate number seven with lap.
Speaker 1: Teammate number seven, seventy four Bengals, Mike Reid. Lord, have mercy.
Speaker 1: There's never been a quickie human being. I mean, this
Speaker 1: guy was so explosive, just unbelievable. He'd get in this
Speaker 1: really odd looking frog type stance, you know, with a
Speaker 1: lot of his weight back, and would just explode out
Speaker 1: of the thing. It was like, Oh, I mean, unbelievable,
Speaker 1: how much short space quickness this guy had. And man,
Speaker 1: and just as a rookie, I'm trying to learn how
Speaker 1: to pass protect and that's before you could use your hands,
Speaker 1: extend your arms and use your hands. You had to
Speaker 1: keep your hands in by your chest and and it's
Speaker 1: it's like, I'm like, I don't know if I'm going
Speaker 1: to be able to block this guy. And every time
Speaker 1: I made contact with him, I felt like I hate
Speaker 1: Nolan Ryan's fastball. He was like, man, this is unbelievable.
Speaker 1: But he was like that with Everybody would have a
Speaker 1: brutal time blocking him. I remember against the Kansas City Chiefs,
Speaker 1: a Hall of Famer Jim Tier who was playing guard
Speaker 1: at the time, and Mike Red had five sacks against
Speaker 1: them and could have had more. I was like just
Speaker 1: beating him like a drum and I'm thinking, oh, man,
Speaker 1: I know exactly what's going through your mind right now.
Speaker 1: He was just unbelievably he had. He was not overpowering
Speaker 1: in terms of like not a big body mask He's
Speaker 1: maybe two hundred and fifty pounds, but man, just generates
Speaker 1: such an explosive movement. Man, he was just so gifted
Speaker 1: that way and the quickness. Um plus you know, such
Speaker 1: a talented guy. Concert pianist who played in the Cincinnati Symphony.
Speaker 1: I mean, I mean you'd go into uh, we'd be
Speaker 1: in a hotel and if there was a piano around
Speaker 1: the area where we'd be going for pregame meal or
Speaker 1: snacks or whatever, he'd sit down and start banging out
Speaker 1: like almost a private concert at the piano. It's unbelievably
Speaker 1: talented dude, and now has written hit songs for you know,
Speaker 1: a lot of different artists, well known artists, and he's
Speaker 1: a he's a Hall of famer, you know down in Nashville.
Speaker 1: It's it's incredible what he's done. Another case of Paul
Speaker 1: Brown saying this this guy, you know, football was only
Speaker 1: part of his first phase of his working life. And
Speaker 1: he retired young. I mean, he retired early, and Paul
Speaker 1: Brown didn't bat an eye. You know, Paul knew he
Speaker 1: loved music, and he obviously you know, he didn't want
Speaker 1: him to retire, but he didn't try to talk him
Speaker 1: out of it. And Mike red knew what he was doing.
Speaker 1: But Mike, Mike was not a big fan of practice.
Speaker 1: My rookie year. I had to go against him every
Speaker 1: day and practice, and Tiger Johnson the only one a
Speaker 1: you're gonna get better of his working against a guy
Speaker 1: like this. Come on, now, this is a game for you.
Speaker 1: And you know I'd be going at a lot higher
Speaker 1: rate of speed than Mike wanted to go. And man,
Speaker 1: he hated me my rookie year. I know he did.
Speaker 1: He'd be like, I'll be like Mike, I gotta do
Speaker 1: what Tiger says. He'll cut me. I gotta I want
Speaker 1: to stay on this football team. Oh, you know, he'd
Speaker 1: start chewing on me. And he hated practice. But boy,
Speaker 1: games he was iverson before iverson practice, We're not talking
Speaker 1: about a game, but man, is he something else in games? Boy,
Speaker 1: he was. We have not had a New Jersey general.
Speaker 1: Yet we'll see if that changes. Three former teammates to
Speaker 1: go in. Ten teammates in a hat. Here we go,
Speaker 1: eighty four Bengals Bob Trumpy. Excuse me seven, I was
Speaker 1: gonna say he's retired. Seventy four Bengals, Bob Trumpy. And
Speaker 1: that was my rookie year, nineteen seventy four. And Trump
Speaker 1: was at his at his peak Pro Bowl tight end.
