Speaker 1: Hi and everybody. I'm Dan Horde and thanks for downloading
Speaker 1: the Bengals Booth Podcast. The King Over You audition as
Speaker 1: the Bengals lose on a walk off field goal for
Speaker 1: the second straight week, falling in Dallas twenty to seventeen.
Speaker 1: Coming up, you'll hear radio replays, postgame comments from players
Speaker 1: and coaches, and analysis from Dave Lapham. Then, in this
Speaker 1: week's fun Fact segment, Hayden Hurst opens up about his
Speaker 1: difficult past and how he nearly took his own life.
Speaker 1: You'll want to hear what Hayden has to say. The
Speaker 1: Bengals Booth Podcast is presented by Alta Fiber future Proof
Speaker 1: Fiber Internet Elevate your connection with Alta Fiber, by Cattering Health,
Speaker 1: the official healthcare provider of the Bengals, by Bengals Picks
Speaker 1: and Ultimate Bengals Free to Play with tickets and signed
Speaker 1: merchandise up for grabs, and by pay Corps, the official
Speaker 1: HR software provider of the Bengals. Here's a quick reminder
Speaker 1: that you can have the latest edition of this podcast
Speaker 1: delivered right to your phone, tablet, or computer by subscribing
Speaker 1: wherever you get your podcasts. It's the greatest thing since
Speaker 1: Jerry World. I've called several games at AT and T
Speaker 1: Stadium over the years, including the Cotton Bowl last New
Speaker 1: Year's Eve, and the place never ceases to amaze me.
Speaker 1: It's palatial, it's grandiose. It reeks of money. I jokingly
Speaker 1: quoted Ron Burgundy before the game and said that it
Speaker 1: smells like rich Mahogany. It's kind of an obnoxious display
Speaker 1: of wealth. But I must admit there's nothing in professional
Speaker 1: sports quite like it. Now, let's get to Sunday's game.
Speaker 1: What is it about the Bengals and backup quarterbacks? They
Speaker 1: helped launch a Hall of Famer's career when Don the
Speaker 1: Magic Man Makowski got injured against Cincinnati back in nineteen
Speaker 1: ninety two and Brett Farve came off the bench to
Speaker 1: lead the Packers to a dramatic win. They lost a
Speaker 1: playoff game to the immortal T. J. Yates of the
Speaker 1: Texans in two twelve, and last year, the Bengals were
Speaker 1: an eleven and a half point favorite when the Jets
Speaker 1: had to start Mike White, and he threw for four
Speaker 1: hundred and five yards and three touchdowns in a three
Speaker 1: point New York win. This time around, it was Cooper Rush,
Speaker 1: making just his second start in five NFL seasons. He
Speaker 1: gave the Cowboys an adrenaline rush on their opening drive,
Speaker 1: second down and eight at the Cincinnati ten. Elliot in
Speaker 1: the backfield behind. Rush takes the snap, fakes to Elliot,
Speaker 1: rolls to the right, looks, throws into the end zone,
Speaker 1: a leaping catch, and a touchdown Noah Brown in the
Speaker 1: back right corner of the end zone. The Cowboys have
Speaker 1: their first touchdown at this season, and it comes on
Speaker 1: the opening drive in Week two, with their backup quarterback
Speaker 1: running the show. The Bengals immediately answered with a forty
Speaker 1: three yard field goal by Evan McPherson, but on the
Speaker 1: Cowboys second drive, they found the end zone again. Cowboys
Speaker 1: line up in an I formation backfield. We'll see if
Speaker 1: the quarterback Rush keeps it. Nope, he's gonna give it
Speaker 1: to Pollard, and Pollard knights in for the touchdown. Appropriate.
Speaker 1: They gave him the opportunity to score after he did
Speaker 1: most of the work to get them down there, and
Speaker 1: Dallas has scored touchdowns on its first two drives with
Speaker 1: Cooper Rush at quarterback and taking a thirteen to three
Speaker 1: league rush through for two hundred and thirty five yards
Speaker 1: with one touchdown, no picks, and a passer rating of
Speaker 1: ninety five point five. Here's Mike Hilton, who just getting
Speaker 1: the ball out quick into this playmaker scance. You could
Speaker 1: tell he wasn't trying to make no mistakes. You know,
Speaker 1: he weren't taking any deep shots. So it's like, you know,
Speaker 1: he's just planning into the scheme and just taking when
Speaker 1: he was given him. Rush was rarely pressured and only
Speaker 1: got sacked once. The Bengals quarterback, on the other hand,
Speaker 1: Burrow back to throw under pressure trying to scramble. Micah
Speaker 1: Parsons will come up with his first sack of the game,
Speaker 1: hops on Burrows back and sacks him for a three
Speaker 1: yard loss. Burrow was sacked six times and hit nine times.
