Speaker 1: Hi, get everybody on Dan Horde and thanks for downloading
Speaker 1: the Bengals Booths podcast the how Long Till Tomorrow? Addition,
Speaker 1: and thank you Bengals fan John Legend for the song
Speaker 1: as we get set for Super Bowl fifty six between
Speaker 1: the Bengals and Rams. Coming up, my conversation with Bengals
Speaker 1: President Mike Brown on the impact of Joe Burrow, the
Speaker 1: excitement level of Bengals fans, and the possibility of hoisting
Speaker 1: the Lombardi Trophy. Then we'll spend a few minutes with
Speaker 1: the great Kevin Harland, who will broadcast the Super Bowl
Speaker 1: on radio for the twelfth consecutive year for Westwood One.
Speaker 1: The Bengals Booth Podcast is presented by Ultimate Bengals, the
Speaker 1: free to play Next Level Fantasy Football game, downloaded now
Speaker 1: from the app Store and Google Play and by on Location,
Speaker 1: the official hospitality partner of the NFL. Visit on Location
Speaker 1: exp dot com for exclusive access to the bigest events
Speaker 1: in the NFL, including the Super Bowl. Here's a quick
Speaker 1: reminder that you can have the latest edition of this
Speaker 1: podcast delivered right to your phone, tablet, or computer by
Speaker 1: subscribing wherever you get your podcasts. It's the greatest thing
Speaker 1: since kids dressing like Joe Burrow. I can't get enough
Speaker 1: of the pictures on social media of little kids, in
Speaker 1: some cases infants wearing rose colored Cardier knockoff sunglasses or
Speaker 1: black turtlenecks with homemade JB nine fake diamond necklaces. Chad
Speaker 1: Johnson helped make Cincinnati cool in the early two thousands,
Speaker 1: and Joey franchise has certainly done it again. He has
Speaker 1: the effortless cool of Joe Namath. But let's hope he
Speaker 1: doesn't do any ads for pantyhose. Look it up, kids.
Speaker 1: Now let's get to my guests, beginning with Bengals president
Speaker 1: Mike Brown. Mike prefers to stay in the background and
Speaker 1: allow the attention to go to his coaches and players,
Speaker 1: but he was kind enough to visit with me before
Speaker 1: the Bengals traveled to Los Angeles. Mike, football has been
Speaker 1: your life personally and professionally. Can you articulate what this
Speaker 1: Super Bowl trip means to you. It's very satisfying. Our
Speaker 1: team came together and we've had a string of amazingly
Speaker 1: close games. They were exciting. We prevailed in four of them.
Speaker 1: Really to get to this point twice against Kansas City
Speaker 1: the first one here, and we had to win that
Speaker 1: one to win the division and get into the playoffs.
Speaker 1: And just as pleased as it's possible to be if
Speaker 1: you're in my position, this is what your goal is
Speaker 1: in life, and here we are. We have a chance
Speaker 1: to win the big one, and that would be great
Speaker 1: if we could pull it off. But it's an exciting
Speaker 1: time for me and for all the people here with
Speaker 1: the Bengals. At what point did you think that this
Speaker 1: team could be a contender. Well, Joe Burrow makes you
Speaker 1: think you can win any game that you go into,
Speaker 1: and we have amazing whiteouts. We've got three guys that
Speaker 1: are just tremendous. That gives us a live offense. These
Speaker 1: days in the NFL, the goal is to score thirty
Speaker 1: points or more. That's what you need to win it.
Speaker 1: You can even lose it that figure, but if you
Speaker 1: can get there with enough defense to go with it,
Speaker 1: you'll prevail. And we did Noise get there. We did
Speaker 1: Noise prevail. But as we went along, our confidence built
Speaker 1: because you could see we could play with anybody. And
Speaker 1: then we got to the point where we were winning
Speaker 1: these close games. And here we are. We'll see what
Speaker 1: happens next. But this is a good group of players,
Speaker 1: a good group of people, and they look forward to
Speaker 1: see what happens out in La Mike. When your father's
Speaker 1: Cleveland Browns are winning championships, his quarterback was autogram the
Speaker 1: Tom Brady of his era, winning seven championships. It does
Speaker 1: Joe Burrow remind you of Autograham in any way they compete.
