Speaker 1: Hike and everybody. I'm Dan Horde, and thanks for downloading
Speaker 1: the Bengals Booths podcast, the thousand Million Questions edition. As
Speaker 1: my broadcast partner Dave Lapham joins me to answer questions
Speaker 1: you submitted via Twitter. We won't really get to a
Speaker 1: thousand million of them. Those are just some lyrics from
Speaker 1: a great old Moody Blues song, but we will cover
Speaker 1: ten good questions that you sent in, ranging from who
Speaker 1: is most likely to start on the offensive line too,
Speaker 1: what does lap know about Anthony Muonios's messed up little finger?
Speaker 1: Plus lap as a few questions for me that's coming up,
Speaker 1: and in this week's fun Facts interview, I will quiz
Speaker 1: the Bengals second round pick and this year's draft tight end,
Speaker 1: Drew Sample out of the University of Washington. All of
Speaker 1: that is straight ahead, But first, here's a quick reminder
Speaker 1: that you can have the latest edition of this pod
Speaker 1: cast delivered right to your phone, tablet, or computer by
Speaker 1: subscribing on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, Spotify, or pod Bean.
Speaker 1: It's the greatest invention since scoring a baseball game. As
Speaker 1: you may know, I used to be a minor league
Speaker 1: baseball announcer and I've also been lucky enough to call
Speaker 1: some Big League games for the Reds, Mets, and Blue Jays.
Speaker 1: When you're broadcasting baseball, you have to keep a running
Speaker 1: score book in order to recap exactly what happened in
Speaker 1: the game. But in my case, I started scoring baseball
Speaker 1: games as a little kid while watching on TV. In fact,
Speaker 1: one of the highlights of my summer every year growing
Speaker 1: up was keeping score of the Major League All Star Game. Yes,
Speaker 1: I was a total goober. In any case, I am
Speaker 1: currently an assistant coach on my thirteen year old Sons
Speaker 1: baseball team, where my duties include keeping the score book. Now,
Speaker 1: let's get to football. Sent out a tweet this week
Speaker 1: asking Bengals fans if they had any questions for my
Speaker 1: broadcast partner, Dave Lapham. I got a lot of responses
Speaker 1: and picked out what I thought were ten good questions.
Speaker 1: But as we began, lap asked me if he could
Speaker 1: get things started, all right, lap On this episode of
Speaker 1: the podcast, we are going to take ten questions from
Speaker 1: Twitter followers. But before we get to that, you apparently
Speaker 1: have a question for me. Well, I do. Dan. First
Speaker 1: of all, I want to congratulate you on your selection
Speaker 1: to the UC Hall of Fame. That's a heck of
Speaker 1: a legacy, well deserved going into your nineteenth year of
Speaker 1: broadcasting over at U SEE. And I guess my first
Speaker 1: question is, I know you wanted to do it for
Speaker 1: a long time. You decided earlier in your life that
Speaker 1: this profession that you wanted to take your career path down.
Speaker 1: Who was your first person that you said, I want
Speaker 1: to be just like him? You know this guy, Lap
Speaker 1: Van Miller, the legendary voice of the Buffalo bill So
Speaker 1: a lot of people listening to this podcast have never
Speaker 1: heard of Van Miller. He was the voice of the
Speaker 1: Bills for more than forty years. I think he was
Speaker 1: the greatest football radio play by play announcer of all time.
Speaker 1: But if you grew up in the southwest tip of
Speaker 1: New York State like I did. When I did, Van
Speaker 1: Miller was everywhere. So he was the sportscaster on the
Speaker 1: local CBS station. You'd see him at six and eleven
Speaker 1: o'clock every night. He did the Buffalo Bills games, he
Speaker 1: did the Buffalo Braves games. That was an NBA franchise
Speaker 1: in the nineteen seventies. That's now the Clippers. Bob McAdoo
Speaker 1: two for McAdoo. That's what the PA announcer said at
Speaker 1: the Old Odd in Buffalo. Van Miller even hosted a
Speaker 1: weekly quiz bowl show for high schools. So I watched
Speaker 1: high School quiz Bowl every week just because Van Miller
Speaker 1: was the host. That's how much he was my hero.
Speaker 1: So while other kids, you know, worshiped the athletes or
Speaker 1: other stars in Hollywood or whatever, Van Miller was my guy.
Speaker 1: So he was really a big reason why I got
Speaker 1: into the business. So obviously, so you're extremely versatile. We
Speaker 1: always talk about position versatility being a big strength for
Speaker 1: a professional athlete. For a broadcaster, I mean, you do
Speaker 1: more from a versatility standpoint than anybody that I know.
Speaker 1: What's what's the most difficult of all the sports that
Speaker 1: you've been involved with from a play by play standpoint,
Speaker 1: What's what's the most difficult, What's what's come the easiest
Speaker 1: to you? Baseball is the most difficult. Basketball is the easiest.
Speaker 1: Here's why. In baseball, a groundball to shortstop might take
Speaker 1: two seconds and then several minutes go by before there's
Speaker 1: more significant action other than pitches, but before another ball
Speaker 1: is put in play. So you really have to be
Speaker 1: skilled at filling those gaps, whether it's with storytelling, information, whatever.
Speaker 1: Various announcers do it different ways, so that's why it's
Speaker 1: a great challenge, and that's why I think it's the
Speaker 1: most difficult. Basketball is the easiest to me because there
Speaker 1: are only ten guys, so it's a limited number of guys.
Speaker 1: The game can move fairly fast, but it's not at
Speaker 1: a breakneck pace, and the geography is easy to describe.
Speaker 1: Corner follow line, top of the key lane, center court.
Speaker 1: It's very easy to create that picture for the listener
Speaker 1: to kind of follow the ball. So that's why I
Speaker 1: think basketball is easiest. And then all the young listeners
Speaker 1: out there that listen to your podcasts, what's your advice?
