Speaker 1: Hike and everybody. I'm Dan Horde and thanks for downloading
Speaker 1: the Bengals Booth podcast. The tomorrow Tomorrow addition, as we
Speaker 1: get to set for the start of training camp, which
Speaker 1: gets underway on Saturday at two thirty at Dayton's Welcome Stadium.
Speaker 1: Coming up, we'll hear from Joe Mixon, who talked to
Speaker 1: reporters on Friday about the Bengals new offense under Zach Taylor.
Speaker 1: And let me put it this way, after listening to Mixon,
Speaker 1: you'll want to draft him for your fantasy team. I'll
Speaker 1: talk to my broadcast partner Dave Lapham about the big
Speaker 1: questions going into training camp, and lap will also reminisce
Speaker 1: about what training camp was like under the legendary Paul Brown.
Speaker 1: And in this week's fun Facts conversation, you'll get to
Speaker 1: know new offensive coordinator Brian Callahan. He'll tell us what
Speaker 1: it was like as a player to be part of
Speaker 1: the longest winning streak in high school football history, and
Speaker 1: he'll tell us why he never wears the Super Bowl
Speaker 1: ring he won as an assistant coach with the Denver Broncos.
Speaker 1: Those conversations are straight ahead, but first, here's a quick
Speaker 1: reminder that you can have the latest edition of this
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Speaker 1: subscribing on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, Spotify, or pod Bean.
Speaker 1: It's the greatest invention since Game of Thrones episode recaps.
Speaker 1: So I'm just a little bit late to the party.
Speaker 1: My wife and I are finally watching Game of Thrones.
Speaker 1: We're on season three, and I'm pretty sure I would
Speaker 1: be missing a ton if not for the episode recaps
Speaker 1: available online. So if you didn't watch GOOT and decide
Speaker 1: to finally take the plunge, don't worry if it seems confusing.
Speaker 1: The episode recaps will save the day. Now time for
Speaker 1: football by any reason. In a bowl measure, Joe Mixon
Speaker 1: had a sensational second year in the NFL. He led
Speaker 1: the AFC in rushing despite missing two games, added forty
Speaker 1: three receptions and scored nine touchdowns. But as he visited
Speaker 1: with reporters in front of his locker on Friday, Joe
Speaker 1: made it clear that he expects to have Todd Gurley
Speaker 1: like numbers now that the Bengals are basically running the
Speaker 1: Rams offense. What's that mean? Well, over the last two years,
Speaker 1: between rushing and receiving, Gurley averaged one thousand, nine hundred
Speaker 1: sixty two yards and twenty touchdowns. Here's the Q and
Speaker 1: A with Mixon, who turned twenty three this week. Do
Speaker 1: you think the so called experts, if you have a
Speaker 1: kind of you know, I mean, you've kind of looked
Speaker 1: the town on his team overall. I mean, I mean
Speaker 1: they always do. They did from even when I was
Speaker 1: in college or high school. They always did that to
Speaker 1: the baas. I mean, at the end of the day,
Speaker 1: i gotta say, I'm not worried about it. When I
Speaker 1: go out there and when people got to line up
Speaker 1: against me, they're gonna know, they're gonna know who I am,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying. So I'm not worried about that.
Speaker 1: I'm not worried about no ranking. At the end of
Speaker 1: the day, real football players, real football fans, owners, whatever
Speaker 1: the case may be, they know they know what I
Speaker 1: could do. So I'm not worried about you know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying, No preseason ranking or how they rank whoever.
Speaker 1: I mean, at the end of the day, it's all opinionated.
Speaker 1: Anyway you act. Any back in the league, I'm sure
Speaker 1: it's about fifteen backs that'll be like, oh, I'm number one.
Speaker 1: I'm number one. I mean, at the end of the day,
Speaker 1: we all felt like that. But at the same time,
Speaker 1: when you go look into skill set and what they
Speaker 1: could do for the team, I mean, it's the proof
Speaker 1: is in the pudding. I could do it. I'll do
Speaker 1: it all. That's just what I do. But like I said,
Speaker 1: I just gotta I gotta be that much better than everybody.
Speaker 1: So that's what I'm gonna do. I was just keep different.
Speaker 1: I was just walking. I mean, really, the schemes commatically.
Speaker 1: You know how coach Taylor he come in and you know,
Speaker 1: the like I said, the offense is the way he
Speaker 1: got it set up. It's it's crazy. It's night and
Speaker 1: day from where everybody has seen in these past years
Speaker 1: between the Bengals or old Bengals or whatever the case
Speaker 1: may be. But you know, because Taylor, he got it
Speaker 1: to where it's gonna be a nightmare for the defense,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying. So you know, like I said,
Speaker 1: I look forward to it, and you know, everybody gonna
Speaker 1: take it upon themselves to be the best them in
Speaker 1: his offense, and you know you can count on you
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying, The people and the leaders that's
Speaker 1: out there to go deliver. Like I said, I can't wait.
Speaker 1: I mean, sounds like they're kind of running. I mean,
Speaker 1: if that's what they're gonna do, I'm gonna do it.
Speaker 1: But at the end of the day, I mean, I
Speaker 1: just gotta be in shape. I gotta be ready to
Speaker 1: put on I gotta be ready to do all of that.
Speaker 1: Like I say, I'll take it upon me. I'll take
Speaker 1: it upon myself. You know what I'm saying, to be
Speaker 1: able to do these things and do it at a
Speaker 1: high level. And that's what I'm gonna do. I don't
Speaker 1: care what you know what I'm saying. Nobody gonna say
Speaker 1: he did see that. So what I mean, I could
Speaker 1: do it. That's just what I do. This is your
Speaker 1: third year. You're obviously a puffle wint of this offense
Speaker 1: to you, do you start thinking about leadership and maybe
Speaker 1: taking that next step in that regard. Yeah, I mean,
Speaker 1: at the end of the day, I know, I know
Speaker 1: I'm a I know I'm a vocal leader, and i
Speaker 1: know I'm anna lead by example. I mean, everybody on
Speaker 1: the offense, even on the defense, not that coaches know that, um,
Speaker 1: you know, it might not be you know where I'm
Speaker 1: they put me out at the captain or something. But
Speaker 1: at the same time, they know they know who to
Speaker 1: lean on, they know who to go to when they
Speaker 1: need when they need that talking to I'm gonna talk
Speaker 1: to him. I'm gonna get them ready, I say, I'll
Speaker 1: take that upon myself. I don't care. Like you know,
Speaker 1: I'm a third year player and this, this and that.
Speaker 1: I mean, that's just what I've always done. I didn't
Speaker 1: get that year and year out, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: So you know, they and they respect it because you
Speaker 1: know I'm doing you know what I'm saying. You know
Speaker 1: I'm telling I'm doing what I'm saying. You know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying. So at the end of the day, I
Speaker 1: just got to go out there and you know, like
Speaker 1: I said, lead by example, and if it's to do
Speaker 1: whatever I can, you know, being vocal, and I'll do
Speaker 1: that too, but you know, for the most part, you know,
Speaker 1: go out there, lead by example and then everybody else
Speaker 1: gonna follow. As somebody's flocking, that's when we go go
Speaker 1: ahead and pick him up. How would you describe Aj
Speaker 1: Green as a leader? AJ Green, He's a He's a
Speaker 1: leader by example, you know, AJ, he don't he don't
Speaker 1: talk too much. You know what I'm saying. He if
Speaker 1: it's if it's like a big game or something, then
Speaker 1: and you know he feeling you know, emotional, he might
Speaker 1: say a couple of words, but at the same time,
Speaker 1: you know he gonna go out there and leave by example.