Speaker 1: They have a great rush, one of them, I would
Speaker 1: say top two or three best rushes in the league.
Speaker 1: They got to Marcus Lawrence, Micah and they do a
Speaker 1: really good job with their picks in games too, and
Speaker 1: so you know early in the game you're gonna have those,
Speaker 1: and you know, I can do a better job to
Speaker 1: getting the ball up quickly. But I thought for the
Speaker 1: most part, we protected the ball well in those situations.
Speaker 1: And that was my goal this week. The Bengals did
Speaker 1: not have any turnovers in the game, but still couldn't
Speaker 1: score a touchdown in the first half, and the Cowboys
Speaker 1: added to their lead in the final minute. Jake McQuaid
Speaker 1: from Elder High School is the long snapper for the
Speaker 1: Dallas Cowboys. It's had a good long NFL career after
Speaker 1: playing at Ohio State. Here comes the fifty four yard
Speaker 1: kick and it is a line drive that is good. Wow,
Speaker 1: that looked like a one iron Yeah, barely had trajectory
Speaker 1: and he just rocketed it through to get the Cowboys
Speaker 1: a two touchdown lead with nine seconds left and a half.
Speaker 1: For the second straight week, the Bengals dug a seventeen
Speaker 1: to three first half hole. Here are Joe Burrow and
Speaker 1: Joe Mixon. You'd like to start faster. Obviously, no touchdowns
Speaker 1: in the either first half. It's not up to our standard,
Speaker 1: and so you know, we'd like to start faster, but
Speaker 1: you know, the defenses that we're getting earlier are always
Speaker 1: different than the ones that are on film, and so
Speaker 1: I think that that probably plays a part in it.
Speaker 1: But we just got to do a better job of
Speaker 1: adjusting faster. I felt like, you know, as a whole,
Speaker 1: Like I said, we got to take an initiative. Everybody,
Speaker 1: you know, coaches, players, everybody's involved with everything, you know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying. So I'm not gonna no fingerpoint or
Speaker 1: nothing like that. I mean, we got to take it
Speaker 1: upon us to you know, come out and execute, be
Speaker 1: ready to play. And you know, for some reason, it
Speaker 1: seems like we've been coming up short in that area.
Speaker 1: We've been starting off slow, you know, little penalties here
Speaker 1: Art has been killing us and having to get back
Speaker 1: on track mass So you know, for real, we's just
Speaker 1: got to execute more. They executed much better in the
Speaker 1: second half, driving for field goals on their first two possessions.
Speaker 1: It'll be a fifty yard attempt from the right hash
Speaker 1: McPherson one for one today. Yet from forty three in
Speaker 1: the first quarter, here comes his kick. Distance is not
Speaker 1: a problem, and it is good from fifty yards away.
Speaker 1: Money Back has never missed on the road between the
Speaker 1: regular season and the playoffs. He's twenty six for twenty
Speaker 1: six on field goal attempts, remarkable, and he made a
Speaker 1: twenty seven in a row late in the third quarter
Speaker 1: to pull Cincinnati within eight. Heading to the fourth, beginning
Speaker 1: at their own twelve yard line with twelve and a
Speaker 1: half minutes to go. The Bengals put together an incredible
Speaker 1: nineteen play drive that took nearly nine minutes off the clock.
Speaker 1: There were three third down conversions and one fourth down convert.
Speaker 1: Burrow waiting for a shotgun snap Parsons rushing on Jonah Williams.
Speaker 1: Here's a pass caught by Jamar Chase. He got inside
Speaker 1: of Digs and made the catch at the nineteen to
Speaker 1: extend the drive. On fourth and six, and with less
Speaker 1: than four minutes to go in the game, the Bengals
Speaker 1: finally scored a touchdown second and goal from the five,
Speaker 1: three fifty seven to go. The Bengals trailing by eight.
Speaker 1: Burrow waiting back at the ten for the snap from
Speaker 1: Keras Joe has the ball looking left, scans to the right.
Speaker 1: Joe can run, but he throws into the end zone
Speaker 1: by te hanging for the test down maybe and the
Speaker 1: Bengals are a two point conversion away from tying this game.
Speaker 1: The ball is placed with a front tip at the
Speaker 1: two yard live the Bengals trying for a game tying
Speaker 1: two point conversion for the second week in a row.
Speaker 1: They will go empty. As Burrow waits for the shotgun snap,
Speaker 1: Joe has the ball from the ten, looking telling god
Speaker 1: By Boyd to tie the game. Night with three minutes
Speaker 1: and forty five seconds left in regulation, what a tribe.
Speaker 1: Nineteen plays eighty three yards and the Bengals score eight
Speaker 1: points to pull even. Here's Zach Taylor on the marathon drive.