Speaker 1: I mean, all all the young guys that want to
Speaker 1: do what you're doing, how do you advise them to
Speaker 1: get there? Biggest advice I can give is to get
Speaker 1: as much practical experience as possible. You know, broadcasting is
Speaker 1: not taught in a classroom. We both went to Syracuse.
Speaker 1: It has a very well known school of public communications,
Speaker 1: the New House School. But pretty much everything that I use,
Speaker 1: I hope my professors are not listening. But the things
Speaker 1: that helped me today are the things I learned from
Speaker 1: doing it on campus radio and campus TV, learning it
Speaker 1: from my fellow want to be sports announcers that have
Speaker 1: gone on to accomplish great things in the business. Just
Speaker 1: bouncing off ideas off each other and picking each other's
Speaker 1: work apart. That to me was more advantageous than anything
Speaker 1: I learned from a professor. So, just like in anything,
Speaker 1: repetition breeds comfort level, right. I mean, if you can
Speaker 1: call a tittle lunx match, go do it right. Just
Speaker 1: get used to doing it over and over and over again.
Speaker 1: Get any practical experience you possibly can. So if you
Speaker 1: are a young student, a high school student and early
Speaker 1: in his college career student, and this is something you
Speaker 1: want to pursue, sign up for the campus radio station
Speaker 1: or the online equivalent. Do anything you can to practice,
Speaker 1: even if that means sitting in the stands with a
Speaker 1: recording device and just broadcasting to yourself to get the reps,
Speaker 1: because that's the only way to do it. All right,
Speaker 1: are we ready for Twitter questions? I hope that didn't
Speaker 1: bore people to tears, but I appreciate it all right.
Speaker 1: Question number one, will the Bengals add any additional free
Speaker 1: agents now that the compensatory draft pick period is over.
Speaker 1: You know, I think what Zach Taylor's doing here in
Speaker 1: terms of building a culture, I think they're going to
Speaker 1: be very careful about. You know, a guy that's been
Speaker 1: around the league for double digit seasons and people are like, oh,
Speaker 1: I mean and Dominican SU's out there, how can you
Speaker 1: not add in Dominican Sue? I mean the guy if
Speaker 1: so moved, and that's a big key, if So moved
Speaker 1: can do this or that for you well, And Dominican
Speaker 1: Sue has gotten a lot of defensive coordinators over the
Speaker 1: years fired as well. I mean, he's a difficult guy
Speaker 1: to deal with at times, and there's always there's always
Speaker 1: pros and cons to every situation, so I think everything's
Speaker 1: going to be heavily weighted out. I don't think that
Speaker 1: Zach Taylor is going to do anything to jeopardize the
Speaker 1: culture that he's trying to build, you know. I think
Speaker 1: with decisions that have been made with respect to Mark
Speaker 1: Walton Vantez Burfett, I think they definitely have an idea
Speaker 1: in picture in mind of what they want to do
Speaker 1: from a cultural standpoint. So I'm not sure they want
Speaker 1: to do anything to tarnish that question. Number two, who's
Speaker 1: going to start on the offensive line. That's a good question,
Speaker 1: you know, I think, honestly, in my philosophy, it's always
Speaker 1: been the best five players, you know, start on the
Speaker 1: offensive line. And the good news is so many of
Speaker 1: these guys have position versatility. You know. I do think
Speaker 1: Billy Price will probably line up at the center position.
Speaker 1: You know, It's not like he's a KG veteran. I mean,
Speaker 1: he missed a lot of his rookie season, you know,
Speaker 1: due to injury, unfortunately to the foot. But Billy's a
Speaker 1: very sharp guy and he's got he's got a very
Speaker 1: strong skill set. So he's going to be given you
Speaker 1: every opportunity, I think, to hold down that center position.
Speaker 1: But you know, after that, if I'm if I'm an
Speaker 1: offensive lineman, I'm going into training camp saying that just
Speaker 1: about every position is opening season, it's open game, nobody
Speaker 1: including Billy. I mean, Billy should not take this mindset
Speaker 1: a posture that you know, it's a given. I'm a
Speaker 1: I've been ordained the starting center. I don't think anybody's
Speaker 1: been ordained anything at this point in time. And I
Speaker 1: think Coach Turner is going to basically conduct a very
Speaker 1: very competitive training camp, and it's going to be best
Speaker 1: man wins philosophy and and the best five guys are
Speaker 1: gonna gonna start. And you know, it could be anybody
Speaker 1: lining up anywhere, and he'll probably try a few different combinations,
Speaker 1: particularly early in training camp and early in preseason games.
Speaker 1: But you don't want to mess with it too long.
Speaker 1: You know, you'd like to have an idea of these
Speaker 1: are the guys who are going to line up these spots,
Speaker 1: because you know, you want to get some reps under
Speaker 1: their BELTU offensive line play that's very critical. I've often
Speaker 1: said over the years that it's like making a fish.
Speaker 1: You don't think about wrapping your four fingers and curling
Speaker 1: your thumb. It just happens. It's involuntary. And when an
Speaker 1: offensive line's play in that way, that's when you get,
Speaker 1: you know, you get really good as a group. You
Speaker 1: don't even have to verbally communicate. You know, it might
Speaker 1: be a look, it might be you know, just a
Speaker 1: body movement that everybody knows what page everybody else is on.
Speaker 1: That's down the road. I mean, that's that's after years
Speaker 1: of experience together. But you do want to get on
Speaker 1: the same page as quick as you possibly can from
Speaker 1: a communication standpoint, if nothing else, And you know, get
Speaker 1: a feel for you know, when there's an et to penetrate,
Speaker 1: tackle twist or tackle penetrate end loop. You have a
Speaker 1: feel for what's how your partner's going to handle that.
Speaker 1: You don't want to be passing things off into space.
Speaker 1: You know, you think one thing and you guys doing another.