Speaker 1: They just performed best when the pressure is greatest. And
Speaker 1: remember having utter confidence in autogramm it. Somehow, some way
Speaker 1: he would get us where we needed to go. And
Speaker 1: the same is true with Joe. Joe finds the way
Speaker 1: and the players believe in him here, just as the
Speaker 1: old Browns players believe in Otto. They thought that they
Speaker 1: were going to do it. They had confidence, and Otto
Speaker 1: was the one that instilled that, just as Joe does
Speaker 1: with our guys these days. I don't know if you've
Speaker 1: ever seen the movie Jerry McGuire, but there's a cheesy
Speaker 1: line in it where the female character says to Tom Cruise,
Speaker 1: the sports agent, you had me at hello when you
Speaker 1: met with Joe Burrow at the NFL scouting combine? Did
Speaker 1: he have you at hello? He was focused and he
Speaker 1: wasn't very interested in small talk. Zach did some football
Speaker 1: discussion with him then and at another time as well,
Speaker 1: I think, and you perked up when you saw him
Speaker 1: and how he conducted him. So he has a air
Speaker 1: about him that calls for respect. When he came here,
Speaker 1: he earned that. Everyone believes in him here. That's what
Speaker 1: you want from your quarterback. After clinching the AFC North,
Speaker 1: Zach Taylor gave you and your wife Nancy a game
Speaker 1: ball and said if he was working for a different owner,
Speaker 1: he probably would not have had a third year as
Speaker 1: the head coach. What did you see that gave you
Speaker 1: confidence that Zach ultimately would be successful. He's organized, he's
Speaker 1: a good person, He's knowledgeable about football. He was young
Speaker 1: and went through some things. But quite honestly, we were
Speaker 1: injured the year with Joe and the team was injured,
Speaker 1: and that was what set us back more than anything.
Speaker 1: But you could see the basic structure was what I
Speaker 1: hope for. He knows the passing game and that's where
Speaker 1: the NFL is these days, and he teams well with Joe.
Speaker 1: They both believe in each other. I never thought that
Speaker 1: there was any question that he was capable of doing this.
Speaker 1: So it's off to Super Bowl fifty six in Los Angeles.
Speaker 1: Do you typically attend the Super Bowl? I used to.
Speaker 1: I'm old now and so I don't. I have in
Speaker 1: recent years had to get together with a group of
Speaker 1: friends and we sit and watch and have a nice
Speaker 1: time at home. Here Katie has taken over. She goes
Speaker 1: to the Super Bowl. I've seen that stick and it's
Speaker 1: quite amazing. It's fun, but I've done it enough times
Speaker 1: that I'm ready to hand it off to I covered
Speaker 1: a Super Bowl years ago where Marvel Levy, the Buffalo
Speaker 1: Bills coach, refused to pose for a picture with a
Speaker 1: Lombardi Trophy before the game. He thought it was bad luck.
Speaker 1: Have you ever held the Lombardi Trophy? No? Have you
Speaker 1: dreamed of that moment where the commissioner hands you the
Speaker 1: Lombardi Trophy after a Bengal Super Bowl win? Oh? I
Speaker 1: don't dream of such things. Yes, I know that's what
Speaker 1: you would like to have happened, but I don't have
Speaker 1: night thoughts along those slides. I didn't live here in
Speaker 1: nineteen eighty one or nineteen eighty eight, but Dave Lapham
Speaker 1: has described for me what the city was like when
Speaker 1: the Bengals who are going to those two Super Bowls.
Speaker 1: What does it meant to you to see the city
Speaker 1: of Cincinnati and this area gets so excited about this team.