Speaker 1: That's just what was needed at that point in the game,
Speaker 1: you know, And that's the position we put ourselves in.
Speaker 1: But our guys answered the bell. They made some tremendous plays,
Speaker 1: some tremendous one on one plays, some great throws, tremendous protection.
Speaker 1: You know, about everybody I can think of stepped up
Speaker 1: on that drive to help us go score. And you know,
Speaker 1: the protection was tremendous on the two point play. Joe
Speaker 1: really had all day back there and allowed TV to
Speaker 1: separate on that world routing. So you thought, those guys
Speaker 1: really came together and put the drive together when we
Speaker 1: needed it. Unfortunately, the next time out we weren't able
Speaker 1: to do that. The next time came about a minute
Speaker 1: and a half later, as the defense forced to punt
Speaker 1: to give the offense a chance to drive for a
Speaker 1: winning score. But on third and three at their own
Speaker 1: fifteen yard line, Burrow through a pass short of the
Speaker 1: sticks and Tyler Boyd got tackled after a one yard game.
Speaker 1: The heads went out first of all, so we're screaming
Speaker 1: a play in and it's unfortunate that the one play
Speaker 1: in the game is the last play in the game,
Speaker 1: but you know, we feel like we had to get shot.
Speaker 1: I think that one of their guys just fell off
Speaker 1: on TV. I've got to see the clip, but I'm
Speaker 1: not sure it was a guy covering him initially, just
Speaker 1: fell off and made a real good play. The Bengals
Speaker 1: had to punt, and the Cowboys got the ball at
Speaker 1: their own thirty five with fifty seven seconds to go.
Speaker 1: Three straight Cooper Rush completions put the Cowboys in position
Speaker 1: to score the only points they would need in the
Speaker 1: second half. Maher Is sets he has two fifty yard
Speaker 1: field goals this year. Here comes his kick. It has
Speaker 1: the distance. It is good. The Cowboys win on a
Speaker 1: fifty yard field goal at the gun. Cooper Rush beats
Speaker 1: the Bengals in Dallas a fifty three yard or an
Speaker 1: overtime last week, and a fifty yard or on the
Speaker 1: final playoff regulation this week. The final score Dallas twenty,
Speaker 1: Cincinnati seventeen. Here are Joe Mixon, Joe Burrow, and Ted Harris.
Speaker 1: Our defense been playing the ass off I mean, you know,
Speaker 1: they had little, you know, hiccups here and there, but
Speaker 1: at the end of the day they bawling on defense.
Speaker 1: We gotta do whatever we gotta do on offense to
Speaker 1: you know, counter what's been going on. Man. So, like
Speaker 1: I said, everybody got to take initiative on each other
Speaker 1: and uh, you know, execute starfass and we've got to
Speaker 1: finish these games. Two is tough, but there's no panic.
Speaker 1: We've lost two games in a row before. We lost
Speaker 1: two games in row several times last year. A lot
Speaker 1: of football have to be played. We're gonna have to
Speaker 1: get all this cleaned up. We got a long season
Speaker 1: ahead still obviously own two to start the year. Not
Speaker 1: how we all visualized it going into this campaign. So,
Speaker 1: you know, but there's nothing we can do now about
Speaker 1: that game. We're go get back to work and you know,
Speaker 1: we got the New York Jets on Sunday afternoon. After
Speaker 1: the game, Dave Lapham spent a couple of minutes with
Speaker 1: Zach Taylor, coach. It's a tough league. Boy, it's a
Speaker 1: it's a it's a play here, a play there. Seems
Speaker 1: like first down was a little bit of an achilles
Speaker 1: heel today. Yeah, the first half it really got us.
Speaker 1: They just weren't efficient enough. They did a nice job,
Speaker 1: we didn't do a good enough job and put us
Speaker 1: behind the chains there. But I thought we regrouped in
Speaker 1: the second half and gave ourselves a chance. Down fourteen
Speaker 1: points to start the game in two weeks now, but
Speaker 1: your team just fights back. I mean they tied the
Speaker 1: score in both football games. That tells you a lot
Speaker 1: about their their character, their fiber, all the things you
Speaker 1: need to know there, it doesn't it. I got to
Speaker 1: find a way to help us put ourselves in a
Speaker 1: lead so you know we can play the way that
Speaker 1: we know we're meant to play, because being down two
Speaker 1: scores two weeks in a row is not how we
Speaker 1: want to do it. But again, we've got such great leadership,
Speaker 1: such great talent in the soccer room that I know
Speaker 1: we're gonna get it done. And we just got to
Speaker 1: catch ourselves from being too frustrated after knowing to start
Speaker 1: because it's a long season ahead and we just got
Speaker 1: to take care of this next week. Did they give
Speaker 1: you any looks different than they had own, or that
Speaker 1: you may be anticipated, either up front or on the
Speaker 1: back end. I wouldn't say that. You know, there are
Speaker 1: some things that were in our control in the first
Speaker 1: half that we just didn't execute well enough. And they
Speaker 1: were really good defense. They're really well coordinated. We've known
Speaker 1: that dating back to every game we watched last year
Speaker 1: and the first week as well. So that's just on
Speaker 1: us to regroup and be better next week. They were
Speaker 1: not going to let you throw the ball over their heads.
