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Bengals Booth Podcast: Good Together · Bengals Booth Podcast

0:03
Speaker 1: Hi, get everybody on dan Hoard, and thanks for downloading
0:06
Speaker 1: the Bengals Booth podcast. The we could be good to
0:11
Speaker 1: get the addition as we hear from Mike Brown, Zach Taylor,
0:16
Speaker 1: Dan Pitcher, lou Anarumo, and Darren Simmons on six of
0:20
Speaker 1: the most important questions facing the Bengals when training Camp
0:24
Speaker 1: gets underway on Wednesday. The Bengals Booth Podcast is brought
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Speaker 1: to you by pay Core, Proud to be the Bengals
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Speaker 1: Internet designed to elevate your home, business and community to
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Speaker 1: a new level, and by Kettering Health the best care
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Speaker 1: for the best fans. Kettering Health is the official healthcare
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Speaker 1: provider of the Bengals. Now here's a quick reminder that
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Speaker 1: you can have the latest edition of this podcast delivered
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Speaker 1: right to your phone, tablet, or computer by subscribing wherever
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Speaker 1: you get your podcasts. It's the greatest thing since mock
1:02
Speaker 1: Turtle Soup. The Bengals held their annual pre training camp
1:06
Speaker 1: media luncheon on Monday, an event that is affectionately known
1:09
Speaker 1: as the Turtle Soup Luncheon among veteran Cincinnati reporters. That's
1:15
Speaker 1: because since the early days of the franchise, when team
1:17
Speaker 1: founder Paul Brown presided over the festivities at the downtown
1:21
Speaker 1: Queen City Club, the appetizer has always, and I mean
1:26
Speaker 1: always been mock turtle soup. If you've never had it,
1:31
Speaker 1: there's no turtle meat. The key ingredients are ground beef, veal,
1:35
Speaker 1: ketchup eggs, Worcester sauce, and lemon. It apparently used to
1:40
Speaker 1: be popular at Cincinnati's many German saloons in the early
1:44
Speaker 1: nineteen hundreds. Would I order it in a restaurant, doubtful,
1:49
Speaker 1: But I happily consume a small cup every July, knowing
1:54
Speaker 1: that it means the football season is right around the corner.
1:58
Speaker 1: Now time to look at some key topics that were
2:01
Speaker 1: discussed at this year's luncheon. When training camp begins on Wednesday,
2:06
Speaker 1: I'll be sharing my five observations on Twitter or x
2:10
Speaker 1: if you prefer, at the end of every practice. In
2:13
Speaker 1: the same spirit, here are what I consider to be
2:17
Speaker 1: six important questions facing the Bengals at training camp. Number one,
2:23
Speaker 1: the status of Joe Burrow. Zach Taylor told reporters on
2:27
Speaker 1: Monday that Burrow is fully cleared for contact, as he
2:30
Speaker 1: returns from risk surgery. As I've said many times in
2:33
Speaker 1: recent months, I did not see a discernible difference in
2:37
Speaker 1: Joe's throws when I watched him in off season practices.
2:41
Speaker 1: Today I asked team president Mike Brown for his opinion.
2:45
Speaker 1: When you watched Joe Burrow this spring? Did he look
2:48
Speaker 1: the same? Everything look normal?
2:50
Speaker 2: I thought he looked up to speed, He was at
2:56
Speaker 2: the tail end of his reham him under wraps, they
3:02
Speaker 2: be in their trainers. They made sure he was spaced
3:08
Speaker 2: with how much he threw. Didn't ever try to overload him.
3:14
Speaker 2: From what I saw, he threw the ball with zip,
3:18
Speaker 2: with accuracy. He had distance when he needed it. He
3:22
Speaker 2: moved well. He looked tuned up and ready to go.
3:27
Speaker 1: Joe has stated publicly that he has learned from previous
3:31
Speaker 1: injuries that if he's feeling some discomfort, it's okay to
3:34
Speaker 1: take a day off, But the coaching staff plans to
3:38
Speaker 1: be proactive building days off into Joe's schedule to essentially
3:43
Speaker 1: protect him from himself. Here's Zach Taylor on Burrough's status
3:48
Speaker 1: heading into camp.