Speaker 1: He don't need to say too much. You know what
Speaker 1: you're gonna get out of Aja. You know what I'm saying. So,
Speaker 1: you know me, I felt like I could do I
Speaker 1: could do the balance. If you need me to be
Speaker 1: a vocal leader, I'm gonna do that. You know, we're
Speaker 1: gonna always lead by example, But at the end of
Speaker 1: the day, you need me to be vocal, I could
Speaker 1: do that. But you know, every like I said, everybody
Speaker 1: know you know who the real you know what I'm saying,
Speaker 1: cop ins or who who to lean on on the team,
Speaker 1: And that's just what it is. And you know, like
Speaker 1: I said, you can take that upon ourselves. That's I've
Speaker 1: always been like that and I'm gonna always be like that.
Speaker 1: So ain't nothing gonna change. That's all. You clowning with
Speaker 1: him when we were talking to him a little bit ago.
Speaker 1: He didn't break is there another guy in this locker
Speaker 1: room that could say stone to face it's like that, Uh, probably,
Speaker 1: you know, I can. Yeah, other than that, and it's
Speaker 1: not too many people that you know gone, you know,
Speaker 1: they probably break. I think they a break. But you know,
Speaker 1: like I said, you ajauc right there, that's AJ. You
Speaker 1: come to USC behind closed doors. I mean, at the
Speaker 1: end of the day, you know, here real down the
Speaker 1: earth dude. I never met an NFL player that at
Speaker 1: that caliber level that is that down the earth and
Speaker 1: humble is AJ Grhant. I mean I didn't met a
Speaker 1: lot of them. And just the way he goes about
Speaker 1: himself being professional, and you know, even the way he
Speaker 1: just like he having fun. You know it might not
Speaker 1: be everybody else loud and having fun type of stuff.
Speaker 1: I mean, that's just not AJ. I mean, at the
Speaker 1: end of the day, like I said, he's the most
Speaker 1: professional U down the earth guy or like I said,
Speaker 1: on that caliber level that you could tell that having
Speaker 1: changed one bit. And you know, I always respected that
Speaker 1: out of a j since day one. And you know,
Speaker 1: I'm sure. I mean he and it's a nineteen year
Speaker 1: or something like that, and he, you know, like I said,
Speaker 1: the way he handles himself and the way he goes
Speaker 1: about things. I mean, you know, hopefully I could be
Speaker 1: able to show one day with a younger guy, you know,
Speaker 1: be like, Okay, Joe's he wanted. The humblest dudes you
Speaker 1: know that I've ever met. Like I said, I feel
Speaker 1: that way about Aja, and I'm sure a lot of
Speaker 1: people do. But I mean, just like I said, the
Speaker 1: calorable level at Aja his own you know, he Hall
Speaker 1: of Fame bound. And you know a lot of people
Speaker 1: they be, you know, big headed and all of that.
Speaker 1: Aja is super down the earth, most humble dude that
Speaker 1: I've ever met. And I'll take that, you know, saying
Speaker 1: it a great with me. I mean, he just is.
Speaker 1: You've talked about trying to take another step forward this year,
Speaker 1: let the league in rushing last year? In your own mind,
Speaker 1: were you good last year? Were you great? Were you okay?
Speaker 1: How did you feel? Um? I think I think I
Speaker 1: did a good job. At the end of the day.
Speaker 1: The lineman, you know, that's that's really who who created it,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying. The receivers, block and down field,
Speaker 1: all of them dudes, they play a part of it.
Speaker 1: At the end of the day, I could have did
Speaker 1: a whole hell of a lot better. I mean, everybody
Speaker 1: think he was that good that year. At the same time,
Speaker 1: I left a lot of yards on the field. You
Speaker 1: might not think so because I had a lot, But
Speaker 1: at the same time, there's a lot more other yards
Speaker 1: that you know it was there that I could have got.
Speaker 1: But I mean it's just little things that plays a
Speaker 1: part of it. I mean, at the end of the day,
Speaker 1: like I said, this year, I'm gonna put myself on
Speaker 1: that that that pedestals who are I just got to
Speaker 1: be that much better, you know than everybody else. I mean,
Speaker 1: that's just what I'm gonna do. You know. The offense
Speaker 1: we got and the players around us and the coaches
Speaker 1: around us, they're gonna get us in that position to
Speaker 1: be able to do that. So, like I said, it's
Speaker 1: it's a lot in store for us. Just gotta go
Speaker 1: out there, you know, when the time comes and deliver.
Speaker 1: I mean, that's all it is to it, man, and
Speaker 1: really nothing else I saw that this is to it.
Speaker 1: You seem like you're bubbling with excitement the opportunity to
Speaker 1: play in this offense. Oh yeah, for sure. I mean
Speaker 1: if you were to see the the opportunity that a
Speaker 1: certain individual can do on the offense, and it's not
Speaker 1: being a quarterback. He'd be like, okay, like man like,
Speaker 1: hopefully I could be able to do that, you know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying. And the film me and the film
Speaker 1: speak for itself. You see the Rams running wild all
Speaker 1: day like and we got that same offense, And I mean,
Speaker 1: I will, I will think we have better players than them,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying, So at least offensive weapons,
Speaker 1: and like I said, I will think that we could
Speaker 1: do the same stuff, if not more than they can.
Speaker 1: If anybody side and said, look, we're gonna be We're
Speaker 1: gonna focus on the run. Um. I mean at the
Speaker 1: end of the day, to our offense and what we run,
Speaker 1: it's the run starts first. And by the run starting first,
Speaker 1: it's set ups the play actions and it's set up
Speaker 1: the jets suite, just set up the shots down the field.
Speaker 1: At the end of the day, if our run is going,
Speaker 1: then our past will be on two. And you know,
Speaker 1: by our past and our run being on at the
Speaker 1: same time, you gotta play the defense honest. If you ain't,
Speaker 1: it's on defense. If the defense not playing honest. And
Speaker 1: at the end of the day, you're not doing what
Speaker 1: you're supposed to be doing on offense. And I feel like,
Speaker 1: you know, you know, me being a back that I
Speaker 1: am and capable of being, and the receivers that we
Speaker 1: have with aj you know on the outside and Tyler
Speaker 1: and the slot. You know what I'm saying. You got
Speaker 1: John on outside, Cody on the outside, them boys, they're
Speaker 1: gonna be able to spread, you know, the ball around,
Speaker 1: and you got to play it honest. If you don't
Speaker 1: play honest and you just gonna have to pick take it,
Speaker 1: You're gonna have to take your choice and your chance
Speaker 1: to stop in the past getting extra dvs or extra
Speaker 1: big guys for the run. And at the end of
Speaker 1: the day, our offense should be so good we could
Speaker 1: be whatever defense out there, no matter what personnel they running.
Speaker 1: And you know, like I said, we just gotta do
Speaker 1: whatever we can man and put ourselves in position to
Speaker 1: excel in that level. Um. But I mean, it'll it'll come,
Speaker 1: and you know it's it's en due time. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's only so much we can say right now. But
Speaker 1: you know when when when the games start to come home,
Speaker 1: we'll be there for you. I ever even heard the
Speaker 1: name Zach Taylor. Did you watch the Rams the last
Speaker 1: two years and go, man, why can't they be stop
Speaker 1: these guys? Yeah? Yeah, for sure. And you know when
Speaker 1: you see Todd Gurley doing the things that he's done
Speaker 1: in that offense, she'd be like what, like, what the
Speaker 1: hell do they got going on? Like you know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying. But you know, when when you get coach
Speaker 1: Taylor bringing in that offense and you know, doing those
Speaker 1: things and the stuff that Todd did and the stuff
Speaker 1: that I know that I could be able to do
Speaker 1: the same thing, you know, if not more, then I mean,
Speaker 1: who wouldn't be excited? You know what I'm saying. Todd
Speaker 1: is a great player, like a great running back. Like
Speaker 1: it ain't it ain't no, no, I'm saying, it's you
Speaker 1: get one Tidd decades, just take one, like like decades
Speaker 1: to get one Ted Gurley. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: Todd as a special player in the league. You know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying. But at the same time, when when
Speaker 1: when we get that opportunity and you see what he
Speaker 1: could do and Coach Taylor bringing in that same thing,
Speaker 1: I mean, who wouldn't get excited? Who would last year
Speaker 1: do you feel like you're gonna get the same mount.