Speaker 1: I mean, they were going to make you play, you know,
Speaker 1: the intermediate to short routes. That that was going to
Speaker 1: be something on an every snap basis. How frustrating was that, Yeah,
Speaker 1: you're not giving yourself a chance to when you're having
Speaker 1: the inefficiency where we had the two false starts, we
Speaker 1: had a sack on first and ten, we had a
Speaker 1: negative roun you know. So there was just some things
Speaker 1: that I could help us be better, for sure, to
Speaker 1: put in a better position to put pressure on the defense.
Speaker 1: You mentioned that they had a backup quarterback that had
Speaker 1: been there five years and he was in a quarterback
Speaker 1: room as a player with the offensive coordinator, so they
Speaker 1: know each other to they know what he can do
Speaker 1: and can't do, and they didn't have to change their offense.
Speaker 1: He just went out and executed. Yeah, he's been there
Speaker 1: for a reason for a long time. They obviously got
Speaker 1: a taught to trust in him. I thought he executed
Speaker 1: their offense. Royal ball coach appreciate it. I know. Uh,
Speaker 1: you know. It's two close ones like this one and
Speaker 1: overtime one of the gun. Tough life in the National
Speaker 1: Football League, it really is. Yeah. It. Had the Bengals won,
Speaker 1: they would be tied for first in the AFC North.
Speaker 1: The Steelers lost at home to the Patriots. The Ravens
Speaker 1: blew a twenty one point halftime lead and lost to Miami,
Speaker 1: and Cleveland had a thirteen point lead with less than
Speaker 1: two minutes to go and lost to the Jets, who
Speaker 1: scored a touchdown, recovered an onside kick, and scored another
Speaker 1: touchdown to win by one. In other words, the Bengals
Speaker 1: squandered a golden opportunity. Now time for postgame analysis. In
Speaker 1: this week's Radio Guys Recap, lap I would describe the
Speaker 1: basic mood in the locker room is stunned. I think
Speaker 1: the Bengals thought facing Mitchell Trubisky in week one and
Speaker 1: Cooper Rush in week two probably should be two and
Speaker 1: L and their own two. Yeah, obviously digging big holes.
Speaker 1: You know, you put yourself behind fourteen points to any
Speaker 1: team in the NFL, It's it's not a good place
Speaker 1: to be. And uh, they've had to dig out of
Speaker 1: those holes and twice have done it. But they have
Speaker 1: to figure out a way to get off to a
Speaker 1: faster start. I thought first down inefficiency was the kind
Speaker 1: of the story of the day for the offense. They
Speaker 1: found themselves in too many second and third and long
Speaker 1: situations as a result, Goes six for seventeen on third
Speaker 1: down two hundred and fifty four yards offense three point
Speaker 1: eight yards per play, and mentioned at one point that,
Speaker 1: you know, it looked like the passing game was in
Speaker 1: a box. You know, they just weren't going to allow
Speaker 1: them to throw the ball over their heads. So going
Speaker 1: to have to figure out ways to get that alleviated.
Speaker 1: And and then you know, guys for them stepped up
Speaker 1: and had the game of their life. I mean Brown,
Speaker 1: who would have thought that he was targeted five times,
Speaker 1: five catches, nine one yards over eighteen yards of catching
Speaker 1: a touchdown. No one, no one expected that to be
Speaker 1: the case, that's for sure. So the longest passing play
Speaker 1: was nineteen yards. You talked about how opponents are not
Speaker 1: going to allow them to go deep. Is it because
Speaker 1: the safeties are playing back? Is it because the rush
Speaker 1: is getting there too quickly for for Burrow to even
Speaker 1: attempt a deep ball. I think it's a combination, you know,
Speaker 1: I think it's uh. You know, initially, the safeties are
Speaker 1: going to are making sure that Joe doesn't think about
Speaker 1: putting it up there because you know, are they going
Speaker 1: to work to the sideline and uh, and if Joe
Speaker 1: decides to run a deep ball to one of his
Speaker 1: outside receivers, is a safety going to be an issue there? Um.
Speaker 1: So then by the time you know, you get off
Speaker 1: of that, now where are you're looking at? How much
Speaker 1: time is there? So it's a combination of both, really
Speaker 1: coverage and rush or glove over the hand, you know,
Speaker 1: and same thing with protection and deep ball. You know,
Speaker 1: you have to you have to give the quarterback an opportunity.