Speaker 1: Those kind of things are very very important and the
Speaker 1: only way you can you can gain trust in each
Speaker 1: others to have repetition of that. So versatility is great
Speaker 1: to have, but you do have to have some work,
Speaker 1: you know, some repetitions right next to guys who need
Speaker 1: the side of you, so you feel comfortable going into
Speaker 1: into game battle. But um, you know, you think Jonah
Speaker 1: Williams picked where he is, eleventh pick in the draft.
Speaker 1: He's playing somewhere, and he probably deserves to play somewhere
Speaker 1: the level of player he is and the technique that
Speaker 1: he has and everything that goes along with it. But um,
Speaker 1: it's going to be interesting to see who's going to
Speaker 1: line up at both guards in both tackle positions, because
Speaker 1: you know I would, I would right now. It's like
Speaker 1: you're going to a new team. You have a new
Speaker 1: offensive line coach, a new offensive coordinator, a new head coach.
Speaker 1: You might as well be in another city in terms
Speaker 1: of you have to you have to prove yourself all
Speaker 1: over again to all those new sets of eyes. What
Speaker 1: you did in the past doesn't mean a hill the beans.
Speaker 1: You've got a new evaluators now, so it's it's wide
Speaker 1: open from day one. This isn't a Twitter question. This
Speaker 1: is a Dan Horde follow up question. A few years ago,
Speaker 1: Andre Smith was here and going into the season or
Speaker 1: going into camp. The talk was he's going to move
Speaker 1: to guard. It's a natural move for him at this
Speaker 1: stage of his career. And he said all the right
Speaker 1: things until practice started and then it was obvious he
Speaker 1: did not want to play guard. What do you think
Speaker 1: about Cordy Glenn based on your interactions with him, do
Speaker 1: you think he would be cool with a move to
Speaker 1: guard if that's the way it plays out. I think
Speaker 1: he's played it more than Andrea did, and I think
Speaker 1: that you know, his quote is very apropos You know,
Speaker 1: a guard, you're playing on a phone booth, and when
Speaker 1: you're in the tackle position, you're you're out in space.
Speaker 1: And he feels like he can play in space and
Speaker 1: in a phone booth. Sometimes though even though it's in
Speaker 1: a phone booth, it happens quickly. I mean, there's quick
Speaker 1: stuff that goes on. There's a lot a lot of
Speaker 1: recognition that has to go on, and again a lot
Speaker 1: of coordination that goes on passing things off to the
Speaker 1: center and the tackle. You know, at the tackle you
Speaker 1: only have to worry one way guard you've got, you've
Speaker 1: got action on both sides of you have two guys
Speaker 1: you have to worry about getting in sync with and
Speaker 1: knowing how this guy handles this stunt. That guy handles
Speaker 1: that stunt at the tackle and guard position. So there's
Speaker 1: a little bit, you know, there's a little bit to it.
Speaker 1: But athletically and technique wise, um, you know, the toughest
Speaker 1: place to play, in my opinion, haven't played all five positions,
Speaker 1: is left tackle and pass protection and center run blocking.
Speaker 1: When you have a nose guard right over your face
Speaker 1: mask and you can smell his breath, I mean, that's
Speaker 1: that's tough when you're when you're trying to run block
Speaker 1: and move people off the line of scrims. There if
Speaker 1: you have a really good nose guard so um uh,
Speaker 1: you know it's it's going to be interesting. It really
Speaker 1: is to be going to be very interesting to see
Speaker 1: how it all unfolds. Twitter Question number three, Will Malik
Speaker 1: Jefferson contribute this year? You know you would hope so.
Speaker 1: Physically athletically he's got He's got what it takes. Um
Speaker 1: That's why he was drafted as high as he was,
Speaker 1: but he had an mental adjustment period to it. Now
Speaker 1: you know there's new a new sheriff in town in
Speaker 1: terms of his position, coach has coordinated and his head
Speaker 1: coach as well. The good news is that it doesn't
Speaker 1: matter what the evaluation was on him last year. These
Speaker 1: new sets of eyes have nothing to do with that.
Speaker 1: But he has to prove himself to this group that
Speaker 1: he can handle what they're asking of him to be
Speaker 1: able to handle mentally in terms of their playbook and
Speaker 1: what they want their linebackers to do. The mantra is
Speaker 1: keep it simple and play fast. That should fall right
Speaker 1: into the sweet spot of Malik Jefferson's game. You don't
Speaker 1: want to confuse him. A player like Malik Jefferson, you
Speaker 1: do not want him sitting there trying to solve an
Speaker 1: equation before he makes his first step, you want him
Speaker 1: just being very comfortable and just fly into the football.
Speaker 1: So I think the simpler the better for Malik and
Speaker 1: for the entire defensive football team in the early stages
Speaker 1: for sure. Twitter question number four, what's the biggest positive
Speaker 1: with the new coaching staff. I think that everybody's talking
Speaker 1: about the energy. You know, it's it's contagious. It's infectious. Um,
Speaker 1: it seems like there's a tremendous work ethic. I mean
Speaker 1: when you talk to everybody, you talk to the players, uh,
Speaker 1: they're impressed with the preparation that's already gone on. You
Speaker 1: talked to even the guys in the film room that
Speaker 1: the demands that the coaches uh, you know put on
Speaker 1: them to put things together, for them to uh to
Speaker 1: put together their schemes and their their playbooks for their players.
Speaker 1: It's it's it's obvious on every level that these guys
Speaker 1: are all very intelligent football guys, all hard working football guys.