3:48
Speaker 3: How much is Joe starting to look like Joe again?
3:51
Speaker 3: I've only seen him physically walking down a Hallway. So
3:53
Speaker 3: I haven't seen him throw yet, but you know, everything
3:57
Speaker 3: everything has looked great, and so excited to get him
3:59
Speaker 3: back out there in the field new training camp. I
4:01
Speaker 3: know he's excited to go. Physically, he looks great.
4:04
Speaker 1: Zach added one surprising nugget at the media lunge and
4:07
Speaker 1: saying that he expects Burrow and the other offensive starters
4:11
Speaker 1: to play in the preseason. Joe has played a total
4:14
Speaker 1: of three preseason snaps in his NFL career, and that
4:19
Speaker 1: leads to topic number two, figuring out a way to
4:22
Speaker 1: get off to a better start. In Zach Taylor's five seasons,
4:26
Speaker 1: the Bengals have started oh and two, oh and two,
4:29
Speaker 1: one and one, oh and two, and oh and two.
4:33
Speaker 1: In fairness to Zach, Burrow's health has been a big factor.
4:37
Speaker 1: But there will clearly be an emphasis at this camp
4:41
Speaker 1: on being ready to win in Week one. Here are
4:44
Speaker 1: defensive coordinator lou Anroumo and offensive coordinator Dan Pitcher.
4:49
Speaker 4: I just think we're we're aware of it, you know,
4:51
Speaker 4: and I think you know coming out of the gates fast.
4:54
Speaker 4: That's been an emphasis and will be an emphasis throughout
4:57
Speaker 4: camp that. You know, Zach's already talked about but nobody
5:00
Speaker 4: wants to start behind the eight ball, that's for sure,
5:02
Speaker 4: and we're looking forward to getting off to a quick start.
5:06
Speaker 5: It's all what you emphasize every single day, and attacking
5:10
Speaker 5: teams start fast, they stay fast, and they finish fast,
5:15
Speaker 5: and that's who we want to be. So, you know,
5:19
Speaker 5: can I sit here and say we're doing A, B
5:21
Speaker 5: and C differently because we want to make sure we
5:23
Speaker 5: win the first game of the year.
5:24
Speaker 1: Well, we all.
5:25
Speaker 5: Every year we prepare to win the first game of
5:27
Speaker 5: the year. But I do think it's okay to sit
5:30
Speaker 5: there and say, how do we make sure we are
5:33
Speaker 5: checking every box we need to check? So when we
5:35
Speaker 5: step on the field here week one, there's nothing that
5:38
Speaker 5: we haven't done that would help us win that game.
5:41
Speaker 5: So yeah, we think about it, we talk about it,
5:43
Speaker 5: and it's important for us to start fast.
5:45
Speaker 1: Actions speak louder than words. And for the first time
5:47
Speaker 1: in their history, the Bengals will hold two joint practices
5:51
Speaker 1: in Chicago before their second preseason game and at home
5:55
Speaker 1: against the Colts before their third.
5:57
Speaker 3: But you choose to do two joint practices just the
6:00
Speaker 3: way it played out. Really, the Colts was the one
6:02
Speaker 3: that we had targeted early in the offseason to make
6:05
Speaker 3: sure we played them in a preseason game. Shane and
6:07
Speaker 3: I go way back, let's practice together.
6:08
Speaker 6: It's local.
6:10
Speaker 3: And then we just coincidentally were playing the Bears, and
6:13
Speaker 3: so Matt reached out and asked if we want to
6:15
Speaker 3: do a joint practice, and I was open to it.
6:17
Speaker 3: We haven't done one on the road since I've been here.
6:19
Speaker 3: I think it's a great opportunity, not only to practice
6:21
Speaker 3: again against what I think is a really good football team,
6:24
Speaker 3: but also the team bonding aspect of things. You know,
6:26
Speaker 3: where the stress isn't as high as it gets during
6:28
Speaker 3: the season, you get a chance to go on the
6:30
Speaker 3: road for three days. Guys get to go out to
6:31
Speaker 3: dinner together, spend time together. I think it's the right
6:34
Speaker 3: opportunity for our team at.
6:35
Speaker 2: The right time.