Speaker 1: He has to have confidence that it's not going to
Speaker 1: be a you know, just a quick glance, you know,
Speaker 1: he's going to have some time to really evaluate things
Speaker 1: before he has to come off of it. And right
Speaker 1: now it's it's just disjointed. Do they have to run
Speaker 1: teams out of this? Is that the bottom line? Yeah?
Speaker 1: I mean I think I think you get that running
Speaker 1: game going to the point where it's like, he's do
Speaker 1: you want to die the slow death or the fast death?
Speaker 1: And honestly, most teams are gonna try to die the
Speaker 1: slow death anyway, but at least make them mix it
Speaker 1: up a little bit more, you know, it makes change
Speaker 1: some things up. If you get that running game going,
Speaker 1: you have a complimentary situation going, you have a balanced attack.
Speaker 1: You know, it's much tougher to play defense that way,
Speaker 1: but if you know you've got the running game controlled
Speaker 1: and you can put seven in the box to do it,
Speaker 1: click cover two all day long. The Bengals defense has
Speaker 1: played well enough to win, I think, in the first
Speaker 1: two games, but there are negatives. One takeaway in two games,
Speaker 1: two sacks in two games, and they've given up game
Speaker 1: drives at the end of regulation today and an overtime
Speaker 1: last week. Yeah, that's true. I mean, you know, you
Speaker 1: look at their at their raw numbers. I mean, they're
Speaker 1: They're obviously not. They're not terrible. They gave up five
Speaker 1: point seven yards a play on the day, but they average.
Speaker 1: You know, the Cowboys rushed Foe hundred and seven yards
Speaker 1: and they averaged four yards a carry. Um. And I know,
Speaker 1: in the perfect world you would want to have the
Speaker 1: running game controlled a little bit better than that. So
Speaker 1: make a Cooper Rush have to rush his decision making
Speaker 1: process and make him think like he has to take
Speaker 1: a chance here. They're um, he was too comfortable for
Speaker 1: too much of the football game. Almost all the football game,
Speaker 1: he was he was just too comfortable, and he had
Speaker 1: confidence that he could execute the offense. Kellen Moore had
Speaker 1: confidence you could execute the offense. And I thought Kellen
Speaker 1: Moore called a good game. Mixed it up well, and uh,
Speaker 1: you know they did just enough in both phases, you know,
Speaker 1: to to win the football game when they had to do.
Speaker 1: You think at this point it's, you know, business as usual.
Speaker 1: You go back to practice, you do what you did
Speaker 1: last year to go to the Super Bowl. Or do
Speaker 1: they need to mix it up in some way two
Speaker 1: games into the season. Yeah, I mean it's not you know,
Speaker 1: you only have a game out. Everybody's one and one
Speaker 1: except for you. Um, you know, you go back to work,
Speaker 1: but there has to be a sense of urgency because
Speaker 1: now you're two games down. You know, you have you
Speaker 1: have fifteen games left in the season. You can still
Speaker 1: obviously control your own destiny, but you've you know, it's
Speaker 1: it's an NFC loss, which if you're going to lose
Speaker 1: a football game from a tiebreaker standpoint, that's the one
Speaker 1: that you'd probably pick to lose. But you certainly don't
Speaker 1: want to circle any games to lose. That's that's obviously
Speaker 1: not in your mind. That's not your mindset whatsoever. So um,
Speaker 1: there's just a few things to clean up, and uh,
Speaker 1: but you got to get cleaned up quickly because I mean,
Speaker 1: you know, everybody in this league is capable. I mean
Speaker 1: there are upsets are single week. Look what the Jets
Speaker 1: did today, you know, and they've got to go to
Speaker 1: New York. Look what happened last year in New York.
Speaker 1: So it's uh. I was talking to Ted Garrett Carris
Speaker 1: in the post game. He says, look, I know what
Speaker 1: the next two games are like. That's the division that
Speaker 1: I played in, and I know what it's like to
Speaker 1: you know, to play these football teams. Look what the
Speaker 1: Miami Dolphins did today. Look what the New York Jets
Speaker 1: did today. That's the next two opponents. So you know,
Speaker 1: they're not going to be a situation where ah yeah,
Speaker 1: I get up on them and it's an easy out.