Speaker 1: And the youth it's gonna just it's gonna be contagious
Speaker 1: in terms of getting out on the football field, flying
Speaker 1: around the football field, in the meeting rooms, just a
Speaker 1: just a younger vibe. And I think that's the one
Speaker 1: thing the players are talking about, uh, you know, almost
Speaker 1: to a man, is that it's a different day in
Speaker 1: terms of the energy, the enthusiasm, and see if that
Speaker 1: continues to be a big plus all season long. I
Speaker 1: never thought I would be considerably older than an NFL
Speaker 1: team's head coach. I mean, I guess that happens eventually
Speaker 1: to everybody, but it seems too soon, I know, it
Speaker 1: really is. I mean, you have you have so many
Speaker 1: thirty something coaches, you know, if you have a you know,
Speaker 1: a Mark Duffner, it's refreshing to see a Mark Duffiner
Speaker 1: on the staff working on the defensive side of things.
Speaker 1: We're of the same year or just like a month
Speaker 1: apart or two months apart. Other than that, I mean,
Speaker 1: it's it's, uh, there's there's not much not much age
Speaker 1: on this football team. Boby mcnello was just talking to
Speaker 1: him earlier today. He turns fifty here pretty soon, and
Speaker 1: he feels like he's a graybeard, you know, and a
Speaker 1: fifty year old coach. It's almost like you're writing the
Speaker 1: prime of your career normally in the National Football League,
Speaker 1: which he is. Twitter question number five and we had
Speaker 1: a bunch of questions about this particular person, I will
Speaker 1: kind of distill them into one question, what kind of
Speaker 1: impact is the coaching change going to have on John
Speaker 1: row Us in trying to get more productivity out of him? Yeah?
Speaker 1: I think I think that again is is um, you know,
Speaker 1: a fresh set of eyes to evaluate and a new
Speaker 1: scheme potentially to evaluate. He seems to be very excited
Speaker 1: about about what Zach Taylor is going to bring to
Speaker 1: the table in terms of his offensive mindset, his offensive philosophy. Um,
Speaker 1: He's been very very vocal in his support of what
Speaker 1: John Ross can bring to the table with his offense.
Speaker 1: And the one thing about John Ross I think that
Speaker 1: that people don't really understand is uh, He's He's a
Speaker 1: pretty good blocker as a wide receiver. He will be
Speaker 1: physical in that in that area. He doesn't shy away
Speaker 1: from it. He will stick his nose in there. And
Speaker 1: I think that will be uh something that will pay
Speaker 1: dividends for him in this in this scheme. I think
Speaker 1: that's going to be something to keep an eye on.
Speaker 1: And Um, he does have continuity in his position coach
Speaker 1: with Bob mcnell, but he again a new offensive coordinator,
Speaker 1: a new head coach, coach, new sets of eyes there.
Speaker 1: It is. It is very interesting though, Dan, when you
Speaker 1: look at it. I mean Marvin Lewis made wholesale changes
Speaker 1: on his coaching staff right right before the final season
Speaker 1: that he coached. So I mean there was there was
Speaker 1: a new system defensively, new system offensively, and here they
Speaker 1: go again. So in a three year span, they'll have
Speaker 1: run three different offenses, three different defenses, three different techniques
Speaker 1: taught by coaches, and a lot of position groups, so
Speaker 1: that there's a lot for you know, a football team
Speaker 1: to uh, to comprehend and to adjust two and so
Speaker 1: I think I think the players are looking forward to
Speaker 1: this being you know, the last change for a while.
Speaker 1: Let's really hone in on this. Let's take it a
Speaker 1: step at a time. Let's build a foundation and then
Speaker 1: keep adding floors to it, you know, over time, and
Speaker 1: see what we can build this too. Because I can
Speaker 1: speak from experience, it is tough when you have that
Speaker 1: much turnover in terms of you know, you're in your
Speaker 1: position room as a coach, the coordinator and now the
Speaker 1: head coach. That's that's a lot of turnover, you know,
Speaker 1: over a two or three year time period for a
Speaker 1: lot of players Twitter question number six. Now the Bengals
Speaker 1: any better at linebacker? I think they are. I think
Speaker 1: they are a better at linebacker. I think Jermaine Pratt
Speaker 1: is going to push to start. I think that. I
Speaker 1: think Danny, you know, when you look at it, there's
Speaker 1: there's five guys out of the drafted players that will
Speaker 1: probably push to start this year. Wouldn't shock me at all.
Speaker 1: I mean, they drafted players that they've not not just
Speaker 1: to make the roster, but they felt can contribute in
Speaker 1: significant sub packages or some starting roles potentially. Um So
Speaker 1: I think Jermaine Pratt is going to push to do that.
Speaker 1: He's going to definitely be involved in special teams for
Speaker 1: sure with Darren Simmons, but I think sub packages and
Speaker 1: potentially starter I could see him lining up as a
Speaker 1: starting linebacker as a seventy second pick in this year's
Speaker 1: draft for sure. And you look down a little further
Speaker 1: in the draft, Deshaun Davis out of Auburn sixth round pick.
Speaker 1: That is another guy that will see significant time I
Speaker 1: think in terms of special teams, in some form of
Speaker 1: defensive contribution on that side of the line of scrimmage.
Speaker 1: So just with those two players, I think it's going
Speaker 1: to look a lot different at that line packer position.
Speaker 1: Then if others can stay healthy, you know, and get
Speaker 1: through a season and have, you know, another year to
Speaker 1: build on. You get some young players that sometimes you
Speaker 1: know year one to do year one to year two,
Speaker 1: it is like the light goes on and you didn't
Speaker 1: know what you didn't know, and all of a sudden
Speaker 1: you start to see it. Year two to three can
Speaker 1: be another big jump for players next. So they've got
Speaker 1: some players at the linebacker position that fall into that
Speaker 1: category as well. Again with a new position coach, a
Speaker 1: new coordinator, a new head coach. You know that theme
Speaker 1: is consistent all the way up and down the line
Speaker 1: of scrimmage. Twitter question number seven, Well, Joe mix and
Speaker 1: rush for two thousand yards. I assume the person meant
Speaker 1: this year he could. But I'm not sure that I
Speaker 1: would like to see Joe Mixon. I shouldn't say that.