Speaker 1: I mean, I mean, at the end of the day,
Speaker 1: only time would tell. I mean, you never know how
Speaker 1: the game goes and things like that. But at the
Speaker 1: same time, I felt like, whatever touches that I get,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna be able to, you know, put on no
Speaker 1: matter what if it's in the past, are in the run.
Speaker 1: So I said, I just gotta be in physical shape
Speaker 1: and uh, you know, just to be able to take
Speaker 1: on that role and at that pounding of getting the
Speaker 1: rock and you know, like I said, I felt like
Speaker 1: I'd being great shaped for it. And now I's got
Speaker 1: to make sure when the time comes, it's gotta be ready.
Speaker 1: That's it. Last year, Joe Mixon became just the second
Speaker 1: running back in team history to lead his conference in rushing.
Speaker 1: Do you know the other one? Not Corey Dillon, not
Speaker 1: Ruddy Johnson, not James Brooks, and not Ikey Woods. It
Speaker 1: was Paul Robinson who led the AFL in rushing in
Speaker 1: the bengals very first season. When the team opens training
Speaker 1: camp on Saturday, it will be Dave Lapham's forty fourth
Speaker 1: with the Bengals, ten as a player and thirty four
Speaker 1: as a broadcaster. We began our training camp discussion with
Speaker 1: memories of his very first one lap. We are recording
Speaker 1: the day before training camp begins, and you're playing days.
Speaker 1: Were you excited today or were you dreading what was
Speaker 1: to come? I guess it all depended on the year,
Speaker 1: you know. I remember, you know, my first training camp.
Speaker 1: You talk about, you know, not knowing anything from an
Speaker 1: environmental standpoint or expectations. I mean it was also new
Speaker 1: and I can just remember, you know, going into the cafeteria,
Speaker 1: getting my food, sitting over in a corner by myself,
Speaker 1: and just not saying boot anybody. You know. It's like
Speaker 1: I took on the approach that rookies are not to
Speaker 1: be seen or heard from, you know, unless you're invited
Speaker 1: into a group or whatever the case may be. So
Speaker 1: I do remember just like looking around and just trying
Speaker 1: to observe as any things that I could observe, try
Speaker 1: to absorb and sponge in as much of the new
Speaker 1: environment as possible. And um, just man, don't don't don't DVA,
Speaker 1: keep your keep your nose to the grindstone. Um, if
Speaker 1: you have questions, don't be afraid to ask him, obviously,
Speaker 1: and then you find out veterans that you can you
Speaker 1: can trust, and guys that want to help you and
Speaker 1: all that sort of things. That rookie year it's a
Speaker 1: it's a big adjustment. Even though you played at a
Speaker 1: you know, a major college program and such, it's a
Speaker 1: different dynamic coming to the NFL. And I'll never forget
Speaker 1: the first pregame talk. Paul Brown gets up there with
Speaker 1: his Benjamin Franklin glasses on and and his notes and
Speaker 1: addresses the team and I'm thinking, man, this is this
Speaker 1: is unbelievable. This guys, he's in the Hall of Fame coach.
Speaker 1: You know, I can't believe I'm here. Go from Bench
Speaker 1: sports Wild, hall of Fame college coach my senior year
Speaker 1: to Paul Brown, Hall of Fame professional coach, my rookie
Speaker 1: in the NFL. And I thought, man, I am unlucky, dude,
Speaker 1: you know, go from one coach like that to another one.
Speaker 1: And they both had unbelievable respect for each other. Paul
Speaker 1: Brown really respected, you know, Bench Schwartzwald because he got
Speaker 1: a lot of guys from Syracuse over the years between
Speaker 1: his Cleveland Brown and Cincinnati Bengal teams. And of course
Speaker 1: Ben Schwartzwald thought you know, the moon rose and the
Speaker 1: sun rose, and said on Paul Brown. For sure, when
Speaker 1: Paul would get up and do that beginning of camp
Speaker 1: speech that he was famous for, what did you think?
Speaker 1: You know, I thought that he was. He was no nonsense.
Speaker 1: You know, he's a very accomplished orator. You know, he
Speaker 1: had he had a very strong message and h and
Speaker 1: he gave it the same message every year, the same speech.
Speaker 1: So you know, the veteran guys were all bored by it,
Speaker 1: and I'm like, on every word, I was like mesmerized,
Speaker 1: and you know, he covered a lot of things and
Speaker 1: I just looking at him, I thought, you know, this
Speaker 1: guy is uh, he's impressive. And then the more I
Speaker 1: got to know him as a rookie player, it was like,
Speaker 1: you know, I think if he got into politics, he
Speaker 1: would have been president. I think if he got into business,
Speaker 1: he would have run p And you know, he's just
Speaker 1: that kind of guy, just unbelievably intelligent, you know, ahead
Speaker 1: of the game. All the things that he that he invented,
Speaker 1: including the face mask and so many things that are
Speaker 1: taken for granted today. Paul Brown was the originator and
Speaker 1: so he just was and the thing that impressed me too,
Speaker 1: is his organizational ability when he get out of the
Speaker 1: coaching part of it. Even as a coach, he'd hired
Speaker 1: an assistant coach that he felt like he could trust
Speaker 1: and then let him do his job. He let him
Speaker 1: do his work, and if you didn't do it, he'd
Speaker 1: move on from you. But you get an opportunity to
Speaker 1: do it and do it well. So I think his
Speaker 1: organizational ability his ability to judge people and put him
Speaker 1: in positions to succeed and surround them with methodology and
Speaker 1: ways to succeed. He was a brilliant guy, very brilliant.
Speaker 1: Zach Taylor's first training camp as the Bengals head coach
Speaker 1: is going to look a lot different from what you
Speaker 1: experienced as an NFL player. Practices will be two hours,
Speaker 1: no two of days, no Oklahoma drill, no half line drill.
Speaker 1: What do you think Paul Brown was like that? Paul was?
Speaker 1: I mean, a two hour practice was a long practice
Speaker 1: for Paul, but it was very quick tempo and h
Speaker 1: His belief was, you're not on your own schedule. We're
Speaker 1: not going to beat you up. You did you know
Speaker 1: live we had nine on seven run game, we had
Speaker 1: live pass rush and things like that, but it wasn't
Speaker 1: he didn't really scrimmage at the end of practice. We'd
Speaker 1: we'd have a few plays of scrimmage, but nothing, you know,
Speaker 1: like a half an hour scrimmage or anything like that.
Speaker 1: But Forrest greg though, man, his training camps were, I
Speaker 1: mean they were they were tough. They were challenging mentally,
Speaker 1: physically everywhere they could challenge you. But you know, Forrest
Speaker 1: had the credibility of Lombardi asked him to at least
Speaker 1: do what he's asking us to do. Maybe more so
Speaker 1: he did it. He's not asking us to do anything
Speaker 1: he didn't do. He's still alive and walking and ticking.
Speaker 1: So let's let's see what we can get done. But
Speaker 1: I mean the conditioning part of it, in full pads,
Speaker 1: the up downs, you know, the famous grass drills running place,
Speaker 1: hit the ground, you know, I have to hit it
Speaker 1: on your belly, bounce up, and you know, we do
Speaker 1: sets of thirty, like three sets of thirty of them,
Speaker 1: and it's like your tongue's dragging at that point. And
Speaker 1: then practice hasn't even started yet, you know, it's like,
Speaker 1: oh my gosh. And they were very physical, and I
Speaker 1: remember we had the goal line stand against US in
Speaker 1: Super Bowl sixteen, and the very first practice the following
Speaker 1: year for training camp, we basically stretched, took a lap
Speaker 1: around the field and blew his whistl was a live
Speaker 1: goal line scrimmage. That will never happen on my watch again.
