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Bengals Booth Podcast: Applause · Bengals Booth Podcast

0:03
Speaker 1: Hi, get everybody, I'm Dan Horden. Thanks for downloading the
0:06
Speaker 1: Bengals Booth Podcast. Ba A Lift or the Aplause her
0:11
Speaker 1: Blaus Herplause. Addition, as we hear from the two legends
0:16
Speaker 1: selected by season ticket holders this year to join the
0:19
Speaker 1: Bengals Ring of Honor, Boomer Asiasin and Chad Johnson. The
0:24
Speaker 1: Bengals Booth Podcast is brought to you by Alta Fiber,
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Speaker 1: designed to take your home, business and community to a
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0:37
Speaker 1: Bengals Picks and Ultimate Bengals. They're free to play with
0:40
Speaker 1: tickets and side merchandise up for grabs. Find both inside
0:44
Speaker 1: the Bengals app. Now here's a quick reminder that you
0:47
Speaker 1: can have the latest edition of this podcast delivered write
0:51
Speaker 1: to your phone, tablet or computer by subscribing wherever you
0:54
Speaker 1: get your podcasts. It's the greatest thing since dodgeball our Yes,
1:01
Speaker 1: you heard me correctly, dodgeball archery. It's just like dodgeball,
1:06
Speaker 1: but instead of firing big rubber balls at your opponents,
1:09
Speaker 1: you try to shoot them with a bow and arrow.
1:12
Speaker 1: Don't worry, the arrows have big spongy tips and don't hurt. Recently,
1:17
Speaker 1: me and five of my buddies gave it a shot,
1:19
Speaker 1: no pun intended. There's a dodgeball archery arena north of
1:23
Speaker 1: Cincinnati and Westchester Township, and according to their website, they
1:27
Speaker 1: also have locations in Denver, Omaha, and Ottawa. So if
1:32
Speaker 1: you're looking to try something new and you live near
1:34
Speaker 1: one of those locations, I can personally recommend dodgeball archery.
1:40
Speaker 1: And remember the five d's of dodgeball still apply dodge, duck, dip, dive,
1:47
Speaker 1: and dodge. Now let's get to our first guest. Two
1:52
Speaker 1: players in Bengals history have won the NFL MVP Award,
1:55
Speaker 1: Ken Anderson in nineteen eighty one and Boomerisiasin in nineteen
1:59
Speaker 1: eighty eight. Each quarterback led the Bengals to the Super
2:02
Speaker 1: Bowl in his MVP season, and now they are both
2:05
Speaker 1: members of the Bengals Ring of Honor. Boomer ranks in
2:09
Speaker 1: the top three in team history in passing yards, touchdown passes,
2:13
Speaker 1: and yards per attempt, and the final pass of his
2:16
Speaker 1: career was a seventy seven yard touchdown strike to Darnay
2:20
Speaker 1: Scott but Boomer's impact went far beyond the stats. He is,
2:25
Speaker 1: without question, one of the most charismatic leaders in team history.
2:30
Speaker 1: Here's my conversation with the Blonde Bomber, Norman Julius assiasin Boomer,
2:38
Speaker 1: you are a former MVP, you won the Walter Payton
2:41
Speaker 1: Man of the Year Award, you are in the University
2:43
Speaker 1: of Maryland Hall of Fame, and now the fans have
2:45
Speaker 1: selected you for the Bengals Ring of Honor. What does
2:49
Speaker 1: this particular honor mean to you?
2:52
Speaker 2: Well, it's pretty cool, Dan to say, at least, you know,
2:54
Speaker 2: for twenty years, I was doing Monday Night football and
2:57
Speaker 2: I would go to these stadiums and I had watched
2:59
Speaker 2: the home teams all celebrate their past. I mean, the
3:03
Speaker 2: Jacksonville Jaguars, the Carolina Panthers, all these new teams had
3:07
Speaker 2: rings of Honor, and I always wondered why the Bengals
3:11
Speaker 2: chose not to do that. And I think that was
3:13
Speaker 2: at a difference to the great Paul Brown. I think,
3:15
Speaker 2: you know, he was the one that brought the team there.
3:17
Speaker 2: He was the one with one of the greatest coaches
3:19
Speaker 2: in the history of the league, if not the greatest coach.
3:22
Speaker 2: So in my eyes always felt like it was it
3:25
Speaker 2: was Paul Brown's team, it was Paul Brown's legacy. And
3:28
Speaker 2: then really, when you think about his grant granddaughters coming
3:31
Speaker 2: back to work for the franchise and being exposed to
3:34
Speaker 2: everything else that was going on around in the NFL,
3:37
Speaker 2: you know, why don't we celebrate our history? And that
3:41
Speaker 2: took place three years ago with obviously the inaugural class
3:44
Speaker 2: of Paul Brown and Anthony Munos and the great Kenny Anderson.
3:47
Speaker 2: So I have to say it's taken a while, It's
3:51
Speaker 2: finally happening, and I'm great. I'm very grateful to our fans,
3:55
Speaker 2: our season ticket holders for voting me in this time around.
4:00
Speaker 2: I can't wait to get there that Monday night to celebrate.
4:04
Speaker 1: I asked Mike Brown about you. Here's what he had
4:07
Speaker 1: to say. I'm going to read this off my notepad.
4:09
Speaker 1: Boomer was tough. He could play under harsh conditions that
4:13
Speaker 1: could be physical injuries or whatever else, but he was
4:16
Speaker 1: not deterred. The players liked him. He was a leader
4:20
Speaker 1: that they all respected for his abilities as a player,
4:22
Speaker 1: and it went beyond that. He had a way of
4:24
Speaker 1: talking to them and they acknowledged him as the first
4:28
Speaker 1: among equals, if you will, they listened to him. What
4:32
Speaker 1: do you think of Mike's quote?
4:34
Speaker 2: It's pretty special. Actually, it means that he noticed he
4:39
Speaker 2: noticed me in college. I know that he scouted me
4:43
Speaker 2: in college I think six or seven of my games,
4:46
Speaker 2: and he was one of the reasons why they ended
4:48
Speaker 2: up selecting me. I wish they would have selected me
4:51
Speaker 2: a little bit earlier. That would have been nice. But
4:54
Speaker 2: I always knew that he liked me as a player.
4:56
Speaker 2: I think he respected me in the locker room, the
5:00
Speaker 2: way that I treated my teammates, the way that I
5:02
Speaker 2: was one of the guys, but also the way that
5:05
Speaker 2: I carried myself in the meeting rooms and on the
5:07
Speaker 2: practice field and then ultimately out to the game onto
5:11
Speaker 2: the game field. And you know, nothing is more satisfying
5:14
Speaker 2: and more fulfilling than watching a young player that you
5:17
Speaker 2: can impact. And that's why my final five games in
5:21
Speaker 2: nineteen ninety seven were some of the best games that
5:23
Speaker 2: I've ever been a part of, not only because we
5:25
Speaker 2: were scoring a lot of points, but because I saw
5:28
Speaker 2: the impact that an old geezer like me could have
5:31
Speaker 2: on young players. With just a little bit of direction,
5:34
Speaker 2: they could find their game and find out truly how
5:36
Speaker 2: great they were, and I think that's really what Mike
5:40
Speaker 2: is talking about.
5:42
Speaker 1: You mentioned the eighty fourth draft. Let's go back. You
5:45
Speaker 1: were the first quarterbacks selected, but it did come in
5:48
Speaker 1: the second round, number thirty eight overall to this day,
5:51
Speaker 1: do you have any idea why you lasted until the
5:55
Speaker 1: second round.
5:56
Speaker 2: I probably was perceived to be a pain in the neck,
6:00
Speaker 2: which I probably turned out to be for Sam Wish
6:02
Speaker 2: a few times, I was not afraid to voice my opinion.
6:07
Speaker 2: I think that's probably another reason why. But I also
6:10
Speaker 2: know that there was a bidding war going on for
6:12
Speaker 2: quarterbacks in the USFL, and I do believe that the
6:16
Speaker 2: Bengals would have taken Steve Young had they held on
6:18
Speaker 2: to the number one pick. But Steve Young decided to
6:22
Speaker 2: go to the USFL and go play with the La Express,
6:26
Speaker 2: So that left me as the next quarterback. So you
6:28
Speaker 2: would think, Okay, maybe they'll take me number one. But
6:31
Speaker 2: you know, I don't really know the true story as
6:33
Speaker 2: to why they traded that number one pick and ended
6:35
Speaker 2: up with three picks in the top twenty eight in
6:38
Speaker 2: that particular draft and didn't select me with any of
6:41
Speaker 2: those picks either. So I was wondering if maybe my
6:44
Speaker 2: name had fallen off the board or something, or somebody
6:47
Speaker 2: had forgotten about me. But when Sam Weisch did call,
6:50
Speaker 2: he said, you know, do you want to be a Bengal?