Speaker 1: I'm not saying I don't want to see Joe Mixon
Speaker 1: rush for two thousand yards. But I think I think
Speaker 1: Giovanni Bernard is going to make significant impact on this
Speaker 1: football team with this offense. I think this offense fits
Speaker 1: not only Joe Mixon to a T. I think it
Speaker 1: fits Giovanni Bernard to a T as well, and I
Speaker 1: would love to see two back sets with both those
Speaker 1: guys in the football field at the same time. Not
Speaker 1: necessarily in the backfield. Giovanni Bernard can line up, you know,
Speaker 1: in the slot. He can do a lot of different
Speaker 1: things for you. I think position versatility, you know, at
Speaker 1: that running back position is going to be a big deal.
Speaker 1: And to get to two thousand yards, you have to grind,
Speaker 1: you know, a back with a lot of touches of
Speaker 1: the football, and Joe I think can handle it. But
Speaker 1: you know, Joe's not invincible in terms of injury. I mean,
Speaker 1: nobody can avoid injury. So you know, it's just a
Speaker 1: numbers game. The more touches of the football you get,
Speaker 1: the higher the percentage of you suffering some sort of
Speaker 1: an injury is going to be. So two thousand yards
Speaker 1: would be great, but he certainly would have a very
Speaker 1: productive season. If he came up with only fourteen hundred
Speaker 1: or something of that nature, I'd be happy with as well.
Speaker 1: And you know, not not just rushing to football, but
Speaker 1: you know he's capable of having some impact catching the
Speaker 1: ball as well. So I think scrimmage yards are almost
Speaker 1: more significant to me than rushing yards with this offense,
Speaker 1: and I think Giovanni Bernard will have his input and
Speaker 1: scrimmage yards as well as Joe Mixon and the rookie
Speaker 1: running backs as well might get some touches, no doubt.
Speaker 1: I mean, you've got you've got guys that are extremely talented.
Speaker 1: I mean Rodney Anderson, you know, injury is the only
Speaker 1: thing that held him back from potentially being a superstar
Speaker 1: at Oklahoma. I mean the year that he played healthy,
Speaker 1: he had a phenomenal year. He rushed for eighteen touchdowns
Speaker 1: and a ton of yards, So you know that's that's
Speaker 1: pretty significant. Trade Yon Williams h no treviaon rush for
Speaker 1: eighteen touchdowns at A and M. Rodney Anderson, I think
Speaker 1: rush for eleven and Cotson touchdown passes as well. Trevion
Speaker 1: Williams out of Texas A and M. You know, you
Speaker 1: have a case where offensive line coats certainly knows him.
Speaker 1: I mean, Jim knows him as well as he knows
Speaker 1: any of the offensive line that he worked with. And
Speaker 1: he signed an offensive linean out of Texas A and
Speaker 1: M as a free agent and was instrumental I'm sure
Speaker 1: in they're drafting a Trey ViOn Williams, So yeah, I
Speaker 1: mean there's there's a lot of running backs that can
Speaker 1: contribute to the cause for sure. Twitter question number eight
Speaker 1: is nine and seven possible. I think it is possible. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I do think it is possible. I mean the thing
Speaker 1: is getting off to that good start is going to
Speaker 1: be the challenge. Three out of the first four on
Speaker 1: the road for six I think it is on the road,
Speaker 1: and then after the bye week it's just the reverse
Speaker 1: three out of four at home, four out of six,
Speaker 1: you know, at home to finish things off. So it's
Speaker 1: great if you if you can get to the bye
Speaker 1: with all those road games, um, in one of those
Speaker 1: road games being in London, that that with a with
Speaker 1: a winning record, that set you up very well on
Speaker 1: the for the back half of the season. But if
Speaker 1: you if you go there a little bit under water
Speaker 1: or treading water, then it puts a lot of emphasis
Speaker 1: and it's good to have, you know, those games at
Speaker 1: home on the back end. But man, um, you know,
Speaker 1: getting off to that good start. I can't think of
Speaker 1: a tougher road trip than Seattle. That's a tough road trip.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's Northwest corner. It is up there. I
Speaker 1: feel like you're flying forever, getting the Seattle in the
Speaker 1: in the Continental USA. But um, and then of course
Speaker 1: playing there. They have a good football team. It's a
Speaker 1: tough venue. Um. They get a lot of tradition up there.
Speaker 1: That's that's a tough opener, there's no question about it.
Speaker 1: But but Zach, you know, understands what Seattle is all about.
Speaker 1: You know he's got experience there obviously. Um. And then
Speaker 1: playing the Pittsburgh Steelers on Monday Night football to and
Speaker 1: that in that month of September. Those are two tough
Speaker 1: road trips, no doubt about it. But if you can
Speaker 1: somehow come out of there still in the hunt, I
Speaker 1: definitely think they could go nine and seven. For what
Speaker 1: it's worth. The Bengals are one to know in Seattle
Speaker 1: in the Lapham Wore era. That's right, That's right. A
Speaker 1: nice road win for sure to visit too, isn't it?
Speaker 1: Sure he has loved that place all right? Question number nine,
Speaker 1: were you on the team when Anthony Munio has messed
Speaker 1: up his little finger? Yeah, Anthony, Anthony, that bad boy
Speaker 1: was a problem for a while. And back then it
Speaker 1: was like you know, just taping together and just just
Speaker 1: let it roll, you know, and you know, get through
Speaker 1: it and and then um, it got where all right, Well,
Speaker 1: if I put surgery off, you know, I could still
Speaker 1: have a pretty good function out of it. Now it's
Speaker 1: to the point where, I mean he has to have
Speaker 1: a major, major surgery just to get it to function
Speaker 1: at all. And there's no pain there. So he says
Speaker 1: to heck with it, and it's it's a great conversation piece,
Speaker 1: but that I mean, there's there's nothing left in that
Speaker 1: joint anymore except cartilage. I mean there's nothing, and U time,
Speaker 1: it just just has eroded. So yeah, you catch it
Speaker 1: and shoulder pads or you catch it in a mess
Speaker 1: shirt and you know, you get that little your pinki's
Speaker 1: caught and then they were sprinting up the field on
Speaker 1: you and your finger goes where it's not supposed to go. Um,
Speaker 1: And you know, I've I've dislocated my pinky a couple
Speaker 1: of times, and a couple of other fingers as well.