Speaker 1: And it was like, got your next shortened, you know,
Speaker 1: fifteen minutes into training camp in that nineteen eighty two season,
Speaker 1: that strike shortened season. So that was that was that
Speaker 1: was interesting. He was his training camps were by far
Speaker 1: the most physical, that most physical thing I'd ever been
Speaker 1: through in my life, football, non football, whatever. You'd be
Speaker 1: two inches taller if not for US training camps. In
Speaker 1: your mind, is there a fine line between how hard
Speaker 1: you need to work to be ready to play NFL
Speaker 1: football and keeping guys fresh and healthy? Yeah, And it's
Speaker 1: so different now because back then, you know, we'd have
Speaker 1: one mandatory camp in the offseason, and I mean I
Speaker 1: had an offseason job. Most guys had an offseason job.
Speaker 1: It was you know, you weren't making the money that
Speaker 1: football makes today. And uh, you know, plus the fact
Speaker 1: that I wanted to try to prepare myself for life
Speaker 1: after football because it could have been at any season,
Speaker 1: So I wanted to do things to eliminate vocations, if
Speaker 1: nothing else, and get experience and exposure in different things.
Speaker 1: And I had like, you know, six or seven different
Speaker 1: offseason jobs from teaching to you know, selling chemicals, selling adhesives,
Speaker 1: working at a savings and loan, all kinds of different jobs,
Speaker 1: you know, just to see what I might like and
Speaker 1: not like. And so guys, I mean I work out
Speaker 1: in my lunch period and I'd come in earlier in
Speaker 1: the morning so I could take an hour and a
Speaker 1: half lunch and go lift, go down to spinning field,
Speaker 1: lift you might run, and all that sort of thing,
Speaker 1: and then come back and work in the afternoon. So
Speaker 1: it wasn't Now it's a year round thing. I mean,
Speaker 1: they're conditioning, as we know, you know, all year round,
Speaker 1: and um they have you know, the OTAs and the
Speaker 1: mandatory mini camps and all those sort of things. So
Speaker 1: it's it's guys don't really get out of shape as
Speaker 1: much as guys used to back in those years, and
Speaker 1: a lot of times guys would literally play themselves in
Speaker 1: the shape at training camp. It would be my second
Speaker 1: year in the in the league in nineteen seventy five,
Speaker 1: we had a Hall of Fame game against the Redskins.
Speaker 1: So we had seven preseason games. We had training camp
Speaker 1: for nine weeks. I mean, I my son was born
Speaker 1: and you know, didn't see him for two and a
Speaker 1: half months. You know, it was like, geez, this is crazy.
Speaker 1: But that that was. That was the lifestyle of the
Speaker 1: NFL in those in those years or so training camps.
Speaker 1: I think they felt like they had to be a
Speaker 1: lot different. But when you look at it, guys would
Speaker 1: come into training camp not in very good shape at all,
Speaker 1: and they just beat them to death initially, and they'd
Speaker 1: wonder why they had pulled muscles and all these and
Speaker 1: guys weren't ready for the A lot of guys weren't.
Speaker 1: I never tried to let myself, you know, get that.
Speaker 1: I always felt like if I let myself get that
Speaker 1: badly out of shape, I'm gonna lose your job. Man.
Speaker 1: You know, it's a competitive world, not NFL. Man. You
Speaker 1: gotta keep yourself physically and mentally ready. But some guys
Speaker 1: would just you know, take it for granted and show
Speaker 1: up and early in camp have some kind of muscle
Speaker 1: pull that they shouldn't have really had. But so and
Speaker 1: like I can remember too back then, it would be
Speaker 1: nights one hundred percent humidity and one water break. Like
Speaker 1: back then, you were soft. If you drank water and
Speaker 1: they give you salt tablets, you know, it's like, oh,
Speaker 1: this is but it was just it was like the
Speaker 1: reverse of what should have been. And I can remember
Speaker 1: just losing literally number one practice, losing sixteen pounds waiting
Speaker 1: in the morning, waiting out after the second practice was
Speaker 1: sixteen pounds of water weight now and lunch. You tried
Speaker 1: to make it up in between, but you couldn't you
Speaker 1: make it up that fast. And you talk about man
Speaker 1: trying to just pound fluids and make sure you don't
Speaker 1: cramp to death, you know. So, yeah, training camp was
Speaker 1: so different back then. It was crazy. Seven preseason games
Speaker 1: has to be the record. No team ever played more
Speaker 1: than seven preseason games than it. No, I wouldn't think so,
Speaker 1: you know, because the Hall of Fame game was on
Speaker 1: a rotation, so you know, you get that extra one
Speaker 1: and it's like, I'm thinking I was only this, you
Speaker 1: know my rookie years. Is my second year in the league,
Speaker 1: and I'm thinking two years ago we only played eleven
Speaker 1: games in a regular season in college. We're playing seven games,
Speaker 1: don't even count. I mean, none of them even mena
Speaker 1: hill of beans, you know, and then so we play
Speaker 1: seven that don't count, and then we played fourteen to count. Crazy.
Speaker 1: All right, let's talk about the latest Bengals news, beginning
Speaker 1: with the return of Andre Smith. Do you figure, all right,
Speaker 1: there's your third tackle or is there still a chance
Speaker 1: in your mind that the Bengals will be looking to
Speaker 1: make a deal or trying to find, you know, the
Speaker 1: best available guy after cuts? Yeah, I mean, I think
Speaker 1: I think that as an organization, they probably always continue
Speaker 1: that on a daily basis. You're looking to improve your roster,
Speaker 1: you know, from one to fifty three. Once you get
Speaker 1: that final fifty three men roster, you're trying to improve
Speaker 1: it as much as you can. I think that they
Speaker 1: feel much better about where they are. I mean, because literally,
Speaker 1: you had two tackles. How are you gonna play preseason games?
Speaker 1: Are you gonna You're gonna kick these guards out and
Speaker 1: have them play tackle for over a half maybe three
Speaker 1: quarters of a preseason game where some of them might
Speaker 1: not even obviously make the team and others It's like
Speaker 1: you're taking away reps that maybe they need to have
Speaker 1: more at guard. Now you're kicking them out there at tackle.
Speaker 1: They may not even play it during the season, so
Speaker 1: you were just short bodies. So to get somebody in
Speaker 1: there to just, uh, you know, take reps like that.
Speaker 1: But there were other guys out there, you know, like
Speaker 1: guys like Perkins and guys like that that are going
Speaker 1: to get reps in the preseason games and try to
Speaker 1: hook on either here or other NFL teams. But I
Speaker 1: think I think to have who could what could be
Speaker 1: your third tackle there from day one a training camp
Speaker 1: taking reps with offensive lineman that will be making the
Speaker 1: football team, I think it is a plus. So I
Speaker 1: think that to get that signing done when they did,
Speaker 1: I think before training camp even started, I think as
Speaker 1: a as a positive because there was I mean, it
Speaker 1: was you didn't have to be a football linstein to realize, Man,
Speaker 1: we got a hole there, you know, at that tackle spot.
Speaker 1: And as we've talked about before, you're gonna find in
Speaker 1: your five best lineman. If you've got a guy that
Speaker 1: can play tackle, he can usually kick inside to play guard.
Speaker 1: So I mean, you're gonna find your five best offensive lineman.
Speaker 1: It's just who's going to be that third tackle in
Speaker 1: that or that swing tackle that can play both right
Speaker 1: and left. For what it's worth. In shorts and a
Speaker 1: T shirt, at least, Andrea appeared to be in decent shape. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think I agree with you. I think he's uh.