Speaker 1: This is a wonderful moment for me. What our goal
Speaker 1: is winning on the field. That's how you get to
Speaker 1: the next goal, which is to excite the city and
Speaker 1: get our supporters feeling happy about how it's going, enjoying it,
Speaker 1: getting involved in the ways they do. That for me
Speaker 1: is a real treat. I am enjoying that part of
Speaker 1: it as much as anything. Tyler Boyd recently described how
Speaker 1: much he appreciates you attending every practice, regardless of the weather,
Speaker 1: regardless of the circumstances. You are always there, and he
Speaker 1: went on to say he enjoys going over and as
Speaker 1: he put it, chopping it up with you, having brief
Speaker 1: conversations with you. What did those interactions with the players
Speaker 1: mean to you. Well, as I've gotten older, I know
Speaker 1: our players less well. I watched them. Tyler's one I
Speaker 1: still get to talk to occasionally, and I appreciate the
Speaker 1: fact that he comes over and treats me as buddy,
Speaker 1: if you will, for a moment or two. It's fun
Speaker 1: and once upon a time, I knew all the guys
Speaker 1: I had. I signed them all every year I did that,
Speaker 1: and they were on a first name basis with me
Speaker 1: from those days. These days a lot of them want
Speaker 1: to call me mister Brown, and that's that puts me
Speaker 1: a notice of where I am in life. But it's
Speaker 1: fun to watch them. I have nothing that I would
Speaker 1: prefer to do more than sit and watch the team practice.
Speaker 1: They're remarkable athletes. I enjoy the passing game. I enjoy
Speaker 1: watching the offensive line and the defensive line when they
Speaker 1: get together. It. Oh, it's just for me. What is
Speaker 1: the thing I like to do best. Some people rather
Speaker 1: play golf, some people collect stamps. I don't know that.
Speaker 1: This for me is all that and more, and it's
Speaker 1: what I want to do and I'm lucky to have it.
Speaker 1: You'd rather be on a golf cart next to the
Speaker 1: practice field than on a beach in Acapulco. Well, I'd
Speaker 1: rather be out with the players. I would. I don't
Speaker 1: have anything any desire and to be an Alcapolco, But
Speaker 1: I believe I'm very happy with what my lot is.
Speaker 1: I feel fortunate, and the weather is the weather. I
Speaker 1: just accept that part of it. In some ways makes
Speaker 1: it more interesting because it presents challenges and that's sort
Speaker 1: of fun to see how that can be handled. The
Speaker 1: NFL is big business, but it remains family business in Cincinnati.
Speaker 1: You are experiencing this with your son, your daughter, your
Speaker 1: son in law, two of your granddaughters. Does that add
Speaker 1: to how meaningful this whole experience is? Oh, it was
Speaker 1: my goal to be able to do this. My father didn't.
Speaker 1: I've been involved with this as his assistant and then
Speaker 1: really for a while with him and his older days.
Speaker 1: I had a big role in it. Really that wasn't
Speaker 1: recognized outside of here. And now it's gone to where
Speaker 1: I ran it to where now I am passing it
Speaker 1: on to Katie and Paul and Troy and the girls
Speaker 1: Elizabeth and Caroline. They're smart, they work hard, they like it,
Speaker 1: and it's the point now where I have to learn
Speaker 1: to shut up more. What do you think your father
Speaker 1: would think of the twenty twenty one Cincinnati Bengals. He
Speaker 1: would have liked this team. This was his kind of team,
Speaker 1: and we're wide open. We get some remarkable plays on offense,
Speaker 1: we have a defense that is solid, we have a
Speaker 1: lot of pieces. Maybe we won't prevail every time out.
Speaker 1: But believe me, they'll know they had to go and
Speaker 1: this team can play with anybody. This was his dream
Speaker 1: fifty four years ago when he bought professional football to Cincinnati,
Speaker 1: for the Bengals to be Super Bowl champions. Is that
Speaker 1: part of the motivation for you to realize his vision? Honestly,
Speaker 1: I don't think of it in those terms. I think
Speaker 1: of it as to what it means for the people here.