Speaker 1: But I mean I can't straighten out. But it's not
Speaker 1: like Anthony's where that is the gnarliest looking thing that
Speaker 1: you'd ever want to see. I mean, you know he can.
Speaker 1: He can point to people in all directions with that
Speaker 1: bad boy. All things considered, your hands are not too
Speaker 1: gnarly for a guy who spent more than ten years
Speaker 1: playing pro football. No, they're not too bad, not too
Speaker 1: bad at all. I do have a broken bone in
Speaker 1: my hand that it's like there's a divot and then
Speaker 1: there's like almost like a little golf on the other
Speaker 1: side of it, and it's it's harder. You are pounding
Speaker 1: the back of your hand. It sounds like you're hitting
Speaker 1: a wall. Yeah, like it's calcified. And so I'm sure.
Speaker 1: I'm sure there'll be some arthritis at some point in
Speaker 1: time that'll that'll set in. But but I was I
Speaker 1: was pretty fortunate. Uh. Of course, we weren't allowed to know,
Speaker 1: use our hands in the early stages of my career.
Speaker 1: We had to you know, make fist cup our hands
Speaker 1: and uh and then down the stretch though I did
Speaker 1: have a few years where I could reach out and
Speaker 1: grab someone. All right. Tenth and final Twitter question, did
Speaker 1: you ever see yourself as a coach? Yeah? I thought
Speaker 1: about that, uh, you know, quite quite a few times.
Speaker 1: And Forrest Greg was interested in seeing if I'd have
Speaker 1: an interest in going up to Green Bay when when
Speaker 1: he was up there, and over the years, college coaches
Speaker 1: when I was doing Big twelve games, would would inquire
Speaker 1: from time to time about, you know, maybe coaching with
Speaker 1: their respect to schools University of Texas, Oklahoma State, and UM.
Speaker 1: The recruiting part of that was I thought, man, that's
Speaker 1: that's that's a big time uh task. There you're you're
Speaker 1: on you're on call twenty four to seven. They're recruiting players.
Speaker 1: If I were going to do it, I would have
Speaker 1: tried it at the NFL level, I think, and I
Speaker 1: just decided, okay, either coach or a broadcast when I
Speaker 1: was done playing, and for the sake of the family,
Speaker 1: I honestly wanted to coach. I did want to give
Speaker 1: it a try because I felt like it was always
Speaker 1: easier to go from player to coach to broadcaster instead
Speaker 1: of the other way around, from a you know, player
Speaker 1: to broadcaster to coach, because you've gone to the other
Speaker 1: side when you go to the broadcast end of it.
Speaker 1: But you know, from a family perspective, family wasn't as
Speaker 1: excited as I was about the coaching possibility. So I
Speaker 1: decided to stay in Cincinnati and get into the broadcast
Speaker 1: end of it and let my kids stay in the
Speaker 1: same city and grow up as Cincinnati was born and
Speaker 1: raised here, and now they're here with their children, are
Speaker 1: married with children themselves. So from a family perspective, a
Speaker 1: great decision, I think. I think you know, it's appreciated
Speaker 1: by them, but you know, I still every once in
Speaker 1: a while, I still think about it, and you know,
Speaker 1: at the age I'm at now though, I'm just glad
Speaker 1: to be in the booth of the Hall of Famer
Speaker 1: like you, Dan well On behalf of Bengals fans and myself,
Speaker 1: I'm glad you chose broadcasting because obviously you're You're awesome
Speaker 1: at what you do and we appreciate it well, thank
Speaker 1: you very much, and it's awful easy to work with
Speaker 1: you and your joy you really are. You make you
Speaker 1: make the game fun. In your Hall of Fame shows
Speaker 1: that you're the best there is man. Thanks buddy, I
Speaker 1: appreciate that very much. All Right. That concludes ten Twitter
Speaker 1: questions with Dave Lapp them. Thanks Lap. The Bengals two
Speaker 1: Day Rookie Miniicap is coming up this weekend Friday and Saturday,
Speaker 1: May tenth and eleventh. In this week's Fun Facts interview,
Speaker 1: we get to know the person under the pads with
Speaker 1: one of the rookies who is expected to play a
Speaker 1: significant role this year. Time for some fun facts for
Speaker 1: the Bengals second round draft pick in twenty nineteen, Tight
Speaker 1: Andrew Sample out of the University of Washington from Bellevue, Washington.
Speaker 1: Tell us a little bit about your hometown. Describe Bellevue
Speaker 1: Bellvie's definitely a booming city, really nice area, big city,
Speaker 1: just somewhere I grew up my whole life. So met
Speaker 1: a lot of family. I have a lot of family there,
Speaker 1: um a lot of connections there, met a lot of
Speaker 1: different people from lot different places, so it's it was
Speaker 1: a special grown up there. What did or do your
Speaker 1: folks do for a living? Uh? So, my mom's a
Speaker 1: VP at Nordstrom um and my dad is currently stay
Speaker 1: at home dad, so he he looks after my brother
Speaker 1: and sister. Right now, we've got a Nordstrom here. Do
Speaker 1: you get like a thirty percent employee child discount or something?
Speaker 1: I think once once I got married, I think that
Speaker 1: would away. But I did get a little bit of
Speaker 1: discount for a while. But my mom helps She helps
Speaker 1: us out a lot so yeah, it's it's great. She's great.