Speaker 1: I think he's been working in you know, this is
Speaker 1: his you know, he's in double digit's career now in
Speaker 1: the National Football League. So I think not that he
Speaker 1: ever took anything for granted, But if he did, I
Speaker 1: don't think he does anymore. And I think he's he's
Speaker 1: got a career and a story that he can tell
Speaker 1: some of the younger guys, you know, maybe things to avoid,
Speaker 1: things to do, you know, accentuate this, stay away from that,
Speaker 1: and you'll you'll have a successful NFL career. Plus the
Speaker 1: fact of having you know, played in a hundred games,
Speaker 1: over ninety of him here in his career with the Bengals,
Speaker 1: that he's he's seen a lot. You've seen a lot
Speaker 1: of players, he's seen a lot of defensive configurations, He's
Speaker 1: seen a lot of things that he can help, you know,
Speaker 1: young lineman with advanced their careers. News release came out
Speaker 1: on Friday morning that Billy Price begins the season on
Speaker 1: the non football injury list. That's also the case for
Speaker 1: long snapper Clark Harris. Let's start with Billy Price. They're
Speaker 1: not saying much about whatever the injury is, but they
Speaker 1: are saying it it did not appear to be too serious. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think it's a sounds like it's a precautionary thing,
Speaker 1: you know, as much as anything. I think they want
Speaker 1: to make sure that he's that he's right, that he's
Speaker 1: one hundred percent right before he starts to you know,
Speaker 1: to take on the grind of an NFL season. And honestly,
Speaker 1: Dan the first as we know, the first few days
Speaker 1: and not even in pads. I mean they really they
Speaker 1: break them in easily. So it's almost like an extension
Speaker 1: of a mandatory mini camp at this stage. And I'm
Speaker 1: not saying, oh, yeah, you know it's not important, you
Speaker 1: can skip it. But if you have to miss something,
Speaker 1: you know, I think that would be the stage where
Speaker 1: it would be the most you know, you could overcome it.
Speaker 1: I'm trying to say, I guess it's the easiest rather
Speaker 1: than missing you know, halfway into training camp or towards
Speaker 1: the end of training camp and then starting a regular
Speaker 1: season coming off of an injury that you've had to
Speaker 1: take some time off, so hopefully, you know, let it
Speaker 1: heal and uh, like I'm saying, hopefully it's not that significant.
Speaker 1: Hopefully let it heal up and then get right into
Speaker 1: it and uh and get the pads on and start
Speaker 1: working with that with that offensive line that you're going
Speaker 1: to be a very important industrial part of making all
Speaker 1: the calls and directing traffic and all the responsibilities of
Speaker 1: the center house. And Clark Harris's case, with his track
Speaker 1: record and his experience, I assume that if he's healthy
Speaker 1: by September first, it doesn't even matter how much practice
Speaker 1: time he gets in, He'll be fine as your long snapper. Yeah,
Speaker 1: they signed Dan God, so there's a long snapper, and
Speaker 1: I'm thinking, you know, why why do we have to
Speaker 1: have two long snapper as a training camp? It's not
Speaker 1: really that that necessary, that essential. I mean, every team
Speaker 1: has a backup deep snapper long snapper, but you don't.
Speaker 1: You don't usually necessarily have, particularly in Clark's case, where
Speaker 1: he hasn't had a miss execution in his career. Here
Speaker 1: knock on wood with the Bengals, so um, you know,
Speaker 1: he had been in a recent Pro Bowl. But now
Speaker 1: obviously it makes sense with him a little bit nicked
Speaker 1: up and on the injury list at this point in time.
Speaker 1: I want to talk to you about the offensive line
Speaker 1: because I was listening to another podcast a week or
Speaker 1: two ago specifically on offensive line play, and the person
Speaker 1: doing it talked about how the Rams offense will make
Speaker 1: the Bengals offensive line look better even if the individual
Speaker 1: players aren't better. In other words, it's an offensive line
Speaker 1: friendly scheme. Right. Yeah, That's that's been my thought and
Speaker 1: about it as well. And I can speak from experience.
Speaker 1: When your running game is going well, and the running
Speaker 1: game has to go well or it doesn't, you know,
Speaker 1: your your play action passing game isn't going to work.
Speaker 1: You do have to have the threat of the run.
Speaker 1: If you're getting your run stuffed the play action pass,
Speaker 1: you're going to find yourself in down in distance situations
Speaker 1: where it's tough to play action pass and you're gonna
Speaker 1: have to drop back and pass and protect the quarterback.
Speaker 1: But if you're able to create positive plays with your
Speaker 1: play action stuff, pulling lineman and you know, cross blocking
Speaker 1: and doing some of the things that you do with this.
Speaker 1: In this particular offense, a lot of movement, a lot
Speaker 1: of formation, movement. Mult things happen. Defensive linemen, they have
Speaker 1: to come off the football respect the run, so they
Speaker 1: choke it down a little bit or even come to
Speaker 1: a stop if they're really fooled by it, and then
Speaker 1: they have to restart or else re accelerate if they
Speaker 1: don't come to a complete stop. That gives you an
Speaker 1: edge as an offensive lineman, and you know not to
Speaker 1: mention what it does to the linebackers and the safeties
Speaker 1: with respect to potential big chunks down the field. And
Speaker 1: compound that with wide receivers on the edge they come
Speaker 1: in and blocking safeties, they're cracking on outside linebackers. Whatever
Speaker 1: they're doing in the running game, they go at that
Speaker 1: same movement, that same motion, same look to those guys.
Speaker 1: And so now you're playing its solid to play the run,
Speaker 1: and he runs right by you, and all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: you get a chunk play down the football field. So,
Speaker 1: I mean, there are so many, so many benefits to it,
Speaker 1: and you don't have to be an outstanding pass protector
Speaker 1: in that type of scheme. Now, at some point in time,
Speaker 1: you know you're gonna have to protect the quarterback. He's
Speaker 1: gonna take five seven step drops where he's seven nine
Speaker 1: yards deep in the pocket. But if rather than having
Speaker 1: to do that fifty times a game, or a defensive
Speaker 1: lineman knows where is and he's just teeing off, you know,
Speaker 1: fifty straight times, this offense with all the movement, formation,
Speaker 1: movement um, changing the launch point of the quarterback in
Speaker 1: and out of the pocket, moving the pocket, all of
Speaker 1: those kind of things that this offense is going to do,
Speaker 1: it's gonna make it a lot easier. I think it's
Speaker 1: I think it's offensive player friendly, it's offensive line friendly,
Speaker 1: quarterback friendly, receiver friendly. I think I think it can
Speaker 1: be all those things. But you know, as we've seen
Speaker 1: Newing Patriots figured it out. You know, they did a
Speaker 1: good job. But that's that's that guy's the best to
Speaker 1: ever do it, Bill Belichick, in terms of scheming on
Speaker 1: the defensive side of the football, and then he has
Speaker 1: a great quarterback executing on the other side of it.
Speaker 1: But I mean, they got to the Super Bowl running
Speaker 1: that offense. And this offense is going to be real
Speaker 1: interesting to watch, Dan because you know there's going to
Speaker 1: be some ram stuff, some West Coast stuff. You know,
Speaker 1: all the guys and the staff have had different exposures
Speaker 1: to different offenses. And they're three of them played quarterback.
Speaker 1: They all have input. So it's going to be, you know,
Speaker 1: a hybrid type of not a mishmatch, but a hybrid
Speaker 1: type of maybe everything that they like about these offenses
Speaker 1: put it all together and come up with something that
Speaker 1: could really create problems from matchup standpoint for defenses. It's
Speaker 1: going to be fun to watch, But I don't think
Speaker 1: you have to be a you know, a dominant pass
Speaker 1: protector as an offensive lineman they have success in this offense.