6:35
Speaker 1: Joint practices are intense and competitive and should help the
6:39
Speaker 1: team be battle ready for September. Topic number three, no
6:44
Speaker 1: drama despite no deals. It's no secret the t Higgins
6:50
Speaker 1: and Trey Hendrickson we're disappointed not to receive contract extensions
6:54
Speaker 1: in the offseason. But while the national media speculated about
6:58
Speaker 1: the two of them possibly being trained in camp, holdouts
7:01
Speaker 1: t and Trey are expected to be on the field
7:04
Speaker 1: for Day one. Unlike Jesse Bates, who waited until late
7:08
Speaker 1: in camp to sign his franchise tag a couple of
7:11
Speaker 1: years ago, Te put pen to paper last month. Here
7:15
Speaker 1: are Zach Taylor and Dan Pitcher.
7:17
Speaker 3: Te's character has shown brightly the four years he's been here.
7:20
Speaker 3: He's everything we hoped we were getting when I drafted
7:22
Speaker 3: him at A Clemson. He has handled a difficult situation
7:25
Speaker 3: perfectly in my opinion, you know, And so again it's
7:28
Speaker 3: there's a business side of things, and you had eight
7:30
Speaker 3: and you got to follow all that stuff. And for
7:33
Speaker 3: him to sign it when he did and say I'm
7:35
Speaker 3: showing up day one a training camp rated work so
7:37
Speaker 3: we can do great things as a team. Very appreciate
7:39
Speaker 3: of that. And again, I know he handled a very
7:41
Speaker 3: difficult decision as well as he could have.
7:43
Speaker 5: There's no bigger t Higgins fan than me. I've seen
7:47
Speaker 5: what he's done for this team, this organization and some
7:50
Speaker 5: of the most critical moments and some of the greatest
7:53
Speaker 5: successes that we've had during Zach's tenure. So super excited
7:58
Speaker 5: to have him back. I think he's a hu huge
8:00
Speaker 5: part of this team. I think his energy, the way
8:03
Speaker 5: he practices, the way he carries himself. I think guy's
8:05
Speaker 5: feet off of that, and so very happy that we
8:09
Speaker 5: get a chance to work with him through training him.
8:11
Speaker 1: As for Hendrickson, he's coming off of seventeen and a
8:14
Speaker 1: half sacks season and is under contract for this year
8:18
Speaker 1: and next. Here's Ana Rumo.
8:20
Speaker 4: He's had a great offseason. Like a lot of our guys,
8:24
Speaker 4: he's probably if you ask, you'll have to ask him,
8:26
Speaker 4: but to me, might be in the best shape of
8:28
Speaker 4: his life. Just had a baby here recently. I'll let
8:32
Speaker 4: him tell you that. But he's a great player.
8:37
Speaker 1: Trey is among the best pass rushers on the planet.
8:40
Speaker 1: The hope at camp is that Sam Hubbard, Miles Murphy,
8:43
Speaker 1: Joseph Osai, Sheldon Rankins and others will give the Bengals
8:48
Speaker 1: several defensive linemen that can get after the quarterback. Before
8:52
Speaker 1: we get to the next topic, here's a quick reminder
8:54
Speaker 1: that the Bengals Booth podcast is brought to you by
8:57
Speaker 1: pay Corps, proud to be the Bengals official HR software
9:01
Speaker 1: provider by Alta Fiber future Proof fiber Internet designed to
9:05
Speaker 1: elevate your home, business and community to a new level
9:08
Speaker 1: and by Kettering Health, the best care for the best fans.
9:12
Speaker 1: Kettering Health is the official healthcare provider of the Bengals.
9:16
Speaker 1: Now onto training camp. Topic number four the future of
9:21
Speaker 1: Dax Hill. When he was drafted in the first round
9:24
Speaker 1: in twenty twenty two, Dax was expected to be Bates'
9:27
Speaker 1: long term replacement at safety, but that didn't work out
9:31
Speaker 1: as planned, and now Hill will go to training camp
9:34
Speaker 1: working with cornerbacks coach Chuck Burks as he battles with
9:38
Speaker 1: DJ Turner to start at outside corner, a position he
9:42
Speaker 1: didn't really play at Michigan. Here are Ana Arumo and
9:45
Speaker 1: Taylor Well.