Speaker 1: What were some of your interest growing up. I've always
Speaker 1: been I've always been big in sports. Uh. My dad
Speaker 1: ran track at CAW. My mom played field hockey and
Speaker 1: softball in college too, So I just grew up around sports. Actually, um,
Speaker 1: I grew up a water around hockey. I played hockey
Speaker 1: for about ten years. Football I started didn't start playing
Speaker 1: football tells in high school. So I kind of grew
Speaker 1: up playing hockey. Um, that was kind super what I
Speaker 1: was into, and then fell in love with football, started
Speaker 1: playing that in high school and then kind of just
Speaker 1: went from there and ended up working out pretty well.
Speaker 1: I'm trying to picture you on skates. That had to
Speaker 1: be pretty intimidating. Yeah. I wasn't as big as I
Speaker 1: am now so, but I was definitely one of the
Speaker 1: bearer kids. But you know, hockey, I still enjoy you know,
Speaker 1: watching hockey, and it was it was a really cool sport.
Speaker 1: So your dad ran college track, he said, what was
Speaker 1: he a sprinter? Was he a distance guy? Yeah, he
Speaker 1: was a sprinter and a hurdler, so he did he
Speaker 1: did a little bit of both of that. So that's
Speaker 1: where um, yeah, that's where I get a lot of
Speaker 1: my GenEx from both my parents, so it's good we're
Speaker 1: visiting the Drew sample. How'd you wind up playing tight end? Uh?
Speaker 1: So my first football practice I was playing the offensive
Speaker 1: line and I think just during a water break, one
Speaker 1: of the coaches like, go along, ran just like straight
Speaker 1: on like a little baseball field. Caught. He threw me
Speaker 1: the ball. I caught it, and he's like, all right,
Speaker 1: you're a tight end. So that was that was kind
Speaker 1: of that, and then played played that all through high
Speaker 1: school in college and and got here. So we ended
Speaker 1: up working out very scientific method for winding up at
Speaker 1: the tight end position. I read a story in one
Speaker 1: of the Washington area newspapers that you originally going to
Speaker 1: go to Boise State. How'd you wind up at Washington instead? Yeah, so,
Speaker 1: you know, I wasn't very highly recruited out of high school.
Speaker 1: I played at school. We ran like the triple option wishbone.
Speaker 1: We caught like ten passes or twelve passes my senior year,
Speaker 1: so I was basically a six offensive lineman. You know,
Speaker 1: we ran the ball. So I had to go to
Speaker 1: a lot of different camps. I had a couple of
Speaker 1: small offers from like D one double, a couple of
Speaker 1: smaller D one schools, and so I went to a
Speaker 1: Boise State camp like full padded camp, did like three
Speaker 1: days there and at the end, my dad and I
Speaker 1: went in to coach Beat's office and they offered me
Speaker 1: and he kind of went into you know, his built
Speaker 1: for life, his vision for me, you know, outside of
Speaker 1: football as a man and as a football player, and
Speaker 1: I just kind of fell in love with that. That
Speaker 1: kind of just embodied everything that I feel like I'm
Speaker 1: about and I just really connected with that. So basically
Speaker 1: committed there. Was really excited to be a part of
Speaker 1: that kind of the underdog mentality there at Boise I was.
Speaker 1: I was excited. And then he ended up getting the
Speaker 1: job at Washington and asked me to come with him,
Speaker 1: and it was a no brainer. You know, I live
Speaker 1: like fifteen minutes away, so um, I was really excited
Speaker 1: to be able to play for you know, be in
Speaker 1: the program with coach Pete. And then the other cool
Speaker 1: thing was I was able to we were able to
Speaker 1: kind of start it. I was part of his first class. Um,
Speaker 1: you know, we hadn't had a ton of success in
Speaker 1: the last couple of years, and then you know, we
Speaker 1: kind of restarted everything and got ended up getting you know,
Speaker 1: winning two Patrol Championship, getting to New Year's Six Bowls,
Speaker 1: So you know, I feel like it definitely left left
Speaker 1: better than I found it. So I think that's pretty special.
Speaker 1: We're talking to tight end Drew sample Coach Pete. For
Speaker 1: those who don't know, is Chris Peterson, the head coach
Speaker 1: at Washington. I have seen you refer to him as
Speaker 1: one of the best coaches in any sport. That's high praise. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, I think he's amazing just you know, not
Speaker 1: only from a football side, his attention to detail, his
Speaker 1: willingness to learn, to grow, to change, but just his
Speaker 1: you know, he's just so humble. He's such a man
Speaker 1: of high character. I think that's I don't want to
Speaker 1: say it's hard to find, but I think, you know,
Speaker 1: in college football he's he definitely, you know, stands out
Speaker 1: to me as someone who who I think does it right.
Speaker 1: And I think, you know, the program is the last
Speaker 1: couple of years has been reflective of that. So you know,
Speaker 1: he's definitely someone Ever since I met him, I looked
Speaker 1: up to him and I'm really everything that he has
Speaker 1: said and brought to me just really hit home with me.
Speaker 1: Your final college game was the Rose Bowl against Ohio State.
Speaker 1: The end result wasn't what you wanted, but you caught
Speaker 1: a touchdown pass in the Rose Bowl. What a way
Speaker 1: to finish your college career. Yeah, no, I mean the game,
Speaker 1: you know obviously didn't go how he wanted. But to
Speaker 1: be able to go out, you know, with a touchdown,
Speaker 1: I guess selfishly was was pretty cool. But you know
Speaker 1: it was special to be able to get to the
Speaker 1: Rose Bowl, to win another Patrol Chamanship, and then you know,
Speaker 1: to play on that stage was definitely something that I'll
Speaker 1: remember forever. You got married prior to your senior year
Speaker 1: of college. Your wife, Angelina is sitting nearby as we
Speaker 1: do this interview. Did your teammates used to give you
Speaker 1: a lot of grief for being the married guy your
Speaker 1: senior year? Actually, no, because I wasn't the first. So
Speaker 1: Gray Gaines RG tackle he got married this summer before,
Speaker 1: and then we had another office line in the year
Speaker 1: before that getting so there was it wasn't It wasn't
Speaker 1: like the first, so I definitely didn't get probably teased
Speaker 1: as much as maybe those guys, but you know, they
Speaker 1: were super supportive, so it was it was pretty cool.