Speaker 1: You do have to be a pretty good run blocker though,
Speaker 1: to have success. And we've talked about it before. I
Speaker 1: always harken back to the Houston Texans under Gary Kubiak
Speaker 1: when they were really lightening it up. I'd watch end
Speaker 1: zone tape and it would be at the mesh point
Speaker 1: when the quarterbacks, you know, is he going to hand
Speaker 1: it off or not to the running back in the
Speaker 1: play action fake. The offensive lineman are looking the exact
Speaker 1: same whether they're running it or the play action pass.
Speaker 1: You know, they're not lying down the field, but they're
Speaker 1: doing their inside outside zone type schemes and they're doing
Speaker 1: it aggress It's like man is that a run? And
Speaker 1: even looking at the tight ends of receivers, like, I mean,
Speaker 1: their footwork, everything's the exact same. I'm like man and
Speaker 1: guests and would literally be a guest in fifty to
Speaker 1: fifty it was like seemed like half the time. Dam
Speaker 1: that's right, I thought there, And even considering down in distance,
Speaker 1: a lot of times they do that play acts and stuff.
Speaker 1: On second and eight, second and nine, you think they
Speaker 1: probably probably passed here and they're going to run it.
Speaker 1: Third and four they run it, you know, sometimes third
Speaker 1: and two, I think I gonna run it. No, it's
Speaker 1: a play action pass. So if you get that running
Speaker 1: game going, you can be real contrarian, you know, in
Speaker 1: your play calling and really get the defense on their
Speaker 1: heels and put them in a guessing game. Then you
Speaker 1: got you got a leg up for sure. How much
Speaker 1: did that scheme help Andrew Whitworth maintain his status as
Speaker 1: being known as one of the best left tackles in
Speaker 1: the NFL in his late thirties, Yeah, I think I
Speaker 1: think a lot. And uh Sullivan the center that um,
Speaker 1: you know, Sullivan and Whitworth were up there and advanced
Speaker 1: long on the tooth, and I do think that that
Speaker 1: you know, rather than just having Wit drop you know,
Speaker 1: set up and pass protect fifty straight times, you know,
Speaker 1: or fifty times during the course of a game, you know,
Speaker 1: in pass protection and Sullivan doing the same thing. I
Speaker 1: think you know, it makes it makes life easier, There's
Speaker 1: no question about it. You know, it's um any anytime, anytime,
Speaker 1: you can put an element of doubt in a defensive
Speaker 1: player's mind. This whole game is about confidence, you know,
Speaker 1: playing with confidence. If you if you think you know
Speaker 1: exactly you know, you know, you know exactly what to do,
Speaker 1: and you think your opponent doesn't really know what to do. Man,
Speaker 1: you feel like you're superman at that point, you know,
Speaker 1: And it is it's all about putting an element of doubt.
Speaker 1: That's why, you know, the defensive side of it. If
Speaker 1: if you're out there, whatever position it is, and it's like, man,
Speaker 1: you know, I'm not sure about this. What if he
Speaker 1: does this? What if he does that? You're done. You're beaten.
Speaker 1: You're beaten before you even even the stamp of the football.
Speaker 1: But if you line up and it's like, I know
Speaker 1: exactly what I'm gonna do. I don't care what he does.
Speaker 1: I know by rules, by rules. I know what I'm
Speaker 1: spposed to do. If he does this, I know what
Speaker 1: I'm supposed to do. If he does that, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: go kick his tail. And you know, now you're playing fast,
Speaker 1: you're playing confidently. And last year we saw a Bengals
Speaker 1: defense that was playing in doubt and a lot of times,
Speaker 1: I mean, sometimes guys are giving cushion because they're not sure.
Speaker 1: You know, they're not supposed to give seven yards cushion.
Speaker 1: And as a coach, I l y'all to you're kicking
Speaker 1: him in the butt, pushing them back up close to
Speaker 1: the line of scrimmage. But when you're not sure, it
Speaker 1: drives me nuts. When you teams that the you know,
Speaker 1: inside the ten yardline, a guy's given four yards cushion
Speaker 1: in the end zone, Why the heck would you do that?
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, it's like, you know, get up
Speaker 1: and challenge some people every once in a while, and
Speaker 1: so it is. It's all about mindset, it's all about mentality.
Speaker 1: And if you're a confident athlete, is an athlete that
Speaker 1: can play fast, and you know that's what you're looking for.
Speaker 1: We're in the locker room talking to quite a few
Speaker 1: of the players on Friday. I got excited just hearing
Speaker 1: Joe Mixon because he is bubbling with excitement with the
Speaker 1: opportunity to play in this scheme he is. I think
Speaker 1: he uh, you know, he led the AFC in rushing
Speaker 1: last year. You know he's uh, he's obviously coming off
Speaker 1: of off of that. Now. You know, Lindsay got injured
Speaker 1: the Broncos he was tracking. There's there's always circumstances and everything.
Speaker 1: Bottom line is, though he was number one in the
Speaker 1: in the AFC rushing the football, he missed two games himself.
Speaker 1: So he did it in in a fourteen game season. Pretty impressive, um,
Speaker 1: you know, and I think he wants to build on that.
Speaker 1: And I think there's always a guy that you know,
Speaker 1: some guys don't say a boo when they're leading, and
Speaker 1: they lead by example. Other guys are emotional and vociferous,
Speaker 1: and you know they not only lead by example, but
Speaker 1: they lead by um, you know, trying to elevate you
Speaker 1: from a verbal standpoint wherever the case. And Joe's Joe's
Speaker 1: that guy. I mean, Joe's the guy when they're having
Speaker 1: their competitive periods of practice. Was Joe's like, oh, there's
Speaker 1: an offense and defensive guy that's you know, getting after
Speaker 1: each other. Joe's always the offensive guy that's getting after
Speaker 1: the defense. So he's he's that you know, he's that
Speaker 1: kind the guy. He's the type a personality guy that way,
Speaker 1: but he backs it up. And that's that's what you
Speaker 1: that's what you like to have. The thing that the
Speaker 1: things I love about Joe when I watched Joe, if
Speaker 1: they're up twenty or down twenty, if he makes a
Speaker 1: big play, he celebrates it, you know, and not necessarily
Speaker 1: in a way to call attention to Joe. It's just like, yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, I did exactly what I was supposed to do.
Speaker 1: And he's he's an excitable football player. I like those
Speaker 1: kind of guys, you know, and U Joe's not a
Speaker 1: selfish player. I think Joe's just a you know, he'll
Speaker 1: give credit to his offensive line of good, credit to
Speaker 1: his wide receivers is full if there is one. Everybody
Speaker 1: tight ends, everybody blocking for him. But he just he
Speaker 1: wh when a play is executed the way it's supposed
Speaker 1: to be done, he celebrates it. And I don't I
Speaker 1: don't see anything wrong with that. Our summer vacation is over. Unbelievable.
Speaker 1: Here we go. First, first practice up in Dating is
Speaker 1: celebrating the one hundredth year of the game. First game
Speaker 1: played up there in Dating, the Dating Triangles beat the
Speaker 1: team from Columbus fourteen ZIP. That was big back then.
Speaker 1: I guess I'm sure it was. The Columbus team name,
Speaker 1: by the way, was the Panhandles. The gates at Welcome
Speaker 1: Stadium open at one thirty on Saturday, and admission is free.
Speaker 1: Practice a schedule to start at two thirty and last
Speaker 1: for about an hour, followed by an autograph session. If
Speaker 1: you can't make it, NFL Network will air live coverage.
