Latest / Bengals Booth Podcast / Bengals Booth Podcast: ABC

Transcript

Bengals Booth Podcast: ABC · Bengals Booth Podcast

0:03
Speaker 1: Hi, get everybody. I'm Dan Horde and thanks for downloading
0:06
Speaker 1: the Bengals boot Podcast the ABC easy as one two three. Addition,
0:14
Speaker 1: as I introduce you to one of the guys that
0:16
Speaker 1: Zach Taylor hears in his headset during games, Sam Francis.
0:21
Speaker 1: Sam's title is Football Data Analyst, meaning he's the guy
0:24
Speaker 1: who crunches the numbers and advises Zach on when to
0:27
Speaker 1: go for it on fourth down, when to try for
0:30
Speaker 1: a two point conversion, when to start calling timeouts, late
0:33
Speaker 1: and a half, etc. I'll talk to Sam about his
0:36
Speaker 1: path to Cincinnati and how he does his job during
0:40
Speaker 1: a game. Then I'll spend a few minutes with the
0:44
Speaker 1: goat Anthony Munio's and get his thoughts on the Bengals
0:47
Speaker 1: offensive line improvements and find out what advice he has
0:51
Speaker 1: for the players the year after going to the Super Bowl.
0:56
Speaker 1: The Bengals Booth podcast is presented by Ultimate Bengals. Download
1:00
Speaker 1: Ultimate Bengals ahead of the twenty twenty two season. It's
1:03
Speaker 1: free to play next level fantasy football with fantastic Bengals prizes.
1:08
Speaker 1: Get it now on the App Store and Google Play.
1:11
Speaker 1: If here's a quick reminder that you can have the
1:13
Speaker 1: latest edition of this podcast delivered right to your phone, tablet,
1:16
Speaker 1: or computer by subscribing wherever you get your podcasts. It's
1:21
Speaker 1: the greatest thing since Jungle to the Hall two. This Saturday,
1:27
Speaker 1: June twenty fifth, Bengals super fan Jim Foster is organizing
1:31
Speaker 1: an event with a worthy purpose to try to get
1:34
Speaker 1: more Bengals in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, deserving
1:38
Speaker 1: candidates like Ken Anderson, Ken Riley, and Willie Anderson to
1:41
Speaker 1: name a few. The first Jungle to the Hall event
1:44
Speaker 1: took place last year in Canton, and this year it's
1:47
Speaker 1: being held at the in Between Bar in downtown Cincinnati.
1:51
Speaker 1: I'll be there along with my broadcast partner Dave Lapham,
1:54
Speaker 1: and Willie Anderson will be there too. Tickets are limited
1:58
Speaker 1: and going quickly, so if you're interested act now. You
2:02
Speaker 1: can get all of the details by finding Bengal Jim
2:04
Speaker 1: on social media or by searching for Jungle to the
2:08
Speaker 1: Hall two. Now, let's get to my first guest. Last year,
2:14
Speaker 1: the Bengals ranked in the top five in the NFL
2:17
Speaker 1: from most points scored in the final two minutes of
2:19
Speaker 1: the first half. They were in the top five and
2:22
Speaker 1: fourth down conversion percentage, and they won five games on
2:26
Speaker 1: walk off field goals, indicating skillful clock management in those situations.