Speaker 1: How did you two guys meet? So we met at
Speaker 1: I was a freshman at Washington. She was a senior
Speaker 1: in high school. She was visiting you dub on a
Speaker 1: college visit and played football with some of the guys
Speaker 1: she was with. They kind of introduced us, started talking
Speaker 1: dating when from there, and now we're married expecting So
Speaker 1: it's pretty special. Congratulations, that is awesome. We are doing
Speaker 1: fun facts at Bengals tight end Drew sample. What was
Speaker 1: the strangest thing about the draft process for you? Uh,
Speaker 1: the strangest thing just PopEd and prodded at the combine. Yeah,
Speaker 1: like that was probably up there, like when we're doing
Speaker 1: our medical and you there's like a couple of guys,
Speaker 1: a couple like medical guys on each limb and then
Speaker 1: other guys are trying to talk to you and you
Speaker 1: kind of just feel like a little puppet. But that
Speaker 1: was probably the strangest. I didn't get too many, um
Speaker 1: crazy question, which was good, so, you know, I enjoyed it.
Speaker 1: It was long, but it was you know, obviously it
Speaker 1: was definitely worth it. So but yeah, that was probably
Speaker 1: the craziest thing. All Right, A few wildcard topics, your
Speaker 1: favorite athlete in any sport. I really like I'm a
Speaker 1: big Tom Brady fan. I think just the type of
Speaker 1: competitor he is, just what he's been able to do
Speaker 1: for such a long time, I think that's pretty special.
Speaker 1: So he's someone I always always look up to, and
Speaker 1: you know, read stuff about just his mentality and his mindset,
Speaker 1: and you know, the type of work he put said,
Speaker 1: I think that's something that I kind of gravitate towards.
Speaker 1: So I would say him, you may have not even
Speaker 1: taken a deep dive into the schedule yet this year,
Speaker 1: but you will see him here at Paul Brown Stadiums. Yeah, no,
Speaker 1: I saw that. Yeah, look at the schedule, you know
Speaker 1: last night, and so we play some good team. So
Speaker 1: I'm going back to Seattle game one. So it'll be
Speaker 1: it'll be fun. I'm excited. Yeah, let's talk about that.
Speaker 1: I mean, your first NFL regular season game will be
Speaker 1: in your hometown. How surreal is that going to be?
Speaker 1: It's it's gonna be pretty special. You know. Uh, you
Speaker 1: know obviously growing out there, I know that's a that's
Speaker 1: a pretty tough place to play. So, um, you know,
Speaker 1: one of my best friends is tight end for the
Speaker 1: Seahawks will so, um, definitely a lot of cool aspects
Speaker 1: of that game, and I'm excited for it. Other than football,
Speaker 1: what do you do well? I feel like I do
Speaker 1: a lot of things. Well, I don't know that. I
Speaker 1: feel like I'm a I'm a good husband. Hopefully I'm
Speaker 1: would be a good dad. You guys chose to find
Speaker 1: out the gender before your daughter was born, right? Was
Speaker 1: that a no brainer decision? It wasn't at first. I
Speaker 1: wanted to for sure. Once we once we kind of
Speaker 1: got into it though, we both were like, we we
Speaker 1: really want to know. So we had a little gender
Speaker 1: reveal and stuff, and I'm really excited to be having
Speaker 1: a baby girl. Oh, you did the gender reveal? So
Speaker 1: how did we find out the pink? There was like
Speaker 1: a box and so we lifted the box up and
Speaker 1: my dad rigged this crazy like smoke thing and some balloon.
Speaker 1: So we lifted the box off and there was pink
Speaker 1: smoke and pink balloon and so it was pretty cool.
Speaker 1: I'm old enough that the gender reveal did not exists.
Speaker 1: It's crazy, all right. So I asked you, other than football,
Speaker 1: what you are good at? How about what you're terrible at?
Speaker 1: I'm sure my wife has more answer. I should just
Speaker 1: walk over to Angelina and ask her. All right, I,
Speaker 1: for example, and the world's worst dancers. So if somebody
Speaker 1: asked me that question, that would be on the top
Speaker 1: of my list. But I'm not trying to, you know,
Speaker 1: suggest that you can dance it. Now, that's pretty spot
Speaker 1: on dancing singing. I'm not very artistic. That's like that, drawing, dancing, singing,
Speaker 1: any of that. I don't really have much artistic talent
Speaker 1: in that regard. So I guess that's that's something that
Speaker 1: I do not do well. I can sing, but I'm
Speaker 1: not going to prove it to you. All right, you're
Speaker 1: off the hot seat. Congratulations, I'm being a second round
Speaker 1: draft pick. It's an extraordinary achievement, the result of a
Speaker 1: lot of hard work, and we look forward to seeing
Speaker 1: you play in Cincinnati. Yeah, thank you. I'm looking forward
Speaker 1: to getting to work and getting back to it. And
Speaker 1: that's going to do it for this week's podcast. If
Speaker 1: you haven't done so already, don't forget to subscribe on iTunes, Stitcher,
Speaker 1: Google Play, Spotify, or pod Bean, and if you have
Speaker 1: a minute, please give it a rating or leave a comment.
Speaker 1: Your feedback has been very helpful in five Star race
Speaker 1: things help more Bengals fans find this podcast. I'm Dan
Speaker 1: Horde and thank you for listening to the Bengals Booth
Speaker 1: podcast