Speaker 1: The Bengals will hold their first practice in downtown Cincinnati
Speaker 1: on Sunday afternoon at three. Now time for this week's
Speaker 1: fun fact segment as we get to know a new
Speaker 1: member of the coaching staff. He was John Gruden's quarterbacks
Speaker 1: coach last year in Oakland after earning a Super Bowl
Speaker 1: ring with the Denver Broncos. Time for some fun facts
Speaker 1: with Bengals offensive coordinator Brian Callahan. The Bengals list your
Speaker 1: hometown as Champagne, Illinois, but as the son of a coach,
Speaker 1: I'm guessing you lived all over the place. As a kid,
Speaker 1: was that the case. Yeah, for the most part, I
Speaker 1: lived in I really got I went to high school
Speaker 1: in one place, so birthplace with Champaign, Illinois. My dad
Speaker 1: was at the University of Illinois. But we moved to
Speaker 1: Arizona and north to Carpondale and Madison, Wisconsin. I would
Speaker 1: say Madison is kind of where my childhood was kindergarten
Speaker 1: through fifth grade. And then when we lived in South Jersey,
Speaker 1: when I was in middle school with my dad was
Speaker 1: the Eagles. And then I went to high school out
Speaker 1: in the Bay Area and my dad was with the Raiders.
Speaker 1: So I got through high school in one place. I
Speaker 1: was fortunate. It's not always the case for every coaches kids.
Speaker 1: So but yeah, we moved around a little bit. You
Speaker 1: probably learned how to make friends quickly. I loved moving around,
Speaker 1: and I think when you look back, and I'm actually
Speaker 1: kind of excited for my kids to have that experience.
Speaker 1: I've lived in most major geographical areas of the country.
Speaker 1: You get to meet a bunch of different types of people.
Speaker 1: It allows you to learn how to get along with people,
Speaker 1: allows you to learn how to make friends you don't
Speaker 1: know anybody. I think it helped me as a kid
Speaker 1: grown up to be a little more outgoing and put
Speaker 1: myself out there and learned how to make a friend
Speaker 1: or two and needed. We're doing fun facts with Brian Callahan.
Speaker 1: Your dad, Bills, the former head coach of the Oakland
Speaker 1: Raiders and the Nebraska Cornhuskers. He's currently lead the offensive
Speaker 1: line coach of the Washington Redskins. Were you allowed to
Speaker 1: go behind the scenes with his teams as a kid? Oh? Yeah,
Speaker 1: that was the best part about being a coach's kid.
Speaker 1: If you love football. What a great way to grow up.
Speaker 1: I was in I was in OTAs and training camps,
Speaker 1: and I worked in the equipment room. I used to
Speaker 1: go to practice and throw, so I would be out
Speaker 1: there throwing individual drills as a high school kid, which
Speaker 1: was a great experience. I got to throw some pretty
Speaker 1: good players in Oakland there for a couple of years.
Speaker 1: And yeah, I got to sit in meetings. So oddly enough,
Speaker 1: I used to sit in John Gruden's quarterback meetings when
Speaker 1: I was fourteen and fifteen years old and he was
Speaker 1: still the head coach there, and low and behold, a
Speaker 1: bunch of years later, I get to go work for him.
Speaker 1: So yeah, I got to see kind of all of it,
Speaker 1: from meetings to dealing with the players and being at
Speaker 1: practice and being around and I had to get occasional
Speaker 1: reminder that whatever I heard in the field as it
Speaker 1: wasn't okay to bring back to the house. But yeah,
Speaker 1: I got to see you quite a bit. For a
Speaker 1: young kid, I've been hanging around training camps since I
Speaker 1: was about eleven or twelve. And who are some of
Speaker 1: the guys who were throwing too in Oakland? Tim Brown,
Speaker 1: Jerry Rice, those two guys, those pretty good players. Um
Speaker 1: you know, then those were those areasly too that stand out.
Speaker 1: But then to get to be around a guy like
Speaker 1: Rich Gannon as a high school high school athlete, to
Speaker 1: see him and he was always great to me and
Speaker 1: answer questions, and I got a chance to pick his
Speaker 1: brain here and there, and uh, you know, Jim Harbaugh
Speaker 1: was a quart to control coach. Then David Shaw was
Speaker 1: on that staff. A bunch of really really good coaches,
Speaker 1: Mark Trustman. There's guys that have been around coaching pro
Speaker 1: football for a long time and head coaches in college.
Speaker 1: So just to be able to grow up around that
Speaker 1: environment where there's a bunch of guys at that point
Speaker 1: where they were young too, that you know, took an
Speaker 1: interest in me and helped me and answer questions when
Speaker 1: I had questions. So it was a great experience growing up.
Speaker 1: Kind of suits my current profession. I'll say, in his
Speaker 1: first year as a head coach, your dad took the
Speaker 1: Raiders to the Super Bowl. Unfortunately the game against Tampa
Speaker 1: Bay didn't turn out well. But where are your most
Speaker 1: vivid memories of that season and that Super Bowl appearance?
Speaker 1: Quite a bit. I was. I was a freshman in college,
Speaker 1: so I had a chance. I was. I was into it.
Speaker 1: It was very it was important to me. I was proud,
Speaker 1: I was was excited for my dad. So I remember
Speaker 1: remember a Pittsburgh game where they threw the ball I
Speaker 1: don't know, like sixty sometimes and beat the Steelers because
Speaker 1: the Steelers front was really good that year. They're hard
Speaker 1: to run the ball against. I just remember a bunch
Speaker 1: of Charlie Gardner highlights. I remember Tyrone Wheatley kind of
Speaker 1: smashing people down when they needed him too. Um and
Speaker 1: then just I just remember specifically just how great of
Speaker 1: a season rich Gannon had that year's NFL MVP. His
Speaker 1: his accuracy, his preparation that was my first kind of
Speaker 1: exposure to what an elite prepare, uh, you know how
Speaker 1: he approached the game. So there were some really fun moments.
Speaker 1: I think that AFC Championship game against the Titans when
Speaker 1: they kind of they they beat him once through the
Speaker 1: year they played NFC CHAMPIONI game, Oakland was rocking. It
Speaker 1: was an awesome environment. I'll never forget that. That was
Speaker 1: a That AFC Championship game is pretty special. That crowd
Speaker 1: there and the energy electricity at the stadium and cmrays
Speaker 1: at AFC. The Lamar Hunt Trophy for the to go
Speaker 1: to the Super Bowl was a was a pretty cool
Speaker 1: moment for me and my family. We're visiting with offensive
Speaker 1: coordinator Brian Callahan. Let's talk about your playing career a
Speaker 1: little bit. As a high school player, you were part
Speaker 1: of the greatest winning streak in history day las Sell
Speaker 1: High School won one hundred and fifty one consecutive games
Speaker 1: from ninety two to two thousand and four. You were
Speaker 1: there toward the tail end of the winning streak. Was
Speaker 1: there a lot of pressure on you and your teammates
Speaker 1: to extend the streak? You know, we never we finally
Speaker 1: felt it, you know, looking back now, but back then.
Speaker 1: We didn't know any any different. We just we just
Speaker 1: knew we were really good and we knew that we
Speaker 1: were gonna I think what the foundation of that program
Speaker 1: was pretty unique and special. Bob Ladish is an incredible
Speaker 1: high school football coach and human being, and the way
Speaker 1: that he made that culture there. We never felt the pressure.