Speaker 1: You know, they talk about these tight ends today that
Speaker 1: the coaches will disengage and users wide receivers. Bill Walsh
Speaker 1: was doing that with Bob Trumpy back in the seventies,
Speaker 1: early seventies, well before nineteen seventy four. I mean Trumpy
Speaker 1: a couple of seasons he averaged seventeen eighteen yards to catch.
Speaker 1: I mean he would stretch the field, just an unbelievably
Speaker 1: gifted athlete. Big tall, I mean his shoulders look like
Speaker 1: coat hangers. I mean broad shoulders and more than adequate blocker.
Speaker 1: I know Jack Hamm, the Pittsburgh Steelers and Trump, he
Speaker 1: had immense amount of respect for each other because Trump
Speaker 1: could Trump could block on the edge, you know, and
Speaker 1: that he was really really gifted as a receiver down
Speaker 1: the football field, and before Kellen Winslow in the eighties
Speaker 1: and you know all these receivers that we're talking about
Speaker 1: in today's football. Bob Trump, he was doing a lot
Speaker 1: of this stuff in the way back machine. So another
Speaker 1: guy that's a very gifted player college basketball, could have
Speaker 1: played basketball in Illinois and just a very very very
Speaker 1: sharp guy. And then of course, obviously everything he did
Speaker 1: in the broadcast world, the father of sports stock radio,
Speaker 1: godfather of Sportstok radio here in Cincinnati, and then all
Speaker 1: his work in NBC covering not just football but the
Speaker 1: Olympics and every sport, just like Chris Collins, were followed.
Speaker 1: And those footsteps that that Trump he paved. So very
Speaker 1: very talented guy, very gifted guy as well. And the
Speaker 1: one thing about Bob Trump, he is Glenn Cameron. Bob
Speaker 1: Trump and I would would be on the plane just
Speaker 1: to pass time and pick a topic and have a debate,
Speaker 1: and it was it was great, man. It was unbelievable
Speaker 1: how what guys would end up thinking about and taking
Speaker 1: an opposite perspective, and you know, would trade and then finish,
Speaker 1: finish the subject, and then everybody take the opposite side
Speaker 1: of it or something different than was talked about and
Speaker 1: hit it again, and that made the time go by
Speaker 1: pretty fast on the planes. Two smart guys, and I
Speaker 1: really really enjoyed doing that kind of thing with those guys.
Speaker 1: I'd love to have a tape of that time to
Speaker 1: reach into the hatch for former teammate number nine, number nine,
Speaker 1: nineteen eighty. Anthony Munio's quite simply the best athlete over
Speaker 1: two hundred and fifty pounds I've seen in my life.
Speaker 1: I mean that guy. He was best show in every
Speaker 1: sense of the word. You know. All he did was
Speaker 1: playing a National championship baseball team at USC third base
Speaker 1: relief picture and then perennial pro bowler told him buy
Speaker 1: a condo out in Hawaii. He going there every year,
Speaker 1: he might as well, might as well go enjoy it.
Speaker 1: He was just just incredible gifted. And I remember when
Speaker 1: he first got drafted. He had big hair at the time,
Speaker 1: you know, a big, big afro type hair doing and
Speaker 1: just a massive man, just over three hundred pounds at
Speaker 1: that point in time, and filled up the doorway. Man.
Speaker 1: He eclipsed the sun. There wasn't any day like coming
Speaker 1: around it. And then we went out on the field
Speaker 1: to practice the first time it's like he's moving like
Speaker 1: a two hundred and five pounds safety. You know, I'm like, come,
Speaker 1: this guy is different now, just incredibly gifted. When he
Speaker 1: rolled his hips and snapped his hips, oh my gosh, man,
Speaker 1: it was like a force of nature. He would just
Speaker 1: he was an incredible guy. And just call him the Eraser.
Speaker 1: Jim Nally said, you know, we got the ar and
Speaker 1: now we'll figure out what we do with everybody else.
Speaker 1: And everybody else is going to get some help because
Speaker 1: the Erasi doesn't need any was. It was just such
Speaker 1: a weapon to have. And as everybody knows, as great
Speaker 1: a football player, he's even a better human being, which
Speaker 1: is almost impossible to define, you know, because he's such
Speaker 1: a high level and just he's interested in doing everything
Speaker 1: he can to make his fellow man better. And his
Speaker 1: foundation just celebrated the twentieth year what he's done to
Speaker 1: help kids and educate kids. And that's that's Anthony Minels
Speaker 1: to a t. He's just just a one of a kind.