2:32
Speaker 1: Sam Francis deserves some of the credit. As the Bengals
2:36
Speaker 1: football data analyst. He advises Zach Taylor on situations like
2:40
Speaker 1: those during games. I spoke to him this week about
2:43
Speaker 1: his job and how he landed it. Sam, let's start
2:47
Speaker 1: with your background. You attended Bates College in Maine, where
2:50
Speaker 1: you had a double major in math and economics. It
2:53
Speaker 1: feels like you should be managing a hedge fund. How
2:56
Speaker 1: did you wind up working in professional sports? So when
2:59
Speaker 1: I was graduating, I thought I was going to take
3:01
Speaker 1: a normal job in Boston, like a bunch of people
3:04
Speaker 1: sort of had a couple lined up. Spoke to one
3:07
Speaker 1: of the fathers on the lacrosse team that I was
3:09
Speaker 1: playing for, and I kind of explained to him what
3:11
Speaker 1: I was thinking about doing, and he sensed little enthusiasm
3:14
Speaker 1: in my voice. So he knew a guy who worked
3:17
Speaker 1: for the Bills put me in contact with him, interviewed
3:20
Speaker 1: for an internship up there, ended up getting it. That
3:22
Speaker 1: was a right win. Sean McDermott was coming in and
3:26
Speaker 1: Rex Ryan was going out, so it was a little
3:28
Speaker 1: bit of a similar transition to what was going on
3:30
Speaker 1: in Cincinnati at the time. Worked for them for four
3:32
Speaker 1: or five months, and then got a job with the
3:34
Speaker 1: Craft Analytics Group, which is based in Foxboro, sort of
3:38
Speaker 1: under the Craft umbrella for the Patriots, but it's on
3:40
Speaker 1: the business side of analytics. And then the Bengals job
3:44
Speaker 1: came open, and in twenty nineteen, when Zach was starting,
3:46
Speaker 1: I threw my name in the ring and ended up
3:48
Speaker 1: in Cincinnati. Did you read Moneyball or Scorecasting or other
3:54
Speaker 1: books about sports analytics and developed an interest in it
3:58
Speaker 1: a little bit? Yeah, it was. It was It always
4:00
Speaker 1: seemed like a pipe three while I was in college,
4:02
Speaker 1: Like you think about how a few few of these
4:04
Speaker 1: jobs there are. Um, I definitely saw a Moneyball. I
4:08
Speaker 1: read it when I was I was younger. Um, but
4:11
Speaker 1: that it's just I don't know, it's you always expect
4:15
Speaker 1: your want to be able to connect your your passions
4:17
Speaker 1: for math and and analytics and stuff like that with
4:20
Speaker 1: with your passion for sports, but there's just so many people,
4:22
Speaker 1: so few people will get the opportunity to do it. Um.
4:25
Speaker 1: It's It's definitely something I wanted to do, but I
4:28
Speaker 1: don't know's it's always you're always hoping for it, but
4:30
Speaker 1: you never know if it's actually gonna come, and I'm
4:32
Speaker 1: happy happy it did. As you mentioned, you came aboard
4:35
Speaker 1: with the Bengals in Zach Taylor's first year as head coach.
4:38
Speaker 1: Did you have specific marching orders or did you kind
4:41
Speaker 1: of develop the Bengals analytics side of things on your own.
4:47
Speaker 1: There's some ideas that they had in place, things that
4:49
Speaker 1: were that were asked of people from the prior staff.
4:54
Speaker 1: That was sort of why they created the position. It was, Hey,
4:56
Speaker 1: we need to find the skill set to to fit
4:59
Speaker 1: what we're being at to do that we don't really
5:01
Speaker 1: have that skill set in building. So from the coaching side,
5:04
Speaker 1: I kind of worked with them to sort of build
5:06
Speaker 1: it up and make sure that we had systems in
5:08
Speaker 1: place that fit what we needed to do. Right. This
5:10
Speaker 1: thing is so young around the NFL that you probably
5:13
Speaker 1: look at all thirty two people around the league with
5:16
Speaker 1: my title and they probably do thirty two different things.