Speaker 1: They're gonna they're gonna fight you. They're gonna fight you
Speaker 1: tooth and nail. Josh Allen, Tom Brady, Patrick Mahomes, Lamar
Speaker 1: Jackson still to come. And they had the opportunity at
Speaker 1: home against Mitchell Trubisky and on the road against Cooper
Speaker 1: Rush and didn't take advantage of it. That stings, it,
Speaker 1: does it does? I mean, you know, I know you can,
Speaker 1: you can kick yourself in the butt about it, but
Speaker 1: then you have to move on. You have to forget
Speaker 1: about it as best you can and move on because
Speaker 1: you can't go back. There's nothing you can do about
Speaker 1: about the past, whatsoever. All you can do about is
Speaker 1: take care of the future. And you know, maybe you
Speaker 1: knock off a couple of quarterbacks that people weren't expecting
Speaker 1: you to knock off. That's just you know, life in
Speaker 1: the National Football League. But you have nobody to blame
Speaker 1: but yourself. So a road game against the Jets is next,
Speaker 1: and the Bengals will once again face a backup quarterback,
Speaker 1: not Mike White this time, but thirty seven year old
Speaker 1: Joe Flacco, who threw four touchdown passes in that win
Speaker 1: over Cleveland. Let's turn the page and get to this
Speaker 1: week's fun Facts interview, where we get to know the
Speaker 1: person under the pads. Time for some fun facts with
Speaker 1: Bengals tight end Hayden Hurst from Jacksonville, Florida. Were you
Speaker 1: a big Jaguars guy as a kid, and if so,
Speaker 1: did you have heroes that you looked up to? So
Speaker 1: I rooted for the Jags a little bit when I
Speaker 1: was a kid. It was tough because they were always,
Speaker 1: you know, pretty bad. Ironically enough, my dad is actually
Speaker 1: from Pittsburgh, so I grew up a Steelers fan a
Speaker 1: little bit, but that quickly went away, getting drafted by
Speaker 1: Baltimore and now playing for since. So it's kind of
Speaker 1: funny how life works itself out. You played some football
Speaker 1: as a kid, but you were a phenom as a
Speaker 1: baseball player, as a pitcher, specifically, How old were you
Speaker 1: when you started to dominate and started to hear that
Speaker 1: word prospect? As soon as I could get on the
Speaker 1: noun from kid pitch. I was always playing one or
Speaker 1: two years older, just because of how hard I threw.
Speaker 1: Like I said, I think by the time I was
Speaker 1: eight or nine years old, I was pitching against you know,
Speaker 1: like ten to eleven twelve year olds, And it was
Speaker 1: just always that way until I got to Pittsburgh. I
Speaker 1: imagine it was flattering and fun. But did it put
Speaker 1: a little pressure on you to just be, you know,
Speaker 1: that guy at such an early age. Not really. I
Speaker 1: think I was just so naive that I just picked
Speaker 1: the ball up and was better than people, so I
Speaker 1: just threw it past people. I didn't really think much
Speaker 1: of it. I didn't really break the game down. I
Speaker 1: just I knew what my arm talent was capable of,
Speaker 1: and I just went out there and threw the hell
Speaker 1: out of it. We're doing fun facts with Hayden Hurst.
Speaker 1: The ball draft is very different from the NFL Draft.
Speaker 1: You can be selected when you were in high school
Speaker 1: and that's the way it fell for you. You were
Speaker 1: chosen by the Pittsburgh Pirates, signed a contract as a teenager,
Speaker 1: had a pretty good chunk of change in the bank. Again,
Speaker 1: all of that is good, exciting, flattering stuff, but in retrospect.
Speaker 1: Was it too much too soon, you know, getting all
Speaker 1: that money as an eighteen year old and never having
Speaker 1: left home. I don't know if I was mature enough
Speaker 1: to handle it at the time, you know, given my
Speaker 1: life path, but I think it was kind of the
Speaker 1: best thing for me because I think eighteen year old
Speaker 1: Hayden Hurst, if he had gone to Florida State, I
Speaker 1: don't know if I'd be playing sports still, I probably
Speaker 1: would have made some bad decisions. So it's kind of
Speaker 1: all part of a plan. You know. My dad was like,
Speaker 1: football is always there. If you want to, you know,
Speaker 1: take the money and run, so to speak, with the Pirates,
Speaker 1: try it and if it works, awesome. If it doesn't,
Speaker 1: go back and play football. So I definitely took that
Speaker 1: into consideration when I was signing with the Pirates, and
Speaker 1: it's all kind of worked out. It's kind of funny
Speaker 1: how we had it all planned. We're chatting with Hayden Hurst.
Speaker 1: Avid baseball fans have heard the term Steve blast disease,
Speaker 1: which is used to describe players who basically lose the
Speaker 1: ability to throw the ball where they want to. It's
Speaker 1: happened to pitchers, it's happened to position players. It's happened
Speaker 1: to major League All Stars and it happened to you.