Speaker 1: He's all I can think of if I had to
Speaker 1: pick one word, and it's almost impossible, but I think
Speaker 1: I'd pick special because you can take it so many ways,
Speaker 1: so many different directions. But he's a guy that you
Speaker 1: can learn a lot from and first and foremost how
Speaker 1: to treat fellow human beings because he is. He is
Speaker 1: the most consistently good hearted person I've ever met in
Speaker 1: my life. I've never heard him degrade anybody, you know,
Speaker 1: take the dark side on anything. He's an amazing guy,
Speaker 1: he really is. We started out with twenty four slips
Speaker 1: of paper in the baseball hat. You've selected nine one
Speaker 1: to go as we wrap up ten teammates in a hat.
Speaker 1: This is fun, Dan, It's fun for me, trust me,
Speaker 1: all right. Seventy seven Bengals. Pete Johnson man, Oh h,
Speaker 1: that's what I think when I think about Pete Johnson. Boy,
Speaker 1: that guy just a genetic freak six feet maybe and
Speaker 1: would play at two eighty. I mean he'd play. He
Speaker 1: was he'd weigh more than most of the offensive and
Speaker 1: defensive lineman. But we play Bengal basketball and he'd stand
Speaker 1: under the basket and dunk without without a start, drill,
Speaker 1: just stand under and flush it ridiculous, ridiculous. He was
Speaker 1: just amazing. And uh, he's such a powerful runner. He
Speaker 1: was our guy in Super Bowl sixteen and as an
Speaker 1: offensive lineman, you wanted to make sure that you move people,
Speaker 1: because if you didn't, Pete was gonna run right up
Speaker 1: your backside and he'd put a hole that where you
Speaker 1: don't want a hole in your backside. I mean, he'd
Speaker 1: literally gorge you. But the thing is, with that size,
Speaker 1: the athletic ability to explose them. And I talked about
Speaker 1: with him being able to dunk a basketball, he could catch.
Speaker 1: He ran good rousts out of the back, very very easy,
Speaker 1: catch you over both shoulders, catch with his hands. You know,
Speaker 1: he could he could block one asked too. He was.
Speaker 1: He was an unbelievably gifted athlete. But yeah, Pete Johnson was.
Speaker 1: I think Forrest Gregg loved Pete Johnson and we felt
Speaker 1: like he gave us a huge edge whenever it got
Speaker 1: you know, nasty weather. Who the hell wants to tackle
Speaker 1: that beast? We and we knew in the AFC Championship game,
Speaker 1: the San Diego Chargers at that time, the San Diego
Speaker 1: Chargers did not want any part of tackling that behemoth.
Speaker 1: I mean literally, you know, wrap your arms and take him.
Speaker 1: You can't. You couldn't wrap around this big old dude.
Speaker 1: I mean, his trunk was massive and he ran with
Speaker 1: you know, like six feet tall, ran with a good
Speaker 1: low pad level. And Pete was a unbelievably talented football
Speaker 1: player and great teammate, a great sense of humor, big laugh,
Speaker 1: kept the locker room loose. But it was an interesting
Speaker 1: dynamic because Archie and Pete were on that team together.
Speaker 1: Archie was the two time Heisman Trophy winning superstar and
Speaker 1: Pete block for him at Ohio State and then come
Speaker 1: to the Cincinnati Bengals in the NFL. Pete took the
Speaker 1: limelight and Archie was more of a you know, a
Speaker 1: more backstage and both of them handled each other the situation,
Speaker 1: you know, all the potential repercussions of it, as good
Speaker 1: as it could possibly be handled. I admire both of
Speaker 1: them for that. Archie Griffin was among the names you
Speaker 1: did not pick out of the hat, along with greats
Speaker 1: like Tim Krumery, Herschel Walker, Doug Flutie and many others.
Speaker 1: But that was a great list and your stories were fantastic.
Speaker 1: Thank you for the time. I tell you then it
Speaker 1: is when that's one thing when I sit back and
Speaker 1: think about all the guys I played with, you know,
Speaker 1: not just watched play, but played with over the years
Speaker 1: It's unbelievable, really is. I mean, I can't. I gotta
Speaker 1: pinch myself, you know, and say I actually was a
Speaker 1: teammate of that guy. That's unreal. That's unreal when I
Speaker 1: think about it. Really is talking about dreams do come true.
Speaker 1: That's going to do it. For this episode of the
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Speaker 1: find this podcast. I'm Dan Horde and thank you for
Speaker 1: listening to The Bengals Booth Podcast