Speaker 1: There was never any pressure from them, any pressure that
Speaker 1: it usually came from the outside. We just wanted to
Speaker 1: go out and play well and do our job right
Speaker 1: and whatever our assignment was or whatever our goals or
Speaker 1: commitments for that week where we wanted to meet those
Speaker 1: and U I think it's a really good lesson for
Speaker 1: a young any young athlete. You start to learn that
Speaker 1: you know, all the all the end results don't really
Speaker 1: matter as much as the as the process and the
Speaker 1: journey of getting to that point. So UM did a
Speaker 1: really good job of kind of keeping a bunch of
Speaker 1: young high school kids focused on the on the daily
Speaker 1: goals and the and the and the doing things the
Speaker 1: right way all the time, versus just assuming that we
Speaker 1: were just going to go win a game because we
Speaker 1: were good or because we've had the street we were
Speaker 1: gonna go win. It was It was a unique, unique
Speaker 1: environment to start my football career. I still, I would say,
Speaker 1: a lot of the things that I learned there I
Speaker 1: still carry over into this level. And you know, if
Speaker 1: there's not a lot of secrets in football, so good
Speaker 1: teams usually good teams for a reason. Uh. And and
Speaker 1: a lot of those things that we did there, I've
Speaker 1: kind of carried throughout my coaching careers a little bit
Speaker 1: of the foundation of who I am as a football coach,
Speaker 1: and at the time was as a player, you walked
Speaker 1: down to UCLA and served as a backup quarterback. When
Speaker 1: did you side to pursue a career in coaching after
Speaker 1: my So I walked on, uh. And I was a
Speaker 1: typical walk on. I was the fourth or fifth or
Speaker 1: sixth quarterback, and I'd run some scout team and I
Speaker 1: enjoyed it, and I love being a part of the team,
Speaker 1: and I love competing, and I wanted to try to
Speaker 1: do my best to try to My goal was to
Speaker 1: go walk on earn a scholarship, mainly approved to myself
Speaker 1: that I could that I could find a way to
Speaker 1: do that. But after my sophomore year, obviously I realized
Speaker 1: that you know, the NFL probably wasn't in my future.
Speaker 1: I was gonna have to find another alternative to go
Speaker 1: earn a living, which you know, for anybody who plays
Speaker 1: football as a you get to eighteen nineteen years old
Speaker 1: and all of a sudden you go as a professional
Speaker 1: career might not be in my future. So I started
Speaker 1: thinking of the options that were kind of in front
Speaker 1: of me. And I love football, I love being around it,
Speaker 1: so it was the next logical choice. Plus it was
Speaker 1: a chance to be a graduate assistant at UCLA get
Speaker 1: my grad degree UCLA, and I figured if I didn't
Speaker 1: love coaching after being a grad assistant, I'd have two
Speaker 1: degrees from UCLA and I'd be okay, so I could
Speaker 1: find something I would like to do with that. But
Speaker 1: I ended up loving it. I love being a graduate assistant,
Speaker 1: I love coaching. I loved all of it. So I
Speaker 1: pursued the coaching aspect. What was your first full time
Speaker 1: coaching job and what were the responsibilities My first full
Speaker 1: time coaching job, I was the freshman offensive coordinator at
Speaker 1: Unipero Serra High School in sam Mateo, California, which is
Speaker 1: Tom Brady's alma mater. Good Good High School program, Competitive
Speaker 1: Catholic League in the Bay Area. But that was I
Speaker 1: was a freshman football coach and you're only You're only
Speaker 1: allowed thirteen coaches on the staff at the time in
Speaker 1: the league, so it kept them from having all kinds
Speaker 1: of coaches and you had to have x amount of
Speaker 1: them on campus. So I took a job as a
Speaker 1: full time teacher and UH assistant football coach, and that
Speaker 1: was my first full time gig, and I loved every
Speaker 1: second of it. To me, it actually some of the
Speaker 1: most fun I've ever had coaching. I was coaching high
Speaker 1: school kids. It's I wasn't ready at twenty three years
Speaker 1: old to settle down for the next forty years as
Speaker 1: a high school teacher and coach. It just wasn't. It
Speaker 1: wasn't for me at that time, so I decided I
Speaker 1: wanted to keep pushing further. But um, that was my
Speaker 1: first full time job, and I loved every second. I
Speaker 1: still talked to a bunch of the kids that I
Speaker 1: coached there. We're doing fund facts with Brian Callahan as
Speaker 1: an NFL assistant coach. You were part of a Super
Speaker 1: Bowl winning staff with the Broncos in twenty fifteen. Turned
Speaker 1: out to be Peyton Manning's final game. Describe Peyton Manning boy,
Speaker 1: how much time you got. He was incredible. He was
Speaker 1: incredible to me. My role, especially that year, had kind
Speaker 1: of morphed. I was a little bit of a I'd
Speaker 1: kind of played the go between between him and coach
Speaker 1: Kubiak because I was one of the few guys that
Speaker 1: was still there that knew kind of everything about how
Speaker 1: he had done things previously. We were trying to transition
Speaker 1: the system a little bit at the time to what
Speaker 1: Gary had done for so long, so we kind of
Speaker 1: had to marry these two systems together, and that kind
Speaker 1: of became my middle role. There was with that, And
Speaker 1: the best part about being around him was the challenge
Speaker 1: every day was you had to be on and he
Speaker 1: had He'd have a thousand questions and he'd ask you,
Speaker 1: and he had to be affirmative in your answers and
Speaker 1: you had to know what you were talking about. And
Speaker 1: over if the course of four years that I kind
Speaker 1: of earned his respect. I think in that are for
Speaker 1: my preparation to help him, And I think that when
Speaker 1: you get to the when you deal with guys like that,
Speaker 1: the challenge is the most fun. They keep you on
Speaker 1: your toes. There's you know, there was never a never
Speaker 1: a moment where I didn't feel like I had to
Speaker 1: be studying or on whatever it was repreparing for and
Speaker 1: it and it pushed me and made me a much
Speaker 1: better a much better coach, and a much better football
Speaker 1: mind because the way he kind of stimulated and made
Speaker 1: me think about things, and then just getting the overall
Speaker 1: picture of what the quarterback position is supposed to look like,
Speaker 1: how to go about your daily business, how to manage,
Speaker 1: how to be in the locker room, how he went
Speaker 1: about preparing, how he practiced, the intensity at which he practiced,
Speaker 1: and in meetings at eighteen years into the league, that
Speaker 1: every day was like a new day, like he had
Speaker 1: never heard the information before. It was really really impressive,
Speaker 1: and I'm very grateful to have been around that and
Speaker 1: to him to allow me to be a part of
Speaker 1: that journey for four years in Denver. It was it
Speaker 1: was really it was very challenging and it was a
Speaker 1: lot of fun. Where it's your super Bowl ring and
Speaker 1: when do you show it off? A super Bowl ring
Speaker 1: is in a safe. Um it is here in Cincinnati,
Speaker 1: but it's in a safe and I show it off.
Speaker 1: You know, I've never actually worn it to be totally.
Speaker 1: I've never I've never worn it anywhere except to the
Speaker 1: ring ceremony in Denver that that's at the end of
Speaker 1: that year. Um. I show it occasionally and people kind
Speaker 1: of ask about it. I don't take it out too often,
Speaker 1: but it is I assume at some point later in
Speaker 1: my life I will. But it's really big and gaudy
Speaker 1: and it's it's almost over the top. I just I
Speaker 1: don't know when to wear it. I don't know, you know,
Speaker 1: there's probably events at some point in some reunion and
Speaker 1: someday I'll wear it too. But they're really not meant
Speaker 1: to be worn anymore. No, they're they're they're so big
Speaker 1: that they they're they're more of a presentation piece than
Speaker 1: they are. I have a replica of the super Bowl trophy.
Speaker 1: That's it's it's in my house and that tends to
Speaker 1: kind of quell most of the curiosity about it. And
Speaker 1: every now and against my gonna be ring and if
Speaker 1: I have it there, I'll be happy to show it.
Speaker 1: You're off the hot seat. I appreciate the time, best
Speaker 1: of luck this year, very much appreciate it. And that's
Speaker 1: going to do it. For this week's podcast. If you
Speaker 1: haven't done so already, don't forget to subscribe on iTunes, stitch,
Speaker 1: your Google Play, Spotify or pod Bean, and if you
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Speaker 1: star ratings help more Bengals fans find this podcast. I'm
Speaker 1: Dan Horde and thanks for listening to The Bengals Booth Podcast.