9:46
Speaker 4: I think he's got traits that some of the best
9:52
Speaker 4: that have ever done it have. And then when I
9:54
Speaker 4: say that, I mean length, speed, athleticism. You know, if
9:58
Speaker 4: you're going to draw up an outside corner he had.
10:01
Speaker 4: He hits all the check marks on them on the dimensions.
10:04
Speaker 4: Now going to do it playing and play out as
10:07
Speaker 4: you know, as you said, he played slot corner in
10:12
Speaker 4: at Michigan. But you know, I'm really anxious to see
10:17
Speaker 4: him do it, and he's embraced it. He's a great,
10:20
Speaker 4: great guy and wants to do well, and so we're
10:23
Speaker 4: excited to see him.
10:24
Speaker 3: How do we help him reach his full potential? Because
10:26
Speaker 3: he got a really high level talent that we took
10:29
Speaker 3: in the first round that we're excited, we were excited
10:30
Speaker 3: about we took him, we're excited about now and and
10:33
Speaker 3: I know Chuck's really excited to work with him, get
10:35
Speaker 3: his hands on him. I'm sure there's a growing and
10:38
Speaker 3: a learning process out there, but he's got the skill
10:40
Speaker 3: set to do it. He's got the mental makeup to
10:42
Speaker 3: do it. So I'm excited to get him, get him
10:44
Speaker 3: on the field, and get him work in this this
10:46
Speaker 3: training camp, see what he can do there.
10:47
Speaker 1: Cornerbacks are susceptible to injury, and depth at the position
10:51
Speaker 1: is critical. The Bengals have talented young players and Cam Taylor,
10:55
Speaker 1: Britt Hill, Turner, draft pick Josh Newton, Alan Jorge and others,
11:01
Speaker 1: but the play of that group will certainly be a
11:04
Speaker 1: key thing to watch at training camp. For topic number five,
11:07
Speaker 1: we go back to the offense and consider how it
11:10
Speaker 1: might look different this year under a new offensive coordinator.
11:14
Speaker 1: Following Burrow's wrist injury in mid November, Jake Browning kept
11:18
Speaker 1: the Bengals in playoff contention and also provided a glimpse
11:22
Speaker 1: for how the offense might evolve going forward. There were
11:26
Speaker 1: more snaps with a quarterback under center, there were more
11:29
Speaker 1: play action passes. Here's pitcher is having a more diverse
11:34
Speaker 1: offense one of your objectives. I think any time that
11:40
Speaker 1: the defense is standing there trying to analyze what you
11:44
Speaker 1: presented formationally and from a motion standpoint, and there's a
11:48
Speaker 1: whole multitude of things that you've shown that you can
11:50
Speaker 1: do out of that that makes life hard on the defense.
11:52
Speaker 1: So that's always one of our goals.
11:55
Speaker 5: And how that plays itself out, I think changes from
11:58
Speaker 5: week to week and a pint to opponent. And the
12:03
Speaker 5: important part this time of year is establishing a really
12:06
Speaker 5: good basis and a library that you can pull from
12:08
Speaker 5: so that when you get in those situations you have
12:12
Speaker 5: diversity within your personnel groups and your formation families and
12:15
Speaker 5: things of that nature. So yeah, it's really important.
12:17
Speaker 7: The less time Joe spoke to us, and I'm going
12:20
Speaker 7: to paraphrase what he said, he said, we're going to
12:22
Speaker 7: be more attacking that you're what We're going to dictate
12:24
Speaker 7: more to the defense.
12:26
Speaker 2: What we want to do.
12:27
Speaker 7: How is an offensive coortin do you go about making
12:29
Speaker 7: those changes? To implement this thought.
12:32
Speaker 5: Sure, I mean I think there's there's a handful of
12:34
Speaker 5: things that come to mind. I'm not going to detail
12:38
Speaker 5: them all. Not that anything that we haven't discovered, any
12:41
Speaker 5: secret sauce that no one else in football has discovered.
12:44
Speaker 5: I mean, this is this game has been played for
12:46
Speaker 5: a long time and a lot of really smart people.