6:51
Speaker 2: I said, are you sure you want me? So our
6:55
Speaker 2: relationship started off very uniquely at that on that particular day.
7:00
Speaker 2: But I don't know why. You know, there's a lot
7:02
Speaker 2: of reasons why things happen in life that you can't
7:05
Speaker 2: really control, and I just think that, you know, it
7:08
Speaker 2: was out of my hands, and I knew this that
7:10
Speaker 2: prior to that draft, I did say that I wanted
7:13
Speaker 2: to be an NFL player, that I did not want
7:15
Speaker 2: to go play for the Washington fed Erroles or the
7:18
Speaker 2: Memphis show Boats. I mean, I wanted to be in
7:22
Speaker 2: the NFL. So I remember my agent telling me, you
7:25
Speaker 2: should have never said that, because that's going to take
7:27
Speaker 2: away any bargaining that we have. But you know, to
7:30
Speaker 2: the Bengals credit, people don't realize this. They gave me
7:33
Speaker 2: the largest contract that a second round draft pick had
7:38
Speaker 2: ever received in the NFL, and they did it really
7:41
Speaker 2: quickly with me. I wasn't holding out or any of
7:44
Speaker 2: that stuff, and we came to an agreement relatively quick.
7:47
Speaker 1: So your rookie year was Sam's rookie year as well.
7:50
Speaker 1: Kenny was still around as the starting quarterback, although you
7:52
Speaker 1: did start four games that rookie year and went three
7:55
Speaker 1: and one. What stands out about those early beginnings in Cincinnati.
8:00
Speaker 2: I remember the first time I walked I walked into
8:02
Speaker 2: the offensive meeting room, and I mean I felt like
8:05
Speaker 2: I was the dumbest guy on the earth. You know,
8:08
Speaker 2: we had guys in there, Chris collins Worth, Anthony Munos,
8:10
Speaker 2: Max Montoya, Dave Remington, Pat Mcanalie, Steve Krider. I mean,
8:16
Speaker 2: they just had traded for James Brooks. I believe Rodney
8:20
Speaker 2: Holman was in there. mL Harris was in there. I mean,
8:24
Speaker 2: I was just overwhelmed. I couldn't believe all that you
8:28
Speaker 2: had to learn, and they were talking a foreign language.
8:31
Speaker 2: I really had no idea what I was getting myself into.
8:34
Speaker 2: And quite frankly, I think if I went back and
8:38
Speaker 2: asked those players whether or not they thought I was
8:40
Speaker 2: going to turn out to be anything, I guarantee you
8:43
Speaker 2: every single one of them would say, there's no way
8:46
Speaker 2: this guy's ever going to make it. And I'll never
8:49
Speaker 2: forget playing in those four games, I really had no
8:52
Speaker 2: idea what I was doing. This is why Chris collins
8:55
Speaker 2: Worth I think his career was shortened because my rookie
8:58
Speaker 2: year I almost got him killed. And I remember my
9:01
Speaker 2: first touchdown pass was to all people, a tackle that
9:05
Speaker 2: was playing right tight end on the goal line in Cleveland,
9:08
Speaker 2: to Anthony Multios. I mean, it was just it was crazy.
9:12
Speaker 2: So but I was blessed when I really think back
9:16
Speaker 2: to it, to have a coach like Sam, an offensive
9:20
Speaker 2: coordinator like Bruce Coslet, an offensive line coach like Jimmy McNally,
9:24
Speaker 2: a great running back coach and Jimmy Anderson, and a
9:26
Speaker 2: tight end coach and Tiger Johnson along with all of
9:29
Speaker 2: those great players. I finally figured it out in year
9:33
Speaker 2: two and from that point on it was just like,
9:37
Speaker 2: let's go. The more we can do, the better we're
9:39
Speaker 2: going to be.
9:40
Speaker 1: So all of that is really interesting to me because
9:42
Speaker 1: together you and Sam helped change NFL history really by
9:46
Speaker 1: pioneering the no huddle offense. And this is before helmet radios.
9:49
Speaker 1: So Sam isn't telling you what you can do. I mean,
9:52
Speaker 1: you're running the whole show. You made it look easy,
9:55
Speaker 1: but how hard was it Yeah.
9:58
Speaker 2: In the beginning, it was pretty tough. Know, my rookie year,
10:01
Speaker 2: I really struggled. I mean I would go home at
10:02
Speaker 2: the playbook and my wife Cheryl will be sitting there
10:05
Speaker 2: and I'd be trying to memorize it like it was
10:07
Speaker 2: like you know, lines in a movie or something, and
10:11
Speaker 2: it was not easy. But the more once it clicked
10:14
Speaker 2: for me and I started to understand how they were
10:16
Speaker 2: describing defenses, how we were calling plays, and our personnel
10:21
Speaker 2: groupings and why certain past protections didn't work with certain
10:25
Speaker 2: personnel on the field, it really started to come easy
10:29
Speaker 2: to me. And I think Sam and Bruce saw me
10:33
Speaker 2: as a guy that needed more, that I needed to
10:36
Speaker 2: be challenged, that I needed to be challenged mentally, that
10:38
Speaker 2: I needed to be challenged physically, and Bruce was great
10:42
Speaker 2: at that. Bruce would really, I mean, you'd get on
10:45
Speaker 2: my ass like you wouldn't believe in practice, and I
10:47
Speaker 2: could take it. And I love being coached hard like that.
10:50
Speaker 2: My high school coach coached me hard, my college coaches
10:53
Speaker 2: coached me hard, and Bruce Cooset was really the hammer.
10:57
Speaker 2: Sam was, you know, he was the brains behind a
10:59
Speaker 2: lot of this, but Bruce was the one that you know,
11:03
Speaker 2: after every practice I would watch film with and he'd
11:05
Speaker 2: be like, you gotta hold your arm up, you gotta
11:07
Speaker 2: do this. Look at your footwork is terrible. And Sam
11:10
Speaker 2: would put me through all the drills. So I don't know,
11:12
Speaker 2: I just I just felt like the more I got,
11:16
Speaker 2: the easier became. And you know, we just had so
11:20
Speaker 2: many different aspects to it, and I know that a
11:23
Speaker 2: lot of guys had trouble with it, but at the
11:25
Speaker 2: end of the day, I would always make sure that
11:27
Speaker 2: everybody knew what was going on on the field because
11:30
Speaker 2: my life depended on it.
11:33
Speaker 1: So you're the MVP in eighty eight, you lead the
11:35
Speaker 1: Bengals to the Super Bowl. That team still holds the
11:38
Speaker 1: franchise record for most points scored per game in a season.
11:42
Speaker 1: When you remember eighty eight, what's the most vivid part
11:46
Speaker 1: of that season that stands out?
11:48
Speaker 2: So I guess you're just going to pass over eighty
11:50
Speaker 2: seven half.
11:51
Speaker 1: Well, if you want to talk about laying down in
11:53
Speaker 1: front of a bus, that's fine with me.
11:55
Speaker 2: Hey, you know, this is the thing, This is maybe
11:57
Speaker 2: why I dropped in the draft, right. You got to
11:59
Speaker 2: think maybe these are the things that they projected could
12:02
Speaker 2: have happened if they would have drafted me. But I mean,
12:06
Speaker 2: eighty seven is a part of eighty eight. It's a
12:08
Speaker 2: part of me as a player. And eighty seven, you know,
12:11
Speaker 2: I stood up for our players rights. I believed I
12:15
Speaker 2: was making the most money in the NFL at the time,
12:17
Speaker 2: so I was losing the most money as we sat out.
12:20
Speaker 2: I think it was seventy five thousand dollars a week.
12:22
Speaker 2: And you know, while I'm not proud of some of
12:24
Speaker 2: the things that went on during that time, I am
12:27
Speaker 2: proud that that was the impetus to where we are
12:30
Speaker 2: today in the NFL some forty years later, with the
12:33
Speaker 2: NFL players, you know, making it, at least at my position,
12:36
Speaker 2: forty million dollars a year. So who would have ever
12:38
Speaker 2: thought that would have been the case. So maybe something
12:40
Speaker 2: good did come out of eighty seven. And I remember
12:43
Speaker 2: I was booed, and I can't imagine what it would
12:45
Speaker 2: have been. Had social media been around. I probably would
12:49
Speaker 2: have been run out of town. I was this close
12:51
Speaker 2: to being run out of town. I'm sure instead of
12:53
Speaker 2: running me out of town, they ran Dave Remington out
12:55
Speaker 2: of town because he was the assistant players representative along
13:00
Speaker 2: with me. So eighty eight, I did have a chip
13:04
Speaker 2: on my shoulder because I lost my best friend. He
13:07
Speaker 2: ended up ended up in Philadelphia. And we had a
13:12
Speaker 2: good team, you know. Eighty six we were really a
13:14
Speaker 2: good team. We were very close. We were ten and
13:16
Speaker 2: six and didn't make the playoffs. And eighty seven we
13:20
Speaker 2: got off to a really unique start by losing our
13:22
Speaker 2: second game to the forty nine ers. We should have
13:25
Speaker 2: never lost. And then we lost so many games in
13:27
Speaker 2: the fourth quarter when we came back from the strike
13:29
Speaker 2: and it was just a killer. It killed all of us.