Speaker 1: There's frustration, there's confusion, there's embarrassment, and it led to
Speaker 1: a dark time in your life. Can you describe what
Speaker 1: that was like? To put it into terms, It was
Speaker 1: like waking up and being in hell every single day
Speaker 1: for about three and a half years. Because you play
Speaker 1: this game growing up and it's just easy. You picked
Speaker 1: the ball up and you throw it harder, you throw
Speaker 1: it by people, and it's just it's really easy. And
Speaker 1: then all of a sudden, you can't even warm up
Speaker 1: on the foul line. You start questioning your ability, questioning
Speaker 1: your purpose. It really affected me off the field. You know.
Speaker 1: Obviously on the field, I didn't really get into games
Speaker 1: and stuff like that was really just on bullpens. But
Speaker 1: you know, off the field, it really kind of sent
Speaker 1: me into a spiral. So made a life change in
Speaker 1: twenty twenty fifteen to give up baseball and just kind
Speaker 1: of go do other stuff. Walked on in South Carolina
Speaker 1: and you know, really kind of fell in love football.
Speaker 1: You've been very candid about rock Bottom, which was a
Speaker 1: suicide attempt. Did almost taking your life ultimately save it?
Speaker 1: It gives me just a little bit of perspective, you know,
Speaker 1: when things are a little bit hard in the NFL,
Speaker 1: you know, trying to learn playbooks or you know, learn
Speaker 1: a run scheme or pass schemes. Um, I'm able to
Speaker 1: kind of reflect at the end of the day and
Speaker 1: be like, hey man, you know you've been through way worse. Um.
Speaker 1: Like I said, I wouldn't wish what I went through
Speaker 1: and those you know, five six years upon my worst enemy. Um,
Speaker 1: it was awful, like I said, waking up every day,
Speaker 1: it was just I felt like I was living at
Speaker 1: hell and I just couldn't get out of it. I
Speaker 1: felt like I was trapped and there was nothing that
Speaker 1: I could do, no amount of money that I could spend,
Speaker 1: m nobody that I could talk to that could fix it.
Speaker 1: It was tough, it really was. But it taught me
Speaker 1: a lot about myself. You've tried to use your experience
Speaker 1: to help others through the Hayden Hurst Family Foundation, trying
Speaker 1: to help kids and military veterans battling depression and anxiety.
Speaker 1: What's it like when you hear from a kid or
Speaker 1: a parent who says, your story is my story, and
Speaker 1: you're helping save my life. It's better than anything that
Speaker 1: could happen on a football field to me truly, not
Speaker 1: that I don't love the game. It's done wonderful things
Speaker 1: for me in my life and my family's life. But
Speaker 1: I know what it's like to be in that headspace.
Speaker 1: So when someone comes up to me and shares, you know,
Speaker 1: this is my story, this is what I've been through,
Speaker 1: I understand that frame of mind and what it's like
Speaker 1: to be in that situation. So having just the courage
Speaker 1: to even come up to someone random as myself and
Speaker 1: tell your story, it's extremely courageous, and that's how we're
Speaker 1: going to start, you know, getting ahead of this mental
Speaker 1: health thing. So you made that switch from baseball to
Speaker 1: football and walked on at South Carolina. Did you have
Speaker 1: any idea what you were doing playing football at that level? Yeah.
Speaker 1: My first year, my freshman year, that had me at
Speaker 1: receiver and it was basically, you know, go run by
Speaker 1: this guy or go physical, go catch this ball. It
Speaker 1: wasn't until my sophomore year with Will must Champ where
Speaker 1: they really started, you know, breaking down the XS and
Speaker 1: O's telling me, you know, you're gonna be a tight end.
Speaker 1: You're gonna have to learn you know fronts, you know, coverages,
Speaker 1: things like that. So that's really kind of what sped
Speaker 1: up my you know football iq. Um. But yeah, at
Speaker 1: first it was like, hey, just go run past this guy. Hey,
Speaker 1: hey go up, I'll jump this guy. So it was
Speaker 1: kind of fun. You certainly look like a football player,
Speaker 1: he's sixty four two fifty. Does football suit your personality
Speaker 1: as well? Absolutely? You can ask anybody in my family.
Speaker 1: I think that I'm a psycho. So, you know, in
Speaker 1: anybody in the Pittsburgh Pirates organization when I was there,
Speaker 1: whenever they saw me and they're like, to, you're a
Speaker 1: football player playing baseball? What are you doing? Um? I
Speaker 1: kind of I felt it a little bit when I
Speaker 1: was younger, just because you know, I was the guy
Speaker 1: that just threw hard and I had off speed pitches too,
Speaker 1: but it was just I would get i'd throw a ball,
Speaker 1: I get pissed and try to throw at ninety nine,
Speaker 1: you know, and it's just it doesn't necessarily correlate in baseball. So, um,
Speaker 1: I think I've kind of found my way in football.