5:19
Speaker 1: So what we try and focus on is what works
5:22
Speaker 1: for us and solves the problems that we have. The
5:25
Speaker 1: one person who who I always try and give a
5:27
Speaker 1: shout out to who who doesn't get outside. As Tyler
5:30
Speaker 1: grows who's upstairs. So he was building out the scouting
5:33
Speaker 1: system and he's our web developer up there, and he's
5:35
Speaker 1: phenomenal at his job, and he builds that out upstairs
5:37
Speaker 1: and working with the scouts for I think I'm going
5:40
Speaker 1: into my fourth season. I believe this will be his
5:42
Speaker 1: fifth season, if not a little longer. And he does
5:45
Speaker 1: a great job up there. So from a scouting side,
5:47
Speaker 1: work with him a bunch to add what I can
5:50
Speaker 1: add to the system that he's already built out for
5:52
Speaker 1: them upstairs. Sam Francis is our guest. They did a
5:55
Speaker 1: little Internet research, and I'm fairly certain I saw your
6:00
Speaker 1: father played lacrosse. He was an All American at Cornell.
6:04
Speaker 1: He played in the nineteen eighty seven Final four, which
6:06
Speaker 1: I covered because Cornell faced Syracuse and beat Syracuse in
6:10
Speaker 1: the semifinals. How did his athletic success in background influence you?
6:15
Speaker 1: So he coached me in my whole life from when
6:18
Speaker 1: I was young. I picked up a lacrosse stick, probably
6:20
Speaker 1: when I was three or four, throwing the ball around
6:23
Speaker 1: in the backyard with him and my brothers. So he
6:27
Speaker 1: coached me my entire life, all through all through high school.
6:30
Speaker 1: He was my high school acrosse coach. He started the
6:32
Speaker 1: high school across program in New Report God two thousand
6:36
Speaker 1: and eight ish somewhere around there, maybe earlier than that,
6:40
Speaker 1: and he was a great, great influence. I mean, never
6:43
Speaker 1: missed a game while I was in college, was at
6:45
Speaker 1: every football game at the majority of my lacrosse game.
6:48
Speaker 1: So it's kind of that a little bit of a
6:52
Speaker 1: coaching background that I have. Him and my grandfather was
6:55
Speaker 1: the athletic director and coached out in Williston. And it's
6:58
Speaker 1: probably a sub anxiously what drew me to to a
7:01
Speaker 1: position like this Since your dad was an ivy league athlete,
7:05
Speaker 1: did you discuss strategy and xs and ohs growing up
7:08
Speaker 1: or just play like a normal kid would play a
7:11
Speaker 1: little bit of both. I mean, you always want us
7:13
Speaker 1: to go out there and have fun. That sort of
7:14
Speaker 1: his philosophy to lacrosse is it's a free flowing, creative sport.
7:19
Speaker 1: That's it's built under some structure, but it is at
7:22
Speaker 1: a certain point it's up to the players to go
7:24
Speaker 1: out there and execute. You can't can't just have set
7:27
Speaker 1: plays every time. It's a little bit like basketball in
7:29
Speaker 1: that sense. Um, But there's I mean, it was always
7:32
Speaker 1: my coach there's always a little bit talk of strategy
7:34
Speaker 1: and how we were going to play and things of
7:36
Speaker 1: that nature, and who we're playing and how how the
7:38
Speaker 1: matchups fit. So you're a linebackerround the football team at
7:41
Speaker 1: Bates and obviously played lacrosse as well. Do those experiences
7:45
Speaker 1: have a big impact on you now? Definitely? It's I
7:49
Speaker 1: think what this position fills for me that uh, you
7:53
Speaker 1: don't really get in some other jobs. Is that that
7:55
Speaker 1: sense of competitiveness, right, It's you You prepare all offseason,
7:58
Speaker 1: you prepare all week, and you went out and tested
8:00
Speaker 1: on Sunday, and it's measurable you win or you lose.
8:03
Speaker 1: I think that's something that I've always enjoyed, is the
8:06
Speaker 1: preparation and then you get to go actually see the
8:09
Speaker 1: results of that preparation and how it pays off on
8:12
Speaker 1: the field on Sunday. So let's get into the nitty
8:16
Speaker 1: gritty of your job a little bit. On game day?