13:32
Speaker 2: So eighty eight was great. We got off to that
13:35
Speaker 2: seven and zero start, and I think I threw like
13:36
Speaker 2: four or five interceptions in New England, and interestingly enough,
13:40
Speaker 2: you know the Bengals. We created a lot of rules
13:42
Speaker 2: in the NFL. A lot of people don't realize this,
13:45
Speaker 2: and one of the rules that we created was the
13:48
Speaker 2: double catch rule, meaning where the receiver and the defensive
13:52
Speaker 2: back both had their hands on the ball, tie goes
13:55
Speaker 2: to the offense these days. Back in those days, ties
13:58
Speaker 2: would go to whoever the official thought control the ball.
14:02
Speaker 2: I'll never forget throwing what I thought was a touchdown
14:04
Speaker 2: pass to Chris collins Worth and he coming down with it,
14:07
Speaker 2: and the dB was draped all over and I forget
14:09
Speaker 2: who it was, and they gave the ball to the
14:12
Speaker 2: New England Patriots in the end zone. This is a
14:15
Speaker 2: game we should have been eight and oh and we
14:17
Speaker 2: were so ticked off. And I think it was either
14:19
Speaker 2: the next year or the year after that they amended
14:21
Speaker 2: the rule saying that if two guys do come down
14:24
Speaker 2: with it, the offense is going to get the ball.
14:25
Speaker 2: So a lot of great things happened in eighty eight
14:29
Speaker 2: of a lot of fun stuff and a lot of
14:31
Speaker 2: crazy stuff. At the end of the year with whether
14:34
Speaker 2: or not we're going to be able to run the
14:36
Speaker 2: no huddle in the AFC Championship game, I think Marvel
14:39
Speaker 2: Levy did a really good job trying to get into
14:42
Speaker 2: our heads and distract us from, you know, what was
14:45
Speaker 2: the most important thing, and that was winning that game.
14:48
Speaker 1: So the simultaneous catch rule should be the Assias and
14:52
Speaker 1: collins Worth rule.
14:53
Speaker 2: I think it is. I mean, you know, there were
14:55
Speaker 2: a lot of things that we did that pushed the
14:58
Speaker 2: envelope on the field, and I think that was one
15:00
Speaker 2: of them.
15:01
Speaker 1: So it's been thirty four and a half years since
15:04
Speaker 1: Montana to Taylor. What about that game gets under your
15:08
Speaker 1: skin to this day.
15:11
Speaker 2: Third down, I think we had a lot of third
15:14
Speaker 2: and shorts, and unfortunately, you know, we lost one of
15:19
Speaker 2: our best players the night before and Stanley Wilson, and
15:21
Speaker 2: everybody who is a Bengal fan obviously knows the story
15:25
Speaker 2: about Stanley. What a lot of people don't realize was
15:28
Speaker 2: just how valuable Stanley was to our team and all
15:32
Speaker 2: the little things that he would do on third down
15:34
Speaker 2: and special teams, and he was a virtual lock to
15:38
Speaker 2: get a third and one or fourth and one, and
15:41
Speaker 2: we would go for it when Stanley was on the field.
15:44
Speaker 2: You know, Sam made this fateful decision to basically suspense
15:48
Speaker 2: Stanley from the super Bowl the night before the game
15:52
Speaker 2: because of drug use, which he had already been suspended
15:55
Speaker 2: I think three times for. And we were angry meeting
16:00
Speaker 2: that night that Stanley did this, you know, I remember
16:04
Speaker 2: Chris Collins were getting up into a meeting, said we
16:06
Speaker 2: got to win the game for Stanley. And I don't
16:08
Speaker 2: think any of us thought that. I think all of
16:10
Speaker 2: us thought like, we cannot believe that this is going
16:13
Speaker 2: on right now, and we need to win this for us.
16:16
Speaker 2: I mean, we've all, you know, tried to help Stanley
16:19
Speaker 2: in so many different ways and support him and love
16:22
Speaker 2: him and give him all the support that he needed.
16:25
Speaker 2: And here we are, the biggest day of all of
16:27
Speaker 2: our lives, and unfortunately he could not resist. And we
16:31
Speaker 2: understand that drug addiction is very strong, and it showed
16:34
Speaker 2: itself in that regard. But you know, the next day,
16:37
Speaker 2: we woke up and we played well. Our defense played outstanding,
16:41
Speaker 2: especially after losing Tim Krumry in the first quarter to
16:43
Speaker 2: a broken leg. And I'll never forget David Grant and
16:46
Speaker 2: Skip McClendon and Jim Scale and Jason Buck those guys
16:49
Speaker 2: played great and they held down one of the greatest
16:52
Speaker 2: offenses the NFL had ever seen until, of course, the
16:55
Speaker 2: last drive and we just could not score a touchdown
16:59
Speaker 2: and we could not convert on third down. And thankfully
17:03
Speaker 2: we had what I consider one of the great big
17:05
Speaker 2: game kickers of all time in Jim Breach, and he
17:08
Speaker 2: would miss. I think he probably would have been the
17:10
Speaker 2: MVP had we won the game because he was so good.
17:14
Speaker 1: I know your shoulder wasn't one hundred percent down the
17:16
Speaker 1: stretch that year. You downplayed it super Bowl Week and
17:20
Speaker 1: at the time and immediately afterward. How bad was it?
17:23
Speaker 2: I don't remember. I mean, I just it doesn't really matter.
17:26
Speaker 2: You're on the field. You're on the field, you know.
17:28
Speaker 2: And I say the same thing today about today's acts.
17:30
Speaker 2: If you're good enough to be out there and playing,
17:32
Speaker 2: then you then that means the guy behind you isn't
17:35
Speaker 2: good enough to beat you. So I was on the
17:38
Speaker 2: field and I never make any bones or excuses about
17:41
Speaker 2: any of it. We had our chances to win, and
17:44
Speaker 2: I'll never forget walking off, you know, with about three
17:48
Speaker 2: fourteen or so to go in the game, and Sam
17:51
Speaker 2: actually said, I think we might have left too much
17:53
Speaker 2: time on the clock. And I think back some of
17:56
Speaker 2: the decisions that we made. We meaning we all had input,
18:00
Speaker 2: and Sam was great that way. He would always ask us,
18:03
Speaker 2: the players, what do you think? What do you want
18:05
Speaker 2: to do? You know, most coaches nowadays are so much
18:09
Speaker 2: more aggressive on third and fourth down, especially if you're
18:12
Speaker 2: playing against great quarterbacks, which we obviously were. And you know,
18:16
Speaker 2: we played it close to the best, and we played
18:19
Speaker 2: it by the book, and that book ended up kicking
18:22
Speaker 2: us right in the ascid at the end, at the
18:24
Speaker 2: end of the game, because what we should have done
18:26
Speaker 2: has been more aggressive, probably on third and fourth down,
18:29
Speaker 2: and gone for it and tried to keep the ball
18:30
Speaker 2: away from the great Joe Montana and score touchdowns ourselves,
18:34
Speaker 2: which we are unable to do.
18:37
Speaker 1: Earlier in the conversation, you mentioned the final five games
18:40
Speaker 1: of your NFL career. I had just moved to Cincinnati.
18:42
Speaker 1: That was the first year I covered the team for
18:44
Speaker 1: Fox nineteen. To this day, I say it might have
18:47
Speaker 1: been the coolest thing that I've ever covered because your
18:50
Speaker 1: kids were there. I don't know how much they remember it.
18:53
Speaker 1: They were really young at the time, but obviously we're
18:56
Speaker 1: all familiar with Gunner's story at that point, and you
18:59
Speaker 1: were spectacular in those games. Statistically, it was the best
19:02
Speaker 1: you ever played. What was it like as a professional
19:06
Speaker 1: athlete to go out that way?
19:08
Speaker 2: It was remarkable. I often think of Peyton Manning winning
19:12
Speaker 2: Super Bowl fifty and walking off into the sunset knowing
19:16
Speaker 2: that was his final game, and how lucky and how
19:18
Speaker 2: fortunate he was to be able to have that. But
19:20
Speaker 2: I had six weeks where I was a part of
19:24
Speaker 2: something that I don't think anybody expected. I certainly knew
19:28
Speaker 2: we had a good team. I knew we had a
19:30
Speaker 2: really good young, aggressive, young team, especially on offense that
19:34
Speaker 2: just needed a little direction. And unfortunately Jeff Blake was
19:37
Speaker 2: struggling and he got hurt and things weren't working out,
19:41
Speaker 2: and there was a lot of like I think distain
19:43
Speaker 2: in the locker room, and I hate that kind of stuff.