Speaker 1: That's what pleases me. I enjoy seeing them celebrate and
Speaker 1: have fun. One of the things that was just first
Speaker 1: straight for me. After the game in Kansas City, or
Speaker 1: we won the way we did, I was out in
Speaker 1: the parking lot on the bus. I go with the
Speaker 1: players on the bus and I'm sitting there watching and
Speaker 1: they're interacting with their families and their children, And for me,
Speaker 1: that was about as good a time as I could have.
Speaker 1: I didn't do anything except watch to see them feeling
Speaker 1: good about themselves and how it had gone. That was
Speaker 1: what made me happy. Well, I share your happiness over
Speaker 1: the excitement of Bengals fans, but I'm really happy for you,
Speaker 1: and I truly hope that we all get to see
Speaker 1: you holding that Lombardi Trophy. After a Bengal Super Bowl
Speaker 1: win over the Rams. Thank you so much for your time.
Speaker 1: Congratulations on this great season. Best of luck on Super
Speaker 1: Bowl Sunday. Thanks Dan. A Bengal Booth podcast is presented
Speaker 1: by Ultimate Bengals, the free to play fantasy football game.
Speaker 1: This year, Ultimate Bengals awarded a weekly winner during the
Speaker 1: course of the season with tickets, autograph merchandise, and money
Speaker 1: can't buy experiences all up for grabs. Find Ultimate Bengals
Speaker 1: in the App Store and Google Play and buy on Location,
Speaker 1: the official hospitality partner of the NFL. Visit on location
Speaker 1: exp dot com for exclusive access to the biggest events,
Speaker 1: including the Super Bowl. My sportscasting hero was a guy
Speaker 1: named Van Miller. He was the voice of the Buffalo
Speaker 1: Bills for more than forty years and in two thousand
Speaker 1: and four became the first local play by play announcer
Speaker 1: to be honored by the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Speaker 1: I've always considered Van to be the greatest football announcer
Speaker 1: on the radio of all time, but now I think
Speaker 1: two people share that title, Van Miller and Kevin Harlan.
Speaker 1: Harlan will call the Super Bowl on the radio for
Speaker 1: Westwood One for the twelfth consecutive year, and he joined
Speaker 1: Dave Lapham and me for a few minutes on Friday's
Speaker 1: Bengals pep Rally show, and Dave good to be on
Speaker 1: with you guys. How Sponnie is this? I had a
Speaker 1: terrific for you're sitting and for the team, and for
Speaker 1: you two guys in particular I know and respect so much.
Speaker 1: I'm so happy for you. And the weather's great. I
Speaker 1: think Sunday is going to be a great day as well.
Speaker 1: And I managed just to watch that one unfold. So, Kevin,
Speaker 1: you had the Bengals multiple times during the season. How
Speaker 1: surprised are you that they're in Super Bowl fifty six? Well,
Speaker 1: you know, I kind of saw them at their best
Speaker 1: and their worst. I saw them, you know, win on
Speaker 1: the road in the division and look commanding doing it.
Speaker 1: And then I saw him in New York against the
Speaker 1: Jets and Trent Green and I had that game and
Speaker 1: that's when that first time starter at four hundred plus
Speaker 1: through the air, and the Bengals, I think, going into
Speaker 1: that game, if I'm not mistaken, were the number one
Speaker 1: team in the AFC. They were like five and two,
Speaker 1: does ent sound about right? And there were number one
Speaker 1: in the AFC, and we came on that day talking about,
Speaker 1: you know, can they handle success? And as it turns out,
Speaker 1: you know, here they are, but you can't help. But
Speaker 1: that teams like that, the way it turned out, and
Speaker 1: the responsibility of being in the position of being the
Speaker 1: hunted and not the hunter, and they were being the
Speaker 1: hunted even then, you know, has helped shape them and
Speaker 1: made them the team they are right now. It's never perfect,
Speaker 1: there are always flaws, but that season told the story
Speaker 1: and the team grew. I think from that loss, they won,
Speaker 1: you know, from that point on, and they really collected
Speaker 1: themselves and certainly the rest is history, not the least
Speaker 1: of which was the big winned Arrowhead a couple of
Speaker 1: weeks ago. So I always think that all the things
Speaker 1: that go through as people and teams always builds to
Speaker 1: what we become in those days. As tough as they
Speaker 1: were at times, they made the Bengals what they are
Speaker 1: right now. In my good are they a good team?