8:20
Speaker 1: Where are you and what do you have in front
8:23
Speaker 1: of you? So I'm in the booth with all the
8:26
Speaker 1: other coaches talking to Zach and the other coordinators and
8:29
Speaker 1: everyone up there, and I've got all sorts of charts
8:32
Speaker 1: and stuff in front of me. What I always try
8:35
Speaker 1: to mention is that the charts. It's nice to chart
8:39
Speaker 1: everything out, but some of these decisions have to be
8:40
Speaker 1: made in three, four or five seconds, so you don't
8:43
Speaker 1: always have time to reference them. So it's really building
8:46
Speaker 1: it into your brain and making its second nature during
8:48
Speaker 1: the process of making the chart, and then during game
8:50
Speaker 1: day it's you don't always have time to reference that.
8:53
Speaker 1: So it's nice to have, but it's a little bit
8:54
Speaker 1: of comfort paper. At a certain point, can you have
8:58
Speaker 1: a computer or a tablet in front of you or no? Now,
9:01
Speaker 1: the only sort of technology you can have is those
9:04
Speaker 1: surface tablets that have the play or play pictures on them,
9:08
Speaker 1: same ones that they have on the sideline we have
9:10
Speaker 1: up in the booth. But other than that, no computers, iPads,
9:13
Speaker 1: nothing like that. Sam Francis is our guest. Do you
9:17
Speaker 1: wait until Zach asks for your input or do you
9:20
Speaker 1: weigh in on a headset when you feel it's appropriate.
9:23
Speaker 1: Whenever it's appropriate. You're trying to anticipate everything that's coming up.
9:26
Speaker 1: Some of these situations sort of jump up on you
9:30
Speaker 1: and there is really no time to santicipate. You got
9:33
Speaker 1: to just recognize it off the top of your head
9:34
Speaker 1: and process what way you're going to suggest and be
9:37
Speaker 1: able to communicate that very quickly. There are certain ones
9:40
Speaker 1: like the fourth down one, which gets a lot of publicity.
9:43
Speaker 1: That's obviously something you can't anticipate because you know the
9:46
Speaker 1: downs are coming you you sort of give them the
9:48
Speaker 1: heads up and first and second down and just try
9:50
Speaker 1: and find time where there's dead air on the headset
9:52
Speaker 1: to sort of slip in your message. And Zach's not
9:55
Speaker 1: always going to respond, but he hears it, and then
9:58
Speaker 1: he'll always always ask questions if he hasn't. How about
10:01
Speaker 1: during timeouts, timeouts, TV, timeouts, challenges, those are those are
10:06
Speaker 1: always a good time to do. You have time to think,
10:07
Speaker 1: process and there's always a little bit of open air
10:09
Speaker 1: where you have more than five seconds to communicate something.
10:14
Speaker 1: This is a young coaching staff. Do you think that's
10:17
Speaker 1: a factor in being open minded about your input? I
10:21
Speaker 1: think so. I think it helps um, But there's there's
10:25
Speaker 1: people around the whole staff who don't necessarily fit that
10:28
Speaker 1: that that young description, who are open to it as well.
10:31
Speaker 1: I mean Mark Duffner's office, not not to call you
10:34
Speaker 1: old Duff, but using his offices right next to mine,
10:37
Speaker 1: and I do a bunch of work with him, UM
10:39
Speaker 1: throughout the season, throughout the office, in really year round.
10:41
Speaker 1: So it's it is. I think generally it does help,
10:46
Speaker 1: but I do think that that there are people young
10:48
Speaker 1: and old who are open minds to this. So we
10:51
Speaker 1: think of decisions like when to go for it on
10:54
Speaker 1: fourth down, going for a two point conversion is pretty
10:57
Speaker 1: obvious things where you might be involved. But what are
11:00
Speaker 1: other in game decisions that you might weigh in on
11:04
Speaker 1: to help with with with challenges, UM, sort of timing
11:07
Speaker 1: and aggressiveness at the end of the half, just anything
11:10
Speaker 1: that really is about managing the game and less about
11:14
Speaker 1: specific schemes and play calls and things of that nature.