19:46
Speaker 2: And I'd been through losing before, so I knew that.
19:49
Speaker 2: When Bruce came to me and said you're going to
19:51
Speaker 2: be the guy going against Jacksonville, I was like, okay,
19:54
Speaker 2: and I just told our guys that look, man, you
19:57
Speaker 2: better be awake because if somebody is not open on
20:01
Speaker 2: a particular play, that doesn't mean I'm throwing it to him.
20:04
Speaker 2: You know, if I call seventy eight X hook and
20:06
Speaker 2: Carl Pickens is the number one receiver, if he's not open, Darnay,
20:10
Speaker 2: you better get your ass where it's supposed to be
20:12
Speaker 2: because I'm throwing the ball to you, and I'll never forget.
20:15
Speaker 2: We called that play and I came back to Darnay
20:17
Speaker 2: and I threw it the Darnay and he caught it,
20:19
Speaker 2: and he came back to the hoddle and he was
20:20
Speaker 2: smiling like, oh my god, this really does work. And
20:24
Speaker 2: that was some of the most fulfilling football that I
20:26
Speaker 2: had ever played, because I had a young offensive line.
20:28
Speaker 2: Willie Anderson was a part of that offensive line. My
20:31
Speaker 2: center Derek Brills used to get mad at me because
20:34
Speaker 2: I was going so fast, like before he could even
20:37
Speaker 2: get his hands on the ball. I was calling for it,
20:39
Speaker 2: and I was doing that in practice too, because I
20:42
Speaker 2: wanted those guys to think fast. I wanted everybody to
20:45
Speaker 2: think fast because I wasn't the athlete that I once was,
20:49
Speaker 2: but up top I could think better to end faster
20:51
Speaker 2: than anybody on the field. And I knew that if
20:54
Speaker 2: I could just get like Corey Dillon and Kajanna and
20:59
Speaker 2: Eric b Enemy and James Hundon and David Dunn and
21:03
Speaker 2: Darnay and Carl Pickens and Marco Battaglia and all those
21:08
Speaker 2: guys on the same page. Man, we had a lot
21:11
Speaker 2: of talent, and all I did was provide a roadmap
21:15
Speaker 2: and they all bought into it. And you saw just
21:19
Speaker 2: how explosive that offense could be. So like I said,
21:23
Speaker 2: it was fulfilling for me. It was heartwarming because my
21:26
Speaker 2: kids really started to understand what I was doing, and
21:29
Speaker 2: they were at most of the games. Gunner was six
21:31
Speaker 2: and Sydney was five, and I'll never forget walking off
21:35
Speaker 2: of that field for the last time against the Ravens,
21:38
Speaker 2: wondering if I was ever going to come back again
21:40
Speaker 2: as a player, because I knew I had in my
21:43
Speaker 2: back pocket one of the best broadcasting offers a player
21:46
Speaker 2: had ever been offered. At that point.
21:49
Speaker 1: You would have been thirty seven the next year. Tom
21:52
Speaker 1: Brady played for nine more years after he turned thirty seven.
21:56
Speaker 1: But you elected to take that Monday night football broadcasting job.
21:59
Speaker 1: Any regrets, you know?
22:02
Speaker 2: I remember sitting in Mike Brown's office talking about contract extension,
22:06
Speaker 2: and the Browns wanted me back. Don't think that they
22:08
Speaker 2: you know, they did, and they made what I consider
22:12
Speaker 2: a legitimate, significant contract offer. But I also remember Mike saying,
22:18
Speaker 2: you know, this is a pretty damn good job that
22:20
Speaker 2: maybe you'll have for the next twenty five years, and
22:22
Speaker 2: it is an unprecedented offer. And I'm like, well, maybe
22:26
Speaker 2: he wants me to go.
22:27
Speaker 3: I don't know.
22:28
Speaker 2: I'm not really sure. But in my heart, and I've
22:31
Speaker 2: said this before, I don't know if I could have
22:34
Speaker 2: given them thirty two games, meaning two more years of football,
22:38
Speaker 2: like I had just given them the last five weeks
22:41
Speaker 2: of that season. I don't know in my heart that
22:43
Speaker 2: I could have. And remember that it was still different
22:46
Speaker 2: back then. We were still getting hit. We were still
22:48
Speaker 2: getting you know, hit around the ankles and the knees,
22:51
Speaker 2: and you know, we were playing on just awful fields.
22:54
Speaker 2: You know, Riverfront Stadium was one of the worst fields
22:57
Speaker 2: in the NFL. It was hard, and you know, you
22:59
Speaker 2: all always came out of those games banged up and bruised.
23:03
Speaker 2: And that's why I said, I think Chris Collinsworth probably
23:05
Speaker 2: could have played an extra three years if you would
23:08
Speaker 2: have played on grass this entire career as opposed to
23:10
Speaker 2: the rock that we were playing on in the Riverfront
23:14
Speaker 2: and three River Stadium.
23:15
Speaker 1: So it was.
23:17
Speaker 2: A tough decision. I don't regret it, but I also
23:20
Speaker 2: understood why I did what I did, and I never
23:24
Speaker 2: really looked back.
23:26
Speaker 1: Final thing, and I'll let you go. For most professional
23:30
Speaker 1: football players, a fourteen year career would have been the peak,
23:34
Speaker 1: followed by a highly successful broadcasting career, but not in
23:37
Speaker 1: your case. The Boomerasiasin Foundation has raised more than one
23:40
Speaker 1: hundred and fifty million dollars towards cystic fibrosis and the
23:46
Speaker 1: research and trying to find a cure. Your son, Gunners
23:49
Speaker 1: in his thirties. He's a dad, he's thriving. Do you
23:53
Speaker 1: ever think about just how remarkable a life you have lived?
23:59
Speaker 2: You put it that way, and it kind of makes
24:01
Speaker 2: me feel a little melancholy. I will say that. You know,
24:03
Speaker 2: one of the reasons we are fighting this fight was
24:05
Speaker 2: because of people like Frank the Ford and all the
24:08
Speaker 2: parents that lost children to CF well before I ever
24:11
Speaker 2: even got involved in this, And I was exposed assistic
24:15
Speaker 2: bibrosis well before Gunner was born because of the Cincinnti
24:19
Speaker 2: Children's Hospitalistic Bibrosis Wing and hearing Frank the Ford's story
24:23
Speaker 2: about losing his daughter Alex, so I just picked up
24:26
Speaker 2: where he left off. And I remember calling him when
24:29
Speaker 2: Gunnar was diagnosed in nineteen ninety three, and at that
24:32
Speaker 2: time I had just become the quarterback of the New
24:34
Speaker 2: York Jets. The Bengals had traded me there to them,
24:37
Speaker 2: And there was a thirty second kind of pregnant pause,
24:40
Speaker 2: and then we were both kind of crying, and he
24:43
Speaker 2: was saying, you know, my prayers have been answered, not
24:46
Speaker 2: meaning that he wanted somebody to have seet, but somebody
24:50
Speaker 2: with some stature, somebody with a platform that could go
24:53
Speaker 2: out there and fight for people to listen to if
24:56
Speaker 2: we were willing to share the diagnosis. And we really
25:00
Speaker 2: had no choice, and we took that and we ran
25:03
Speaker 2: with it. And I often say that, you know, Gunner
25:06
Speaker 2: is my hero personally, and his son Casper is our
25:10
Speaker 2: miracle collectively, and that miracle has been passed on or
25:15
Speaker 2: will be passed on to generations to come because of
25:19
Speaker 2: the fight that Gunner fought, the fight that Frank the
25:22
Speaker 2: Ford has fought, and the fight that all other CF
25:26
Speaker 2: families and patients have fought. So I'm just kind of
25:29
Speaker 2: like the guys that's part of the quarterback, if you will,
25:33
Speaker 2: that has the football card that everybody seems to want.
25:36
Speaker 2: But at the end of the day, it's truly a
25:38
Speaker 2: team effort and that's what it has been for the
25:41
Speaker 2: last thirty years.
25:43
Speaker 1: Congratulations on this honor. Thank you for all you've done.
25:47
Speaker 1: We look forward to seeing you at the ceremony this season.
25:50
Speaker 2: Thanks Dan, I appreciate it. Good to see again.
