Latest / Bengals Booth Podcast / Bengals Booth Podcast: Tomorrow

Transcript

Bengals Booth Podcast: Tomorrow · Bengals Booth Podcast

0:03
Speaker 1: Hi, get everybody on Dan Horde and thanks for downloading
0:06
Speaker 1: the Bengals Booths podcast the how Long Till Tomorrow? Addition,
0:13
Speaker 1: and thank you Bengals fan John Legend for the song
0:16
Speaker 1: as we get set for Super Bowl fifty six between
0:19
Speaker 1: the Bengals and Rams. Coming up, my conversation with Bengals
0:23
Speaker 1: President Mike Brown on the impact of Joe Burrow, the
0:26
Speaker 1: excitement level of Bengals fans, and the possibility of hoisting
0:30
Speaker 1: the Lombardi Trophy. Then we'll spend a few minutes with
0:34
Speaker 1: the great Kevin Harland, who will broadcast the Super Bowl
0:37
Speaker 1: on radio for the twelfth consecutive year for Westwood One.
0:40
Speaker 1: The Bengals Booth Podcast is presented by Ultimate Bengals, the
0:44
Speaker 1: free to play Next Level Fantasy Football game, downloaded now
0:47
Speaker 1: from the app Store and Google Play and by on Location,
0:51
Speaker 1: the official hospitality partner of the NFL. Visit on Location
0:56
Speaker 1: exp dot com for exclusive access to the bigest events
1:00
Speaker 1: in the NFL, including the Super Bowl. Here's a quick
1:04
Speaker 1: reminder that you can have the latest edition of this
1:06
Speaker 1: podcast delivered right to your phone, tablet, or computer by
1:10
Speaker 1: subscribing wherever you get your podcasts. It's the greatest thing
1:14
Speaker 1: since kids dressing like Joe Burrow. I can't get enough
1:20
Speaker 1: of the pictures on social media of little kids, in
1:23
Speaker 1: some cases infants wearing rose colored Cardier knockoff sunglasses or
1:29
Speaker 1: black turtlenecks with homemade JB nine fake diamond necklaces. Chad
1:34
Speaker 1: Johnson helped make Cincinnati cool in the early two thousands,
1:37
Speaker 1: and Joey franchise has certainly done it again. He has
1:41
Speaker 1: the effortless cool of Joe Namath. But let's hope he
1:45
Speaker 1: doesn't do any ads for pantyhose. Look it up, kids.
1:50
Speaker 1: Now let's get to my guests, beginning with Bengals president
1:54
Speaker 1: Mike Brown. Mike prefers to stay in the background and
1:57
Speaker 1: allow the attention to go to his coaches and players,
2:00
Speaker 1: but he was kind enough to visit with me before
2:02
Speaker 1: the Bengals traveled to Los Angeles. Mike, football has been
2:06
Speaker 1: your life personally and professionally. Can you articulate what this
2:11
Speaker 1: Super Bowl trip means to you. It's very satisfying. Our
2:15
Speaker 1: team came together and we've had a string of amazingly
2:21
Speaker 1: close games. They were exciting. We prevailed in four of them.
2:29
Speaker 1: Really to get to this point twice against Kansas City
2:32
Speaker 1: the first one here, and we had to win that
2:35
Speaker 1: one to win the division and get into the playoffs.
2:40
Speaker 1: And just as pleased as it's possible to be if
2:45
Speaker 1: you're in my position, this is what your goal is
2:47
Speaker 1: in life, and here we are. We have a chance
2:51
Speaker 1: to win the big one, and that would be great
2:55
Speaker 1: if we could pull it off. But it's an exciting
2:58
Speaker 1: time for me and for all the people here with
3:01
Speaker 1: the Bengals. At what point did you think that this
3:05
Speaker 1: team could be a contender. Well, Joe Burrow makes you
3:09
Speaker 1: think you can win any game that you go into,
3:12
Speaker 1: and we have amazing whiteouts. We've got three guys that
3:17
Speaker 1: are just tremendous. That gives us a live offense. These
3:23
Speaker 1: days in the NFL, the goal is to score thirty
3:26
Speaker 1: points or more. That's what you need to win it.