11:17
Speaker 1: UM just sort of while Zach's calling the plays, give
11:20
Speaker 1: him an overview of here's sort of the situation in
11:23
Speaker 1: the game, Here's here's what it looks like going forward,
11:26
Speaker 1: here are some things that could come up, and trying
11:27
Speaker 1: to anticipate, trying to sort of be able to anticipate
11:31
Speaker 1: and give an idea of what's coming, what could be
11:33
Speaker 1: coming down the pipe. While he's focused specifically on, hey,
11:36
Speaker 1: here's the first and second down play calls. Here's we're
11:39
Speaker 1: third in this third and that here's here's what we're
11:40
Speaker 1: going to want to call. Trying to take some of
11:42
Speaker 1: that off his plays that that he can he can
11:45
Speaker 1: focus on play calling as much as he can. So
11:48
Speaker 1: the Bengals were exceptional last year in the so called
11:51
Speaker 1: middle eight last four minutes of the first half, first
11:53
Speaker 1: four minutes of the second half. Do you consider that
11:56
Speaker 1: to be a key stat and was that a big
11:58
Speaker 1: point of pride last year? We've taken a lot of
12:01
Speaker 1: pride in that every season we've been here so far.
12:04
Speaker 1: Last season sort of a lot of it paid off
12:07
Speaker 1: and we were super successful doing it. But it's something
12:09
Speaker 1: that we always focus on. It's the goal at the
12:12
Speaker 1: end of the half for most teams, or really for
12:15
Speaker 1: all teams, is you want to score as the clock
12:17
Speaker 1: ends as little time as possible want it so the
12:20
Speaker 1: other team can't drive back down. And the only way
12:23
Speaker 1: to gain an extra possession of football is to also
12:25
Speaker 1: get the ball at the start of the second half,
12:26
Speaker 1: So you want to score with zeros on the clock,
12:28
Speaker 1: get the ball back and score again. There's it's proven
12:32
Speaker 1: that that that really has an impact on winning. The
12:35
Speaker 1: less time that they have the ball in their hands,
12:36
Speaker 1: it sort of ends up being sometimes close to an
12:39
Speaker 1: hour in real time without the other offense having the ball,
12:42
Speaker 1: and you get it twice in that time, and if
12:44
Speaker 1: you can put fourteen points on the board, that's a
12:46
Speaker 1: big toys winning. We're chatting at Sam Francis, the Bengals
12:50
Speaker 1: data analyst, what do you do in the off season,
12:53
Speaker 1: so it'll start right when the season ends, sort of
12:57
Speaker 1: help the coaches put the past season to bed, whatever
13:00
Speaker 1: reports and stuff they need there they need, sort of
13:01
Speaker 1: turns to a scouting focus from there, help help do
13:05
Speaker 1: can his staff as much as you possibly can with
13:08
Speaker 1: getting ready for the free agency and the draft. And
13:11
Speaker 1: they've by that point. It's sort of the tenth eleventh
13:14
Speaker 1: dollar at that point, so so they've got a lot
13:16
Speaker 1: of stuff. You're trying to just add as much value
13:17
Speaker 1: you can working with Tyler Gross, like I mentioned earlier,
13:21
Speaker 1: and then as soon as that ends, it's getting getting
13:23
Speaker 1: everything we're going to need ready for the season. It's
13:26
Speaker 1: all the projects and pain points that we felt that
13:28
Speaker 1: we didn't have time to accomplish during the season, making
13:31
Speaker 1: sure we've ironed those out and have processes and whatever
13:34
Speaker 1: it may be ready to solve those problems in season,
13:38
Speaker 1: and then working with the new coaches who were on board,
13:40
Speaker 1: and so, what are you guys going to need, What
13:42
Speaker 1: did you have in the past, what are you going
13:44
Speaker 1: to need access to? How can I help you? And
13:46
Speaker 1: just get them familiar with what we already have in place,
13:49
Speaker 1: but also pick their brain on what they've done in
13:52
Speaker 1: the past and what we can do to help us here.