25:53
Speaker 1: The Thing of Honor ceremony this year will be in
25:55
Speaker 1: week three, September twenty fifth, when the Bengals host the
25:59
Speaker 1: Rams on Monday Football. The Bengals booth podcast is brought
26:02
Speaker 1: to you by Kettering Health, the official healthcare provider of
26:05
Speaker 1: the Bengals. With more than one hundred and twenty care
26:07
Speaker 1: facilities and fifteen hundred care providers. Kettering Health is committed
26:11
Speaker 1: to guiding you to your best health. Visit ketteringhealth dot
26:15
Speaker 1: org to learn more, and by pay Corps. More than
26:18
Speaker 1: twenty nine thousand customers trust Paycorp to help them recruit, pay, engage,
26:23
Speaker 1: and retain employees. Learn more at paycorp dot com. The
26:28
Speaker 1: second player selected by the fans to join the Ring
26:31
Speaker 1: of Honor this year is Chad Johnson, who joins another
26:34
Speaker 1: number eighty five, Isaac Curtis, as the second wide receiver
26:38
Speaker 1: to be honored. Chad holds the franchise records for career catches, yards,
26:43
Speaker 1: and touchdown grabs. But it's not just what he did,
26:47
Speaker 1: it's how he did it. Chad's fun loving persona and
26:51
Speaker 1: elaborate touchdown celebrations made him one of the NFL's biggest
26:56
Speaker 1: stars and one of the most popular players in team history.
27:00
Speaker 1: Here's my conversation with o Cho Senko Chad Johnson. Chad, congratulations,
27:07
Speaker 1: you have been selected by the fans for the Bengals
27:09
Speaker 1: Ring of honor. You are one of the first eight members.
27:12
Speaker 1: Can you articulate what this honor means to you?
27:16
Speaker 4: It means Oh my goodness, listen, it means everything. It
27:19
Speaker 4: means everything. The fact that everything has come full circle.
27:24
Speaker 4: Everything is come full circle, from getting that phone call
27:27
Speaker 4: from Dick Lebow in two thousand and one to talking
27:29
Speaker 4: to Mike Brown to being a part of the organization
27:33
Speaker 4: and coming in there. And my whole thing was, how
27:36
Speaker 4: can I make everyone's job around meetings? How can I
27:39
Speaker 4: make football and Cincinnati fun again. I'd like to believe
27:44
Speaker 4: at some point I made it okay to wear Bengals gear.
27:47
Speaker 3: Outside of Cincinnati.
27:48
Speaker 2: You know.
27:50
Speaker 3: I just wanted to be a breath of fresh air
27:52
Speaker 3: do all I could.
27:54
Speaker 4: Obviously, the Lombardi Trophy is always always an end goal,
27:57
Speaker 4: but I wasn't able to tieve that it's a a
28:00
Speaker 4: team effort, you know, on that matter. But from an
28:03
Speaker 4: individual standpoint, I just wanted to make it fun for
28:05
Speaker 4: Cincinnati and man and and put that that team and
28:08
Speaker 4: that city back on the map in a respectable manner.
28:12
Speaker 3: I think I did that.
28:13
Speaker 4: I did that just to some degree and to you know,
28:18
Speaker 4: be shown appreciation for all the years of hard work
28:22
Speaker 4: in tears.
28:25
Speaker 3: It's awesome, It's it's a great honor. I'm very appreciative.
28:28
Speaker 3: You know.
28:28
Speaker 4: I'm getting my flowers now while I can smell them,
28:31
Speaker 4: which which is a good thing. And to me, I
28:35
Speaker 4: think this honor means much more than that gold jacket, honestly,
28:39
Speaker 4: because this is home. This, this is home for me.
28:43
Speaker 4: This is this is this is home. People have played
28:46
Speaker 4: for throughout the years, fans that are voting, that understand
28:51
Speaker 4: what I went through, the good times, the bad times,
28:53
Speaker 4: ups and downs, and they accepted me as my true
28:57
Speaker 4: authentic self, you know, myself. So I think this to me,
29:02
Speaker 4: it means much more. No, I didn't have to beg
29:04
Speaker 4: I didn't have to knock on the door. I didn't
29:06
Speaker 4: have to cry about being in This is This was
29:09
Speaker 4: this was a welcome home.
29:11
Speaker 3: You know, you will always be a part of us.
29:12
Speaker 3: And this means a lot to me, a lot.
29:16
Speaker 1: I asked Mike Brown about you. Here's what he said.
29:20
Speaker 1: Chad was a splendid player, but he was even greater
29:24
Speaker 1: as a performer. He was fun, He made the people smile.
29:29
Speaker 1: What does that quote mean to you and what's your
29:31
Speaker 1: relationship like with Mike and the Brown family.
29:34
Speaker 4: Listen my relationship with Mike and the Brown family. I
29:36
Speaker 4: will always be indebted to him. I will always be
29:39
Speaker 4: indebted to him. I have a special, a special place
29:44
Speaker 4: at my heart of Mike Brown, obviously, Dick lebo Uh,
29:48
Speaker 4: Barbara Calse who was still on the table for me
29:49
Speaker 4: when his draft time. And to think about the day
29:54
Speaker 4: you get drafted, and I everybody cries on drafting, and
29:59
Speaker 4: I don't think understand, well, why why does everybody always cry?
30:02
Speaker 4: It's really not the feeling of getting drafted. It's all
30:06
Speaker 4: the work and preparation and all the ups and the
30:09
Speaker 4: downs and the obstacles that you went through that play
30:11
Speaker 4: through your mind and it's sort of an exhale moment,
30:14
Speaker 4: Oh my god, I finally made it, not on to
30:17
Speaker 4: the next hurt. And that's where the tears come from,
30:20
Speaker 4: all the hard work and the fact that Mike Brown
30:22
Speaker 4: gave me the opportunity to fulfill a childhood dream of mine,
30:26
Speaker 4: even through all I've been through all those years and
30:29
Speaker 4: never never almost not even making it, never really getting
30:32
Speaker 4: the opportunity, you know, bounce from college to college, and
30:36
Speaker 4: just him giving me a chance. I will always be
30:39
Speaker 4: thankful and grateful to mister Brown and that and that family.
30:43
Speaker 1: You've brought up the draft a couple of times. So
30:44
Speaker 1: let's go back to two thousand and one. Michael Vick
30:47
Speaker 1: was the first pick, Drew Brees was the first pick
30:49
Speaker 1: of the second round. You were the fifth pick of
30:51
Speaker 1: the second round, skinny wide receiver out of Oregon State.
30:55
Speaker 1: You'd only been there for one season, and the Bengals
30:57
Speaker 1: obviously had been struggling. How did you feel about it
31:01
Speaker 1: at the time. Did you have any reservations about coming
31:04
Speaker 1: to Cincinnati considering how the team had performed.
31:06
Speaker 4: Listen, I don't think people understood back then. It wasn't
31:09
Speaker 4: about where you went. It's not where you go. And
31:11
Speaker 4: I ap preached this all the time even today. It's
31:14
Speaker 4: not where you go, it's what you do when you
31:15
Speaker 4: get there. I wouldn't care how bad they were at
31:18
Speaker 4: that time, and people in Miami at my little draft
31:21
Speaker 4: party were saying, oh, man, listen, look where you're going.
31:24
Speaker 4: You're going to Cincinnati. They're not really good. You know
31:28
Speaker 4: the joke of that, I said, listen, give me a
31:31
Speaker 4: year or two. Just give me a year or two.
31:34
Speaker 4: Let me get in my first year, let me get
31:36
Speaker 4: an understanding of the game.
31:38
Speaker 3: Let me get my.
31:38
Speaker 4: Feet wet, give me a year or two and watch
31:42
Speaker 4: how I turn things around. I will try to get
31:45
Speaker 4: as many wins as possible, but I will turn things
31:47
Speaker 4: around and get us back in a respective light nationally
31:52
Speaker 4: and publicly. I guarantee you I will be able to
31:55
Speaker 4: do this all by myself. And I did just that
32:00
Speaker 4: that because it doesn't matter. I want to tell people
32:03
Speaker 4: all the time they were about even even commits come
32:06
Speaker 4: out of college, out of high school, my four star,
32:08
Speaker 4: three star, five star, or I go to Alabama, I
32:11
Speaker 4: go to Florida. It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. It's
32:14
Speaker 4: what you do once you get there. If you can
32:16
Speaker 4: play the game, the product will show on the field.
32:19
Speaker 4: And dude, I was excited. I did listen. I exhausted
32:24
Speaker 4: all possibility to do all I can to make the
32:26
Speaker 4: game fun again. And I chose not to conform to wait.
32:30
Speaker 4: Not the higher up in Cincinnati, but the higher ups
32:33
Speaker 4: around the NFL. They feel, once you get to a
32:35
Speaker 4: certain level NFL, for that matter, you're supposed to change
32:39
Speaker 4: the way you play, you supposed to carry yourself a
32:41
Speaker 4: certain way. And I refuse the change who I was,
32:46
Speaker 4: and Cincinnati accepted me for being me. The Brown family,
32:49
Speaker 4: my coaches and players accepted me for my physical self,
32:52
Speaker 4: and that's what you got, cure entertainment weekend and week out.