3:32
Speaker 1: You can even lose it that figure, but if you
3:36
Speaker 1: can get there with enough defense to go with it,
3:41
Speaker 1: you'll prevail. And we did Noise get there. We did
3:45
Speaker 1: Noise prevail. But as we went along, our confidence built
3:50
Speaker 1: because you could see we could play with anybody. And
3:53
Speaker 1: then we got to the point where we were winning
3:56
Speaker 1: these close games. And here we are. We'll see what
4:01
Speaker 1: happens next. But this is a good group of players,
4:05
Speaker 1: a good group of people, and they look forward to
4:09
Speaker 1: see what happens out in La Mike. When your father's
4:15
Speaker 1: Cleveland Browns are winning championships, his quarterback was autogram the
4:19
Speaker 1: Tom Brady of his era, winning seven championships. It does
4:23
Speaker 1: Joe Burrow remind you of Autograham in any way they compete.
4:30
Speaker 1: They just performed best when the pressure is greatest. And
4:38
Speaker 1: remember having utter confidence in autogramm it. Somehow, some way
4:45
Speaker 1: he would get us where we needed to go. And
4:47
Speaker 1: the same is true with Joe. Joe finds the way
4:53
Speaker 1: and the players believe in him here, just as the
4:57
Speaker 1: old Browns players believe in Otto. They thought that they
5:03
Speaker 1: were going to do it. They had confidence, and Otto
5:06
Speaker 1: was the one that instilled that, just as Joe does
5:08
Speaker 1: with our guys these days. I don't know if you've
5:12
Speaker 1: ever seen the movie Jerry McGuire, but there's a cheesy
5:16
Speaker 1: line in it where the female character says to Tom Cruise,
5:19
Speaker 1: the sports agent, you had me at hello when you
5:24
Speaker 1: met with Joe Burrow at the NFL scouting combine? Did
5:27
Speaker 1: he have you at hello? He was focused and he
5:35
Speaker 1: wasn't very interested in small talk. Zach did some football
5:41
Speaker 1: discussion with him then and at another time as well,
5:45
Speaker 1: I think, and you perked up when you saw him
5:52
Speaker 1: and how he conducted him. So he has a air
5:56
Speaker 1: about him that calls for respect. When he came here,
6:03
Speaker 1: he earned that. Everyone believes in him here. That's what
6:11
Speaker 1: you want from your quarterback. After clinching the AFC North,
6:16
Speaker 1: Zach Taylor gave you and your wife Nancy a game
6:19
Speaker 1: ball and said if he was working for a different owner,
6:23
Speaker 1: he probably would not have had a third year as
6:25
Speaker 1: the head coach. What did you see that gave you
6:28
Speaker 1: confidence that Zach ultimately would be successful. He's organized, he's
6:34
Speaker 1: a good person, He's knowledgeable about football. He was young
6:39
Speaker 1: and went through some things. But quite honestly, we were
6:44
Speaker 1: injured the year with Joe and the team was injured,
6:49
Speaker 1: and that was what set us back more than anything.
6:54
Speaker 1: But you could see the basic structure was what I
6:59
Speaker 1: hope for. He knows the passing game and that's where
7:04
Speaker 1: the NFL is these days, and he teams well with Joe.
7:08
Speaker 1: They both believe in each other. I never thought that
7:14
Speaker 1: there was any question that he was capable of doing this.
7:18
Speaker 1: So it's off to Super Bowl fifty six in Los Angeles.
7:21
Speaker 1: Do you typically attend the Super Bowl? I used to.
7:26
Speaker 1: I'm old now and so I don't. I have in
7:31
Speaker 1: recent years had to get together with a group of
7:35
Speaker 1: friends and we sit and watch and have a nice
7:39
Speaker 1: time at home. Here Katie has taken over. She goes
7:43
Speaker 1: to the Super Bowl. I've seen that stick and it's
7:50
Speaker 1: quite amazing. It's fun, but I've done it enough times
7:56
Speaker 1: that I'm ready to hand it off to I covered
8:01
Speaker 1: a Super Bowl years ago where Marvel Levy, the Buffalo
8:04
Speaker 1: Bills coach, refused to pose for a picture with a
8:07
Speaker 1: Lombardi Trophy before the game. He thought it was bad luck.
8:10
Speaker 1: Have you ever held the Lombardi Trophy? No? Have you
8:15
Speaker 1: dreamed of that moment where the commissioner hands you the
8:18
Speaker 1: Lombardi Trophy after a Bengal Super Bowl win? Oh? I
8:23
Speaker 1: don't dream of such things. Yes, I know that's what
8:27
Speaker 1: you would like to have happened, but I don't have
8:33
Speaker 1: night thoughts along those slides. I didn't live here in
8:38
Speaker 1: nineteen eighty one or nineteen eighty eight, but Dave Lapham
8:41
Speaker 1: has described for me what the city was like when
8:44
Speaker 1: the Bengals who are going to those two Super Bowls.
8:47
Speaker 1: What does it meant to you to see the city
8:49
Speaker 1: of Cincinnati and this area gets so excited about this team.