Speaker 1: You know, I can go up and make a catch
Speaker 1: or out run a guy, or get physical or you know,
Speaker 1: when I get pissed off. I can go run fast,
Speaker 1: start hit somebody harder. So I think absolutely it definitely
Speaker 1: suits who I am. We're doing fun facts with hayden Hurst.
Speaker 1: In Greek mythology, the phoenix is a creature that dies
Speaker 1: and rises from the ashes. I've read that you had
Speaker 1: a painting of a phoenix on your apartment wall in college.
Speaker 1: Is the legend of the phoenix inspirational to you? One
Speaker 1: hundred percent? It was actually my mom's I guess when
Speaker 1: she was in high school. She did theater. There was
Speaker 1: a gift that she had received and I saw in
Speaker 1: our house one day and I kind of, you know,
Speaker 1: looked it up and I understood what the phoenix was
Speaker 1: and what it stood for. I kind of did some
Speaker 1: more research and really really understood what it was. And
Speaker 1: it's kind of ironic how it fits into my life
Speaker 1: and kind of where I was, who I was, and
Speaker 1: kind of who I've become. All Right, a few wildcard
Speaker 1: topics for hayden Hurst. Do you have a spectacular mane
Speaker 1: of red hair? How much time and effort is required
Speaker 1: to maintain it? It's a lot like sometimes like right now,
Speaker 1: it's getting a little long, so you know, it comes
Speaker 1: out of the helmet a little bit too far, so
Speaker 1: I need to get it trim before Sunday. My girlfriend
Speaker 1: definitely helps with the products, and she's on top of
Speaker 1: her stuff with you hair care, so I'll mooch off
Speaker 1: of her and her things. And if I'm not looking
Speaker 1: quite up to par, you know, she kind of gets
Speaker 1: me right, so it's perfect. I assume she likes the
Speaker 1: hair and the beard. Yes, she does. She's a big fan.
Speaker 1: She's a big fan of the beer. That's kind of
Speaker 1: why it gets as big as it does. I kind
Speaker 1: of have to tame it from time to time. But
Speaker 1: you know what she once she gets Do you have
Speaker 1: any hidden talents necessarily that I can think off the
Speaker 1: top of my head. I'm a pretty I know everyone
Speaker 1: thinks you know NFL player. These guys are so cool.
Speaker 1: I'm probably one of the most simple and boring NFL
Speaker 1: players you could probably come across. You know, I'm big
Speaker 1: on family. I'm big on relaxing when I get home.
Speaker 1: As far as like a talent, nothing really decides of
Speaker 1: doing the whole two pro sport thing. Other than that,
Speaker 1: what do you like to spend your money on? My
Speaker 1: family not big on buying you know, luxury things for myself.
Speaker 1: You know, I'll get a Chevy Tahoe. It's about as
Speaker 1: fancy as I get. But kind of what I've been
Speaker 1: through in my life, and I tell my family this
Speaker 1: all the time, you know, I don't really it's a
Speaker 1: blessing for me to still be here. So everything that's
Speaker 1: kind of happening now in my life, I consider it
Speaker 1: a bonus because I never thought that I would really
Speaker 1: be here. So it's cool to be able to spoil
Speaker 1: them make their lives easier because, like I said, you know,
Speaker 1: I've got perspective of how hard it can be. You know,
Speaker 1: nothing that life throws at me from you know, twenty
Speaker 1: nine years on out is really gonna phase me from
Speaker 1: what I've been through. Final question, this is kind of deep.
Speaker 1: If you could meet anybody in history, athlete, actor, statesman,
Speaker 1: religious figure, whoever it might be, who would that person be.
Speaker 1: Ronald Reagan. I've read a lot of his books. I've
Speaker 1: actually I'm reading a book right now become his like
Speaker 1: famous quotations from history. Just a really great leader in
Speaker 1: my opinion. You know, whatever side of the fence you
Speaker 1: may fall on, I just think the man that he
Speaker 1: was during the times and what he was able to accomplish.
Speaker 1: Just a great leader. I appreciate your time. Thank you
Speaker 1: so much. Have a great season, yes, sir, I appreciate it.
Speaker 1: Aiden is off to a great start in a Bengals uniform.
Speaker 1: He's had five catches in each of the first two games.
Speaker 1: That's going to do it for This episode of the
Speaker 1: Bengals Booth Podcast presented by Alta Fiber future Proof Fiber
Speaker 1: Internet elevate your connection with Alta Fiber by Kettering Health,
Speaker 1: the official healthcare provider of the Bengals, by Bengals Picks
Speaker 1: and Ultimate Bengals Free to Play with tickets and sign
Speaker 1: merchandise up for grabs, and by Paycord, the official HR
Speaker 1: software provider of the Bengals. 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.