32:58
Speaker 1: When players and coaches talk about what made you great,
33:01
Speaker 1: they always start with your lightning quick feet and your
33:04
Speaker 1: ability to stop and start. When I went back to
33:08
Speaker 1: your draft profile, I saw that four five seven time
33:12
Speaker 1: in the forty Yeah, what happened? I mean, that's not
33:15
Speaker 1: extraordinarily fast.
33:17
Speaker 3: No, it's not.
33:18
Speaker 4: It's I think for being in that situation in Indianapolis.
33:24
Speaker 4: The nerves, my nerves got me. My nerves got the
33:26
Speaker 4: best of me, and I wasn't four or five. When
33:30
Speaker 4: you turn on the film, you obviously see I play
33:32
Speaker 4: as if I'm four to three. I play as if
33:34
Speaker 4: I'm four or five. I mean, not play if if
33:36
Speaker 4: I'm four to four. But I play fast, which is
33:39
Speaker 4: not Which is one of the reasons why I'm not
33:41
Speaker 4: sure why we dictate so much about running in a
33:44
Speaker 4: straight line when the game of football is not played
33:46
Speaker 4: in a straight line. I'm four to left and right
33:49
Speaker 4: stopping a dying red accelerate. You know I'm four too
33:51
Speaker 4: all around as a football player, if that makes sense.
33:55
Speaker 4: You know, as opposed to running in a straight line. Listen,
33:57
Speaker 4: I don't run track. I'm not a track runner, you know,
34:00
Speaker 4: So if I was the track runner, I'd probably come
34:02
Speaker 4: and last. But when it comes to playing the game
34:03
Speaker 4: of football and get an open, creating separation, that's my
34:07
Speaker 4: cup of team.
34:09
Speaker 1: So the franchise really turned the corner in your third year,
34:12
Speaker 1: the Bengals hired Marvin Lewis. They drafted Carson Palmer. Of course,
34:15
Speaker 1: Carson didn't play that first year. But let's talk a
34:18
Speaker 1: little bit about your Yeah, let's talk a little bit
34:20
Speaker 1: about your relationship with Marvin. As an observer. At the time,
34:23
Speaker 1: it seemed like he mostly let you do your thing
34:27
Speaker 1: and understood that was important for you to be great
34:30
Speaker 1: on the field, right.
34:32
Speaker 4: I think Marvin and I we were always on the
34:35
Speaker 4: same page. I didn't do anything malicious for one. Nothing
34:38
Speaker 4: I ever did with malicious. It was always in a fun,
34:40
Speaker 4: loving nature, adding pressure to myself and taking the pressure
34:45
Speaker 4: off everyone else. So all they had to do is
34:47
Speaker 4: go out there and play. I will provide the entertainment
34:50
Speaker 4: I need to make sure I play at the highest level.
34:53
Speaker 4: And I enjoyed welcoming that pressure, and it's it's what
34:58
Speaker 4: I did. I think, as I'm sure you will be
35:01
Speaker 4: able to remember, on the back end of my career,
35:04
Speaker 4: some of the fun was kind of misfreud and that
35:09
Speaker 4: was why, Okay, we're losing because he's doing this. But
35:12
Speaker 4: I mean that's really not the case, you know. But
35:14
Speaker 4: there had to be a story had to be written.
35:17
Speaker 4: And that's when Marvin kind of kind of tightened the
35:20
Speaker 4: bolt and said this is just the stop.
35:23
Speaker 3: Just go play ball and understood that.
35:28
Speaker 1: So in two thousand and five you had the list.
35:31
Speaker 1: You sent pepto bismal to the Browns. Yeah, the weekly
35:35
Speaker 1: celebration was a national obsession, but opponents never seemed to mind.
35:43
Speaker 1: They could find that balance of not offending the people
35:47
Speaker 1: that you were beating.
35:48
Speaker 4: The funny The funny thing about it is is I
35:51
Speaker 4: am so likable. I am so likable, whether it be
35:55
Speaker 4: the referees, whether it be the opponents we were playing
35:57
Speaker 4: the following week. I was a very like the bulletponent
36:00
Speaker 4: regardless of where I was playing. The fans even within
36:03
Speaker 4: the division the Browns and seeing that they're supposed to
36:06
Speaker 4: hate me, but there was a love for me regardless
36:10
Speaker 4: because of the fun and entertainment aspect. That I brought
36:12
Speaker 4: to the game, whether I was playing home or way,
36:15
Speaker 4: and the balance would just how can you hate me
36:18
Speaker 4: when I'm doing nothing but making the game fun and
36:21
Speaker 4: challenging those I'm playing week to week.
36:24
Speaker 3: That's it. It was merely a challenge.
36:25
Speaker 4: It was a friendly challenge, and they never had any
36:28
Speaker 4: issues to the point where people in pregame.
36:31
Speaker 3: As far as players, what you got for us this week?
36:34
Speaker 3: What do you mean? What do I have?
36:35
Speaker 4: You're supposed to stop me? You know, the referees every
36:39
Speaker 4: game for like three years straight. Referees would always catch
36:42
Speaker 4: me at the fifty. I can't wait to see what
36:44
Speaker 4: you have for us today, And like everybody became somewhat
36:49
Speaker 4: of an excitement to where I had eyes watching everywhere,
36:53
Speaker 4: just not in Cincinnati.
36:56
Speaker 1: So in two thousand and four, Carson takes overs the
36:58
Speaker 1: starting quarterback and you two take off as one of
37:01
Speaker 1: the great quarterback to wide receiver combos in NFL history.
37:05
Speaker 1: Do you put yourselves right up there with Montana to
37:08
Speaker 1: Rice Manning to Harrison whatever QB wide receiver combo you
37:13
Speaker 1: want to name.
37:14
Speaker 3: I mean, I would like to, I would like to.
37:16
Speaker 4: I'm not I'm not a I'm not a numbers guy,
37:18
Speaker 4: but I think we had a consistent run. Carson is
37:22
Speaker 4: one that I always say is responsible for my success,
37:24
Speaker 4: being the person at the helm for most of my
37:26
Speaker 4: most of my numbers in touchdowns. We did it consistently
37:31
Speaker 4: for a very long time, which is hard to which
37:33
Speaker 4: is hard to do. You know, I was healthy really
37:37
Speaker 4: really all of my career. I don't really didn't really
37:39
Speaker 4: get hurt. So I would like to put us up there.
37:44
Speaker 1: Tell me about the time you two guys drove to
37:46
Speaker 1: Indy Indy P and mar I do did you the stands?
37:52
Speaker 2: Uh?
37:52
Speaker 3: Huh, yeah, we said, we said in the stands? What
37:54
Speaker 3: year was this? Two thousand and four? We did that.
37:56
Speaker 3: I forgot what year was.
37:58
Speaker 1: It in the two thousand and four to two thousand
38:00
Speaker 1: and six window. I don't remember the exact year.
38:02
Speaker 4: Yeah, we we just we just wanted to watch them
38:05
Speaker 4: operate from the stands, not TV, to see how they
38:10
Speaker 4: communicated with each other on the field, the chemistry that
38:13
Speaker 4: they had. That is something that Carson and I really
38:15
Speaker 4: wanted to harp on and build on and being something
38:19
Speaker 4: like Marvin and Peyton to where there was a certain
38:22
Speaker 4: we got to the point where there was eye contact,
38:25
Speaker 4: eye contact.
38:26
Speaker 3: There was no signal needed, and based on what we
38:28
Speaker 3: saw defensively, we already.
38:30
Speaker 4: Knew what to do and we felt that was something
38:33
Speaker 4: that Marvin and Peyton had because we had seen it
38:36
Speaker 4: numerous times on TV and announced that we'll try to
38:39
Speaker 4: break it down based on the chemistry they had in
38:41
Speaker 4: the eye contact, not giving anything way to the defense,
38:44
Speaker 4: but like, you know what, we need to go watch
38:46
Speaker 4: them and see what we can take from that and
38:48
Speaker 4: implement it, you know, to our own our own union
38:51
Speaker 4: here in Cincinnati.
38:53
Speaker 1: There are a million memorable moments and games. There were
38:56
Speaker 1: the two hundred and sixty yard game against San Diego.
38:58
Speaker 1: There were several games of three touchdown catches. Do you
39:01
Speaker 1: have a favorite moment, a favorite game, a favorite catch,
39:04
Speaker 1: anything along those lines.
39:09
Speaker 4: Oh? Man, No, not really, not really, because I think
39:16
Speaker 4: my favorite moment would have would have had to be obviously,
39:20
Speaker 4: I wasn't able to win a win a Super Bowl.
39:24
Speaker 4: I mean, all those moments are great to me, man,
39:26
Speaker 4: but nothing, nothing beats that phone call drafting. You know,
39:30
Speaker 4: I wasn't even on the field for my best moment.
39:32
Speaker 4: I'm just gonna be honest that nothing can replicate or
39:36
Speaker 4: duplicate or emulate that feeling man like my heart.