8:54
Speaker 1: This is a wonderful moment for me. What our goal
8:59
Speaker 1: is winning on the field. That's how you get to
9:03
Speaker 1: the next goal, which is to excite the city and
9:06
Speaker 1: get our supporters feeling happy about how it's going, enjoying it,
9:13
Speaker 1: getting involved in the ways they do. That for me
9:17
Speaker 1: is a real treat. I am enjoying that part of
9:21
Speaker 1: it as much as anything. Tyler Boyd recently described how
9:26
Speaker 1: much he appreciates you attending every practice, regardless of the weather,
9:30
Speaker 1: regardless of the circumstances. You are always there, and he
9:33
Speaker 1: went on to say he enjoys going over and as
9:36
Speaker 1: he put it, chopping it up with you, having brief
9:38
Speaker 1: conversations with you. What did those interactions with the players
9:42
Speaker 1: mean to you. Well, as I've gotten older, I know
9:45
Speaker 1: our players less well. I watched them. Tyler's one I
9:50
Speaker 1: still get to talk to occasionally, and I appreciate the
9:54
Speaker 1: fact that he comes over and treats me as buddy,
9:58
Speaker 1: if you will, for a moment or two. It's fun
10:02
Speaker 1: and once upon a time, I knew all the guys
10:05
Speaker 1: I had. I signed them all every year I did that,
10:09
Speaker 1: and they were on a first name basis with me
10:14
Speaker 1: from those days. These days a lot of them want
10:18
Speaker 1: to call me mister Brown, and that's that puts me
10:22
Speaker 1: a notice of where I am in life. But it's
10:27
Speaker 1: fun to watch them. I have nothing that I would
10:32
Speaker 1: prefer to do more than sit and watch the team practice.
10:39
Speaker 1: They're remarkable athletes. I enjoy the passing game. I enjoy
10:44
Speaker 1: watching the offensive line and the defensive line when they
10:50
Speaker 1: get together. It. Oh, it's just for me. What is
10:58
Speaker 1: the thing I like to do best. Some people rather
11:01
Speaker 1: play golf, some people collect stamps. I don't know that.
11:06
Speaker 1: This for me is all that and more, and it's
11:09
Speaker 1: what I want to do and I'm lucky to have it.
11:12
Speaker 1: You'd rather be on a golf cart next to the
11:14
Speaker 1: practice field than on a beach in Acapulco. Well, I'd
11:17
Speaker 1: rather be out with the players. I would. I don't
11:21
Speaker 1: have anything any desire and to be an Alcapolco, But
11:27
Speaker 1: I believe I'm very happy with what my lot is.
11:33
Speaker 1: I feel fortunate, and the weather is the weather. I
11:38
Speaker 1: just accept that part of it. In some ways makes
11:43
Speaker 1: it more interesting because it presents challenges and that's sort
11:47
Speaker 1: of fun to see how that can be handled. The
11:50
Speaker 1: NFL is big business, but it remains family business in Cincinnati.
11:54
Speaker 1: You are experiencing this with your son, your daughter, your
11:57
Speaker 1: son in law, two of your granddaughters. Does that add
12:01
Speaker 1: to how meaningful this whole experience is? Oh, it was
12:05
Speaker 1: my goal to be able to do this. My father didn't.
12:10
Speaker 1: I've been involved with this as his assistant and then
12:17
Speaker 1: really for a while with him and his older days.
12:20
Speaker 1: I had a big role in it. Really that wasn't
12:23
Speaker 1: recognized outside of here. And now it's gone to where
12:28
Speaker 1: I ran it to where now I am passing it
12:31
Speaker 1: on to Katie and Paul and Troy and the girls
12:37
Speaker 1: Elizabeth and Caroline. They're smart, they work hard, they like it,
12:42
Speaker 1: and it's the point now where I have to learn
12:47
Speaker 1: to shut up more. What do you think your father
12:52
Speaker 1: would think of the twenty twenty one Cincinnati Bengals. He
12:55
Speaker 1: would have liked this team. This was his kind of team,
13:00
Speaker 1: and we're wide open. We get some remarkable plays on offense,
13:10
Speaker 1: we have a defense that is solid, we have a
13:13
Speaker 1: lot of pieces. Maybe we won't prevail every time out.
13:17
Speaker 1: But believe me, they'll know they had to go and
13:21
Speaker 1: this team can play with anybody. This was his dream
13:24
Speaker 1: fifty four years ago when he bought professional football to Cincinnati,
13:27
Speaker 1: for the Bengals to be Super Bowl champions. Is that
13:30
Speaker 1: part of the motivation for you to realize his vision? Honestly,
13:35
Speaker 1: I don't think of it in those terms. I think
13:38
Speaker 1: of it as to what it means for the people here.