12:49
Speaker 5: I think, first and foremost, it's a mentality, and it's
12:52
Speaker 5: something that we talk about and we don't just talk
12:55
Speaker 5: about it once. We talk about it all the time.
12:58
Speaker 5: And so there are things you can do schematic you know,
13:02
Speaker 5: the speed you play at, the how you know how
13:06
Speaker 5: you use motion, how you choose to attack the field
13:10
Speaker 5: vertically in the passing game. There's all different things you
13:13
Speaker 5: can do to be more attacking. But but first and
13:15
Speaker 5: foremost it's about what's between the player's ears and knowing
13:19
Speaker 5: that they have the freedom to go attack and that
13:22
Speaker 5: they're not necessarily going to be second guests here and there.
13:24
Speaker 5: We're always going to coach them, but there has to
13:27
Speaker 5: be a freedom there to to be an attacking player
13:30
Speaker 5: with an attacking mindset.
13:31
Speaker 7: And how much effort or striving is there though still
13:34
Speaker 7: in today's game among teams to find the next secret,
13:39
Speaker 7: if you will, to come up with the next way
13:41
Speaker 7: that this game is going to develop. It never has before.
13:43
Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean, it's what I've been doing for the
13:45
Speaker 5: last you know, six months, basically since the season ended.
13:49
Speaker 5: And you approach it from the standpoint of it is like,
13:51
Speaker 5: I'm not going to discover anything necessarily proprietary, but I
13:55
Speaker 5: need to know what's playing in the league. I need
13:57
Speaker 5: to know what's working and what isn't and how to
14:00
Speaker 5: is that maybe match what we have from a personnel standpoint.
14:04
Speaker 5: So I think guys across the league are constantly trying
14:07
Speaker 5: to discover you know, you know, one little wrinkle maybe
14:10
Speaker 5: turns into a bigger wrinkle, turns into maybe some new
14:13
Speaker 5: form of scheme that has been run before, but now
14:15
Speaker 5: somebody's doing a little bit differently, and hey, maybe that
14:17
Speaker 5: fits us, or maybe you know what's good for them,
14:19
Speaker 5: but it's not good for us. But you got to
14:21
Speaker 5: do the research to be able to make that decision.
14:22
Speaker 1: Dan Pitcher strikes me as being very Burrow like in
14:26
Speaker 1: being laser focused on football. I'm excited to watch practice
14:30
Speaker 1: to see how he'll employed Jamar Chase t Higgins, Jermaine Burton,
14:34
Speaker 1: Mike Gaziki, Zach Moss, Chase Brown, and the Bengals other
14:38
Speaker 1: offensive weapons. Finally, we get to training camp topic number
14:42
Speaker 1: six and perhaps the most obvious roster battle this year,
14:47
Speaker 1: the punt off between Brad Robbins and rookie Austin McNamara.
14:52
Speaker 1: Robbins had an inconsistent rookie year after being drafted in
14:55
Speaker 1: the sixth round out of Michigan. McNamara had great college
15:00
Speaker 1: that to Texas Tech, but was not selected in this
15:03
Speaker 1: year's draft. I asked Darren Simmons if the experienced Robbins
15:07
Speaker 1: heads into camp as the quote unquote favorite, or if
15:11
Speaker 1: it's a wide open competition.
15:13
Speaker 6: I think it's wide open, but I mean somebody has
15:15
Speaker 6: to take the first rep, you know, of the first day,
15:17
Speaker 6: and that'll be Brad. You know it's because he's thencome
15:20
Speaker 6: a guy and he deserves that. I mean, he's done
15:22
Speaker 6: this for a year. But he also knows that I
15:24
Speaker 6: told him that when he left. You know, after season's over,
15:27
Speaker 6: there'll be somebody here. They'll be competition. It's not your job.
15:29
Speaker 6: You have to go earn it again. And just like
15:32
Speaker 6: he did a year ago when Drew was here. So
15:36
Speaker 6: Brad'll trot out there first. I'm excited to see both guys.