Speaker 1: Only they are right now? They were my dark horse
Speaker 1: from the beginning of the fourteen teams in because we
Speaker 1: saw them five times on CBS. I thought I watched
Speaker 1: their defense, I knew how they played. I saw the quarterback.
Speaker 1: I knew how he played. We saw the three elite
Speaker 1: receivers in the thousand yard back, and we saw the
Speaker 1: developing offensive line and the continuity that was being traced
Speaker 1: game by games, So we knew the story. I think
Speaker 1: they kind of sprung themselves by surprise in the rest
Speaker 1: of the country, but not us. We knew, we saw,
Speaker 1: and we've enjoyed it, and I'm thrilled that they're here.
Speaker 1: Our guest is Kevin Harland. He will call the super
Speaker 1: Bowl for Westwood one with former Super Bowl winning quarterback
Speaker 1: and this is a tremendous quarterback matchup Joe Burrow Matthew Stafford,
Speaker 1: very different stages of their career. How big a part
Speaker 1: of the storyline is that? In your opinion, Kevin, I
Speaker 1: think Joe is the singular story headline. I think that
Speaker 1: to me, I mean, you could look at eighteen thousand
Speaker 1: different things we could start talking about, you know, the
Speaker 1: matchup of Rams and whoever heat covers and handling Aaron
Speaker 1: Donald or you know all these different things. Well, the
Speaker 1: secondary hold against the past. Stafford can the Corral Cooper Cup.
Speaker 1: But to me, if you're going to pick one, and
Speaker 1: that's kind of what we're all being asked here in
Speaker 1: the last couple of days. To me, it will be
Speaker 1: Joe's escapability. His ability to run an arrowhead against the Chiefs,
Speaker 1: I thought was monumental, and I thought that, you know,
Speaker 1: with the rush that he's going to get and it
Speaker 1: will be fierce all day long. And for the offensive line,
Speaker 1: which is still in developing stages and still trying to
Speaker 1: get its footing, although allowed only one sack against the Chiefs,
Speaker 1: that is going to be the battle. Will he have
Speaker 1: enough time to let the receivers run their routes and
Speaker 1: if he doesn't, is he able to escape and buy
Speaker 1: more time? And if he has more time, can he
Speaker 1: complete the throw or does he have to do it
Speaker 1: with his own running ability? And I think he can
Speaker 1: do all of it. I think he can run what
Speaker 1: he wants. I think he can throw any wants. He's
Speaker 1: so smart. And the intangible from a distance is to
Speaker 1: watch his leadership and his calm, because I think that really,
Speaker 1: you know, puts the hand on the rudder for the team.
Speaker 1: I think they react the way he reacts in his
Speaker 1: look and his demeanor is everything for that ball club.
Speaker 1: Our thanks to Kevin Harland and that's going to do
Speaker 1: it for this episode of the Bengals Booth Podcast, brought
Speaker 1: to you by Ultimate Bengals, the free to play next
Speaker 1: level Fantasy football game, and by on Location, the official
Speaker 1: hospitality partner of the NFL. If you haven't done so already,
Speaker 1: please subscribe to this podcast, and if you have a minute,
Speaker 1: give it a rating or share a comment that helps
Speaker 1: more Bengals fans find us. I'm Dan Horde, and thanks
Speaker 1: for listening to The Bengals Booth Podcast