39:40
Speaker 3: Don't do if I cry, just make sure you edit that.
39:43
Speaker 4: But when you get that up here, when you get
39:46
Speaker 4: that phone call, damn nothing not one catch, no touchdown,
39:52
Speaker 4: nothing beats that.
39:54
Speaker 3: Nothing beats that.
39:57
Speaker 1: I'm guessing the low moment is easier to remember, and
39:59
Speaker 1: that's probably when Carson hurt his knee in the playoff
40:02
Speaker 1: loss to the Steelers. Pittsburgh went on to win the
40:05
Speaker 1: Super Bowl that year. If Carson doesn't get hurt in
40:08
Speaker 1: your heart of hearts, do you believe you have a
40:10
Speaker 1: ring right now?
40:11
Speaker 3: Absolutely? Easily, easily.
40:14
Speaker 4: No disrespect to the teams that were planning that year,
40:16
Speaker 4: but we were doing offensively, but we were doing decently
40:19
Speaker 4: with the takeaways and giving us the ball, allowing us
40:21
Speaker 4: to outscore opponents, and then allowing the defense just to
40:25
Speaker 4: play with everything in front of you. Easily, easily. We
40:29
Speaker 4: had a crazy number of takeaways that year. If I'm
40:32
Speaker 4: not mistaken, defensively and offensively, it was we were jugging out.
40:37
Speaker 4: We were jugging out.
40:41
Speaker 1: I think I would lose my reporter card if I
40:43
Speaker 1: didn't ask you some question about celebrations during the course
40:46
Speaker 1: of an interview. Did you have like a list did
40:50
Speaker 1: you take requests back at the height of the celebration mania. No,
40:56
Speaker 1: it seemed to me that like everybody in town was
40:58
Speaker 1: trying to predict what was me next.
41:01
Speaker 3: Yeah, I just I just as as things went at
41:04
Speaker 3: what I think about.
41:05
Speaker 4: I would see something on a on a on a Saturday,
41:07
Speaker 4: I'd be like, you know what, I'm gonna do that,
41:09
Speaker 4: like the river dance, the Lord of something, whatever the
41:14
Speaker 4: stage player musical was. It was in Chicago at the time,
41:17
Speaker 4: and the commercial came on in the hotel and so
41:20
Speaker 4: you know what, if I score, I'm gonna try to
41:22
Speaker 4: do the river dance.
41:23
Speaker 3: And that's where they came from. Tiger Woods.
41:26
Speaker 4: Tiger Woods had won something either Friday or Saturday, and
41:30
Speaker 4: I remember him doing doing the fist.
41:31
Speaker 3: I like, you know what I'm gonna try. I'm gonna
41:34
Speaker 3: try that when I score.
41:35
Speaker 4: And the proposal when I when we played Indy, a
41:40
Speaker 4: friend of mine has got married, So you know what
41:43
Speaker 4: I'm gonna listen, I'm gonna redo your proposal on the field,
41:46
Speaker 4: and the cheerleaders knew exactly what to do. Everything like
41:49
Speaker 4: its just it was further moments stuff. It was never
41:51
Speaker 4: it was never thought out. Well, the dollar bribe. It's
41:55
Speaker 4: not a celebration, but trying to bribe the red for
41:57
Speaker 4: the dollar, like, just that's it in the moment.
42:00
Speaker 3: You know, I got in trouble for it, but it's
42:02
Speaker 3: so memorable and so fun and just I don't know.
42:06
Speaker 4: I just kept the tension at ease if there was
42:09
Speaker 4: any I just kept it lighthearted and fun.
42:12
Speaker 1: Do you like Jamar doing the gritty or do you
42:14
Speaker 1: need more variety?
42:15
Speaker 3: I mean the gritty is him.
42:17
Speaker 4: I think I think it's very fitting for him, is
42:19
Speaker 4: fitting for this style of this era that we're in
42:21
Speaker 4: right now.
42:24
Speaker 3: I don't think I.
42:25
Speaker 4: Was more creative in an entertaining fashion purposely adding pressure
42:30
Speaker 4: to myself. I don't think that's in the player's DNA
42:34
Speaker 4: in this day and age, because it forces you. I
42:37
Speaker 4: put all this pressure on myself now I have to
42:39
Speaker 4: go out and perform like I was the complete opposite.
42:43
Speaker 1: So one of the things I admire about you is
42:45
Speaker 1: your willingness to try anything. You box, Yeah, not on
42:50
Speaker 1: a bull one time, you're a bull rider. You famously
42:53
Speaker 1: raised a horse. I mean, you name it, You're willing
42:56
Speaker 1: to try it. You've played professional soccer. Is there something
42:59
Speaker 1: on your plucket list still? That you are eager to try.
43:03
Speaker 4: Yeah, I'm going I'm swimming with killer whales in the wild.
43:07
Speaker 4: You're laughing, I'm serious, I'm serious.
43:09
Speaker 1: That's serious. You're gonna swim with killer whales.
43:11
Speaker 4: From swim with killer whales in the wild. Listen to
43:13
Speaker 4: the people in Norway, the people that live in New Zealand.
43:17
Speaker 4: They have the luxury of actually doing so just on
43:22
Speaker 4: a whim. It's like it's normal. It's like it's normal
43:24
Speaker 4: there and that. And obviously if the NFL didn't pan out,
43:28
Speaker 4: you know, I always wanted to be a marine biologist
43:30
Speaker 4: and a veterinarian.
43:31
Speaker 3: I'm a huge dog lover and a huge killer whale lover.
43:35
Speaker 4: For those that don't know, my entire right leg from
43:38
Speaker 4: my waist all the way to my my ankle is
43:41
Speaker 4: orca theme. I'm tattooed with orcas. So I'm a huge
43:44
Speaker 4: fan of them. Know everything there is about killer whales,
43:48
Speaker 4: and my dream is to swim with them in the wild.
43:51
Speaker 4: It's gonna happen, and I'm going to create a YouTube channel,
43:54
Speaker 4: and that's going to be my first and could be
43:56
Speaker 4: very well be my last video. But if I do
43:59
Speaker 4: go out, I'm going to go out the way I want.
44:01
Speaker 1: To all right, Just if you're going to do this,
44:05
Speaker 1: go with somebody that knows how to do it safely.
44:07
Speaker 1: Please on behalf of all Bengals fans. They want to
44:09
Speaker 1: see you, you know, represent this franchise into old age.
44:15
Speaker 3: I got you, I got you, all right.
44:17
Speaker 1: On one hand, you describe yourself as frugal very you know,
44:23
Speaker 1: get imitation jewelry. You don't go crazy on things that
44:27
Speaker 1: other people splurge on. On the other hand, you're the
44:31
Speaker 1: most generous tipper of anybody I've ever met. You will
44:35
Speaker 1: leave a thousand dollars tips on bills of less than
44:38
Speaker 1: one hundred dollars.
44:39
Speaker 2: Why do you do that?
44:42
Speaker 3: I just.
44:45
Speaker 4: It's my version of always giving it back. Especially in
44:47
Speaker 4: the service industry, you know they need it. I have
44:51
Speaker 4: a great understanding of what they go through. Always had
44:54
Speaker 4: that understanding. So this is something that I've always been doing,
44:58
Speaker 4: even before social media came. When I was in Cincinnati.
45:01
Speaker 4: People gonna test to be tipping in that manner, and
45:05
Speaker 4: it's something I've been doing the past twenty some years.
45:08
Speaker 4: Anytime I go out to eat, I just want to
45:10
Speaker 4: make sure I have no idea how your day's going,
45:13
Speaker 4: But I noticed like dealing with multiple personallets, attitudes, having
45:17
Speaker 4: a bad day and really nobody give me your break.
45:20
Speaker 3: So any I always want to be that shining.
45:23
Speaker 4: Like for people in the service industry, if you know,
45:25
Speaker 4: I'm coming in from traveling and just always making sure
45:30
Speaker 4: their day is okay, no matter what, no matter who
45:33
Speaker 4: they had to wait on throughout that day.
45:35
Speaker 1: It gets back to what Mike Brown said, you make
45:37
Speaker 1: people smile.
45:38
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm trying. I'm trying to.
45:40
Speaker 4: If I could just it'd be even better if at
45:43
Speaker 4: some way, shape or form of fashion, I get lucky
45:47
Speaker 4: and end up with like Zuckerberg or Jeff Bezos or
45:51
Speaker 4: Elon Musk type money, those thousand dollar tips, I would
45:55
Speaker 4: add a zero.
45:57
Speaker 3: So then you know that's that's the way I think.
45:59
Speaker 3: You know, you know what I mean.
46:00
Speaker 4: Yeah, So, I mean, we'll see what happened from my mouth.
46:04
Speaker 4: At God's ears, all tips would be ten thousand from
46:06
Speaker 4: now on.