13:44
Speaker 1: That's what pleases me. I enjoy seeing them celebrate and
13:53
Speaker 1: have fun. One of the things that was just first
13:56
Speaker 1: straight for me. After the game in Kansas City, or
14:00
Speaker 1: we won the way we did, I was out in
14:03
Speaker 1: the parking lot on the bus. I go with the
14:07
Speaker 1: players on the bus and I'm sitting there watching and
14:11
Speaker 1: they're interacting with their families and their children, And for me,
14:16
Speaker 1: that was about as good a time as I could have.
14:20
Speaker 1: I didn't do anything except watch to see them feeling
14:24
Speaker 1: good about themselves and how it had gone. That was
14:29
Speaker 1: what made me happy. Well, I share your happiness over
14:33
Speaker 1: the excitement of Bengals fans, but I'm really happy for you,
14:36
Speaker 1: and I truly hope that we all get to see
14:39
Speaker 1: you holding that Lombardi Trophy. After a Bengal Super Bowl
14:42
Speaker 1: win over the Rams. Thank you so much for your time.
14:44
Speaker 1: Congratulations on this great season. Best of luck on Super
14:47
Speaker 1: Bowl Sunday. Thanks Dan. A Bengal Booth podcast is presented
14:52
Speaker 1: by Ultimate Bengals, the free to play fantasy football game.
14:56
Speaker 1: This year, Ultimate Bengals awarded a weekly winner during the
14:58
Speaker 1: course of the season with tickets, autograph merchandise, and money
15:02
Speaker 1: can't buy experiences all up for grabs. Find Ultimate Bengals
15:06
Speaker 1: in the App Store and Google Play and buy on Location,
15:09
Speaker 1: the official hospitality partner of the NFL. Visit on location
15:13
Speaker 1: exp dot com for exclusive access to the biggest events,
15:17
Speaker 1: including the Super Bowl. My sportscasting hero was a guy
15:21
Speaker 1: named Van Miller. He was the voice of the Buffalo
15:24
Speaker 1: Bills for more than forty years and in two thousand
15:27
Speaker 1: and four became the first local play by play announcer
15:30
Speaker 1: to be honored by the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
15:33
Speaker 1: I've always considered Van to be the greatest football announcer
15:36
Speaker 1: on the radio of all time, but now I think
15:39
Speaker 1: two people share that title, Van Miller and Kevin Harlan.
15:43
Speaker 1: Harlan will call the Super Bowl on the radio for
15:46
Speaker 1: Westwood One for the twelfth consecutive year, and he joined
15:49
Speaker 1: Dave Lapham and me for a few minutes on Friday's
15:52
Speaker 1: Bengals pep Rally show, and Dave good to be on
15:56
Speaker 1: with you guys. How Sponnie is this? I had a
15:59
Speaker 1: terrific for you're sitting and for the team, and for
16:02
Speaker 1: you two guys in particular I know and respect so much.
16:05
Speaker 1: I'm so happy for you. And the weather's great. I
16:09
Speaker 1: think Sunday is going to be a great day as well.
16:11
Speaker 1: And I managed just to watch that one unfold. So, Kevin,
16:14
Speaker 1: you had the Bengals multiple times during the season. How
16:18
Speaker 1: surprised are you that they're in Super Bowl fifty six? Well,
16:22
Speaker 1: you know, I kind of saw them at their best
16:24
Speaker 1: and their worst. I saw them, you know, win on
16:26
Speaker 1: the road in the division and look commanding doing it.
16:30
Speaker 1: And then I saw him in New York against the
16:32
Speaker 1: Jets and Trent Green and I had that game and
16:36
Speaker 1: that's when that first time starter at four hundred plus
16:38
Speaker 1: through the air, and the Bengals, I think, going into
16:41
Speaker 1: that game, if I'm not mistaken, were the number one
16:44
Speaker 1: team in the AFC. They were like five and two,
16:47
Speaker 1: does ent sound about right? And there were number one
16:49
Speaker 1: in the AFC, and we came on that day talking about,
16:53
Speaker 1: you know, can they handle success? And as it turns out,
16:57
Speaker 1: you know, here they are, but you can't help. But
17:00
Speaker 1: that teams like that, the way it turned out, and
17:03
Speaker 1: the responsibility of being in the position of being the
17:07
Speaker 1: hunted and not the hunter, and they were being the
17:10
Speaker 1: hunted even then, you know, has helped shape them and
17:13
Speaker 1: made them the team they are right now. It's never perfect,
17:17
Speaker 1: there are always flaws, but that season told the story
17:21
Speaker 1: and the team grew. I think from that loss, they won,
17:24
Speaker 1: you know, from that point on, and they really collected
17:27
Speaker 1: themselves and certainly the rest is history, not the least
17:30
Speaker 1: of which was the big winned Arrowhead a couple of
17:32
Speaker 1: weeks ago. So I always think that all the things
17:35
Speaker 1: that go through as people and teams always builds to
17:38
Speaker 1: what we become in those days. As tough as they
17:41
Speaker 1: were at times, they made the Bengals what they are
17:44
Speaker 1: right now. In my good are they a good team?