15:39
Speaker 6: I really like the things that Brad did. We identified
15:43
Speaker 6: a bunch of things throughout the off season that we
15:46
Speaker 6: need to see from him differently than what they were
15:48
Speaker 6: a year doing. I think he's done that. I think
15:49
Speaker 6: he's addressed that. He's also really excited. I think he's
15:52
Speaker 6: he's really excited right now too, you know. I think
15:54
Speaker 6: he also feels like he made pretty good progression from
15:56
Speaker 6: the time he left in June until now. I think
15:58
Speaker 6: he's He's worked on a couple of different kicks. I
16:01
Speaker 6: think he's bulked up physically. He's a little bigger, he's
16:03
Speaker 6: a little stronger. So all good things, all positive things.
16:07
Speaker 6: There's a lot also positive things that Austin does well too,
16:09
Speaker 6: you know. I mean, he had a very good college career.
16:13
Speaker 6: He's very advanced in terms of his understanding about that position,
16:17
Speaker 6: about the punning position, in terms of technique and what
16:19
Speaker 6: we want from him. He's a good kid too. So
16:22
Speaker 6: I'm really excited to see where these two guys go.
16:24
Speaker 6: But I mean, the guy's going to try out there
16:25
Speaker 6: first as bread.
16:26
Speaker 1: So those are six important topics heading into camp. But
16:30
Speaker 1: I want to share one more thing from Monday's mock
16:33
Speaker 1: turtle soup luncheon. Last year, Joe Burrow injured his calf
16:37
Speaker 1: on the second day of camp, then aggravated that injury
16:41
Speaker 1: in Week two of the season against Baltimore. It was
16:44
Speaker 1: unclear heading into Week three if Joe would be able
16:47
Speaker 1: to play on Monday Night Football against the Rams. Before
16:51
Speaker 1: the Friday practice of that week, Mike Brown drove out
16:54
Speaker 1: onto the field while the team was stretching, picked up
16:57
Speaker 1: Burrow and a golf cart, drove around in a circle
17:00
Speaker 1: as they spoke, and then dropped Joe back off with
17:04
Speaker 1: his teammates. My assumption at the time was that Mike
17:07
Speaker 1: told his quarterback to be smart and not to play
17:11
Speaker 1: unless he was close to one hundred percent. On Monday,
17:14
Speaker 1: we got Mike's side of the story.
17:17
Speaker 2: I try to stay away enough that I don't get
17:22
Speaker 2: in the way. I don't want to be a problem
17:25
Speaker 2: for the coaches on that particular In that particular moment,
17:33
Speaker 2: I overstepped and did a dumb thing. I was convinced
17:38
Speaker 2: he shouldn't play, and he looked like he wanted to
17:41
Speaker 2: play in that game, and I went out there to
17:44
Speaker 2: tell him he wasn't going to play. I was going
17:47
Speaker 2: to make sure he wasn't going to play. Whereupon he played,
17:50
Speaker 2: and so that's all that happened. I felt still feel
17:56
Speaker 2: a little bit shamefaced about it.
18:00
Speaker 7: What is your relationship like with Joe in general?
18:03
Speaker 2: I respect him, I like his family. I don't want
18:09
Speaker 2: to be his best buddy. I don't think that's proper,
18:17
Speaker 2: but I admire how he handles himself. For me, he's
18:23
Speaker 2: one of the great players that I've had the chance
18:28
Speaker 2: to watch, and I enjoy watching him do what he does.
18:34
Speaker 1: Here's hoping that Mike gets to watch a healthy Burrow
18:37
Speaker 1: for seventeen games and beyond in twenty twenty four. That's
18:42
Speaker 1: going to do it for this episode of the Bengals
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Speaker 1: Booth podcast, brought to you by pay Corps, Proud to
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Speaker 1: be the Bengals official HR software provider by Alta Fiber
18:51
Speaker 1: future proof fiber Internet designed to elevate your home, business,
18:54
Speaker 1: and community to a new level, and by Kettering Health
18:58
Speaker 1: the best care for the best fans. Kettering Health is
19:01
Speaker 1: the official healthcare provider of the Bengals. If you haven't
19:05
Speaker 1: done so already, please subscribe to this podcast and if
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Speaker 1: you have a minute, give it a rating, or share
19:10
Speaker 1: a comment that helps more Bengals fans find us. I'm
19:14
Speaker 1: Dan Hord and thanks for listening to the Bengals Booth
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Speaker 1: podcast