46:08
Speaker 1: Recently, your daughter Shielle committed to the University of Kentucky
46:12
Speaker 1: to run track, which is awesome. She has won multiple
46:16
Speaker 1: Junior Olympic championships. Is your daughter going to be an Olympian?
46:20
Speaker 4: I hope so, I hope so, And it's all on her,
46:24
Speaker 4: you know, it's all on her.
46:25
Speaker 3: It's about putting the work. She knows I mean to
46:27
Speaker 3: get to this point.
46:28
Speaker 4: You know what it took to get to this point.
46:31
Speaker 4: You gotta put in the work. Again, It's not where
46:34
Speaker 4: you go, it's what you do once you get there.
46:36
Speaker 4: They get my kids to get the same message that
46:38
Speaker 4: I tell everyone else. You know, you have to put
46:40
Speaker 4: the work in, and you put in the work, you
46:42
Speaker 4: put the time, and it's going to show up. There
46:46
Speaker 4: was also going to show up regardless, no matter what.
46:49
Speaker 1: How does watching your kids compete in sports compared to
46:52
Speaker 1: doing it yourself.
46:54
Speaker 3: I like it. I like it a lot. I like
46:56
Speaker 3: it a lot.
46:57
Speaker 4: But I still work out in train with all of
47:00
Speaker 4: them in their respective crafts to make sure they can't
47:03
Speaker 4: beat me. That's that's the scary part. So I'm still
47:08
Speaker 4: very active. Since I have stopped playing. I try to
47:12
Speaker 4: train with my son. I train with my daughter. When
47:14
Speaker 4: it comes to track, I do all the drill she does,
47:16
Speaker 4: and I make sure I'm always on points. So if
47:19
Speaker 4: at any point I need to show how it should
47:23
Speaker 4: be done or how it should look, I'm still in
47:27
Speaker 4: elite shape to be able to do so. So it's
47:29
Speaker 4: not just me talking it. I can actually walk it too.
47:33
Speaker 4: On what it should look like.
47:35
Speaker 1: Most physically fit forty five year old man in the world,
47:38
Speaker 1: fifty five fifty five year old man.
47:41
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, that's that's how.
47:42
Speaker 1: Fit you are.
47:43
Speaker 4: Yeah, hey, listen, I call it the wear and tear
47:46
Speaker 4: from the from the from the NFL. It aasts ten
47:48
Speaker 4: years on the body, even though I had no injuries.
47:52
Speaker 1: All right, A few questions about the current Bengals. What
47:55
Speaker 1: do you admire and respect about Joe Burrow?
48:00
Speaker 4: His ability to stay calm under pressure. He's always I
48:04
Speaker 4: think that's obviously the name Joe Cool is. It's therefore
48:08
Speaker 4: a reason he's always cool under pressure. And how most
48:12
Speaker 4: of the time for a quarterback that's young. When you content,
48:16
Speaker 4: when you consistently get hit, you get rattled. It's just
48:20
Speaker 4: it's just the nature of the besis. You get rattled
48:21
Speaker 4: and for some reason, I don't know who, or or
48:24
Speaker 4: or where it came about. Usually over time with repetition
48:28
Speaker 4: at the highest level, then you become cool and calm
48:31
Speaker 4: under pressure. But he came out the gate just that way,
48:34
Speaker 4: and I think he's the reason for you know, their success.
48:39
Speaker 1: Chase Higgins or Boyd or excuse me, Chase Higgins and
48:43
Speaker 1: Boyd or Johnson, Hushman, Zada and Henry.
48:47
Speaker 3: That's a good one. That's a good one. That's a
48:50
Speaker 3: good one. I'm gonna have.
48:50
Speaker 4: I'm gonna have to go with us, even though I
48:52
Speaker 4: have an appreciation for all three of those dudes. Man,
48:54
Speaker 4: Chase is special, Higgins obviously a special and Tyler Boyd
48:58
Speaker 4: is misterconsistency, you know, throughout the years. But I obviously
49:01
Speaker 4: I'm gonna have to go with us. You know, Chris
49:03
Speaker 4: was special. Chris was special.
49:06
Speaker 3: And TJ.
49:07
Speaker 4: TJ can do it all. He can do everything under
49:10
Speaker 4: the sun, short Entermedya, he can go along, he can
49:13
Speaker 4: beat you underneath, I mean just all around. And then
49:15
Speaker 4: obviously myself was just just pure entertainment.
49:19
Speaker 3: But I don't have to go with us regardless.
49:24
Speaker 1: All right, A couple more questions for you. You spent
49:27
Speaker 1: ten years in Cincinnati. You're still the all time franchise
49:30
Speaker 1: leader in catches, receiving yards, touchdown catches. What do you
49:34
Speaker 1: think is your Bengals legacy? Oh?
49:37
Speaker 3: Man, I would I would. I would say making it
49:41
Speaker 3: fun and entertaining.
49:43
Speaker 4: And then the funny thing about it is I made
49:45
Speaker 4: it so fun and entertaining with what most were called antics.
49:49
Speaker 4: I don't think people even realize how really good I was.
49:52
Speaker 4: You know that they do.
49:54
Speaker 3: I don't know.
49:54
Speaker 4: I think outside of the game, like because I made
49:58
Speaker 4: so much noise in other areas, I don't think people
50:01
Speaker 4: understand how good I really was.
50:03
Speaker 3: As far as like.
50:05
Speaker 4: If you if you break it down and think about it,
50:08
Speaker 4: to be able to talk trash through the week and
50:12
Speaker 4: then still go out there and execute, knowing everyone trying
50:14
Speaker 4: to knock your head off, to have a have a
50:16
Speaker 4: list of dvs in your locker before the season starts,
50:19
Speaker 4: and still go out week the week and beat everybody.
50:23
Speaker 3: Like I don't. I don't think people understand.
50:25
Speaker 4: To lead the AFC and receiving yards what four years
50:28
Speaker 4: in a row, while all while entertaining and talking trash
50:33
Speaker 4: week three, I don't. I don't think people understand how
50:36
Speaker 4: difficult I made the game. And remember the climate that
50:40
Speaker 4: in the era I played in, defensively, remember the division
50:43
Speaker 4: I'm in defensively, it's it's it's it was very difficult.
50:48
Speaker 4: Like a lot of people play Madden, the video game Madden,
50:51
Speaker 4: and its hardest feature is being as playing it on
50:54
Speaker 4: all Madden All Madden's very difficult. I always love to
50:58
Speaker 4: say I played the game of football, and if feel
51:00
Speaker 4: on old man because I made it that much more.
51:02
Speaker 3: Difficult and was able to get away with it.
51:05
Speaker 1: Because yeah, yeah, yeah, I like a degree of difficulty.
51:12
Speaker 3: Yes, I needed it.
51:13
Speaker 4: I needed because if I didn't force the difficulty on myself,
51:17
Speaker 4: I don't think I would have performed to the best
51:20
Speaker 4: of my ability.
51:22
Speaker 1: Final thing, and I'll let you go. Last year, when
51:24
Speaker 1: Willie Anderson joined the Ring of Honor, several of his
51:27
Speaker 1: former teammates made it back to Cincinnati to be there
51:30
Speaker 1: for the celebration. If possible, Who are a few guys
51:34
Speaker 1: that you would really like to attend your Ring of
51:38
Speaker 1: Honor ceremony?
51:39
Speaker 3: All of them? All of them?
51:41
Speaker 4: But I definitely want who's there. I definitely need Big
51:45
Speaker 4: Willie because Big Willy and I have some some great
51:47
Speaker 4: memories of me bothering the defensive lineman and will you
51:50
Speaker 4: telling me to shut up and huddle.
51:51
Speaker 3: We gotta we got to bring those memories up.
51:53
Speaker 4: And Carson TJ, Big Willie, who else man the DB's
52:03
Speaker 4: Roddneny Heath Tory, James delt O'Neil. Some of those dudes
52:07
Speaker 4: that I battle with, you know, throughout those days.
52:10
Speaker 3: I mean just it's meaning as possible, it's meani as possible.
52:13
Speaker 4: But those three, you know, Big Willie, TJ and Carson,
52:16
Speaker 4: it would be it would be a joy to see
52:18
Speaker 4: them there.
52:20
Speaker 2: Well.
52:20
Speaker 1: As you say to others on a daily basis, I
52:23
Speaker 1: love you, I love you. Congratulations on this well deserved honor.
52:28
Speaker 1: Thank you for ten magnificent seasons in Cincinnati. Thank you
52:32
Speaker 1: for making it fun and for making Cincinnati cool. You'll
52:36
Speaker 1: always have a place in our heart.
52:37
Speaker 3: Thank you, appreciate it.
52:40
Speaker 1: That's going to do it for this episode of the
52:41
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53:11
Speaker 1: I'm Dan Horde and thanks for listening to the Bengals
53:14
Speaker 1: Booth podcast