17:46
Speaker 1: Only they are right now? They were my dark horse
17:50
Speaker 1: from the beginning of the fourteen teams in because we
17:54
Speaker 1: saw them five times on CBS. I thought I watched
17:58
Speaker 1: their defense, I knew how they played. I saw the quarterback.
18:00
Speaker 1: I knew how he played. We saw the three elite
18:03
Speaker 1: receivers in the thousand yard back, and we saw the
18:06
Speaker 1: developing offensive line and the continuity that was being traced
18:10
Speaker 1: game by games, So we knew the story. I think
18:14
Speaker 1: they kind of sprung themselves by surprise in the rest
18:16
Speaker 1: of the country, but not us. We knew, we saw,
18:19
Speaker 1: and we've enjoyed it, and I'm thrilled that they're here.
18:22
Speaker 1: Our guest is Kevin Harland. He will call the super
18:24
Speaker 1: Bowl for Westwood one with former Super Bowl winning quarterback
18:28
Speaker 1: and this is a tremendous quarterback matchup Joe Burrow Matthew Stafford,
18:32
Speaker 1: very different stages of their career. How big a part
18:35
Speaker 1: of the storyline is that? In your opinion, Kevin, I
18:39
Speaker 1: think Joe is the singular story headline. I think that
18:45
Speaker 1: to me, I mean, you could look at eighteen thousand
18:48
Speaker 1: different things we could start talking about, you know, the
18:51
Speaker 1: matchup of Rams and whoever heat covers and handling Aaron
18:55
Speaker 1: Donald or you know all these different things. Well, the
18:58
Speaker 1: secondary hold against the past. Stafford can the Corral Cooper Cup.
19:02
Speaker 1: But to me, if you're going to pick one, and
19:05
Speaker 1: that's kind of what we're all being asked here in
19:07
Speaker 1: the last couple of days. To me, it will be
19:10
Speaker 1: Joe's escapability. His ability to run an arrowhead against the Chiefs,
19:16
Speaker 1: I thought was monumental, and I thought that, you know,
19:21
Speaker 1: with the rush that he's going to get and it
19:23
Speaker 1: will be fierce all day long. And for the offensive line,
19:27
Speaker 1: which is still in developing stages and still trying to
19:31
Speaker 1: get its footing, although allowed only one sack against the Chiefs,
19:36
Speaker 1: that is going to be the battle. Will he have
19:38
Speaker 1: enough time to let the receivers run their routes and
19:41
Speaker 1: if he doesn't, is he able to escape and buy
19:44
Speaker 1: more time? And if he has more time, can he
19:47
Speaker 1: complete the throw or does he have to do it
19:49
Speaker 1: with his own running ability? And I think he can
19:52
Speaker 1: do all of it. I think he can run what
19:54
Speaker 1: he wants. I think he can throw any wants. He's
19:56
Speaker 1: so smart. And the intangible from a distance is to
20:03
Speaker 1: watch his leadership and his calm, because I think that really,
20:08
Speaker 1: you know, puts the hand on the rudder for the team.
20:11
Speaker 1: I think they react the way he reacts in his
20:13
Speaker 1: look and his demeanor is everything for that ball club.
20:16
Speaker 1: Our thanks to Kevin Harland and that's going to do
20:18
Speaker 1: it for this episode of the Bengals Booth Podcast, brought
20:21
Speaker 1: to you by Ultimate Bengals, the free to play next
20:23
Speaker 1: level Fantasy football game, and by on Location, the official
20:28
Speaker 1: hospitality partner of the NFL. If you haven't done so already,
20:31
Speaker 1: please subscribe to this podcast, and if you have a minute,
20:34
Speaker 1: give it a rating or share a comment that helps
20:37
Speaker 1: more Bengals fans find us. I'm Dan Horde, and thanks
20:40
Speaker 1: for listening to The Bengals Booth Podcast