13:55
Speaker 1: Do coaches or front office personnel give you projects? Yeah,
13:59
Speaker 1: for sure, I think coachings. Obviously, it's two different types
14:03
Speaker 1: of work. The scouting is more of a long term project, right,
14:06
Speaker 1: so there are some solutions that work for coaching that
14:09
Speaker 1: don't work for that just because the form of information
14:13
Speaker 1: I give you, If it's sort of a short term fix,
14:17
Speaker 1: this is going to get lost in the whole year
14:18
Speaker 1: long process of scouting. Whereas coaching, it's you're asking me
14:21
Speaker 1: a question on Monday, You're using that to put it
14:23
Speaker 1: in the game plan on Tuesday, it's installed on Wednesday,
14:25
Speaker 1: and a couple of weeks later you may want to
14:28
Speaker 1: reference that, but rarely you do. It's sort of a
14:31
Speaker 1: new game plan each week. So it's two different types
14:33
Speaker 1: of questions and information. Once more long term, one short term,
14:37
Speaker 1: but definitely definitely get projects from both sides. So when
14:42
Speaker 1: I was in college watching sporting events with my broadcasting
14:45
Speaker 1: want to be fellow students, kids that were not prospective
14:50
Speaker 1: broadcasters used to hate it because we'd be picking apart
14:53
Speaker 1: the announcers the whole time. We couldn't just watch the
14:55
Speaker 1: game for the game's sake. Do you watch all sporting
14:59
Speaker 1: events with analytics in mind? Yeah, I think it's it's
15:03
Speaker 1: that's part of my job as I watch all the
15:05
Speaker 1: situations in the league or situations from around the league
15:09
Speaker 1: each week, so I'm already watching those with with that eye.
15:13
Speaker 1: And then if it's whatever, if it's Monday night football
15:16
Speaker 1: or Thursday night football and I'm not in the office,
15:19
Speaker 1: I do end up watching it that way. And then
15:21
Speaker 1: it hasn't fled a little bit into other sports where
15:24
Speaker 1: watching the Celtics in this past this past playoff run
15:28
Speaker 1: that they had and the little trick they did where
15:31
Speaker 1: I think there was three minutes twenty seconds or so
15:34
Speaker 1: left and they scored and the ball rolls out of
15:36
Speaker 1: bounds and they let the clock take before they picked
15:38
Speaker 1: it up a toss to the ref. They about twenty
15:41
Speaker 1: seconds bleed off before they passed it in because they
15:43
Speaker 1: think they're abut ten or so at that point. Yeah,
15:45
Speaker 1: there are little clock tricks in every sport that that
15:48
Speaker 1: maybe I'm not aware of. So there was a playoff
15:51
Speaker 1: game several years ago where the Patriots used an ineligible
15:55
Speaker 1: receiver to confuse the Ravens and it led to a
15:57
Speaker 1: rule change in the offseason the next year. And then
16:00
Speaker 1: more recently, in another playoff game, the Titans took a
16:02
Speaker 1: few minutes off the clock late in the game by
16:04
Speaker 1: having intentional penalties that was against the Patriots before they punted,
16:08
Speaker 1: and that led to a rule change. Without giving away
16:12
Speaker 1: any secrets, are there still loopholes in the rules that
16:16
Speaker 1: you dream of exploiting in the right situation. Yeah, there's
16:20
Speaker 1: there's a few. Um they've gotten. They've done a very
16:24
Speaker 1: good job of sort of closing the big ones, but
16:27
Speaker 1: there's a few that we've recognized, and there very unique,
16:31
Speaker 1: niche situations that probably will never come up. That's one
16:35
Speaker 1: thing I learned early on working with Dan Pitcher that
16:38
Speaker 1: I did in the first year is how you got
16:39
Speaker 1: to prepare for everything. And some of this stuff is
16:41
Speaker 1: probably never going to come up, but you've got to
16:43
Speaker 1: treat it as if it is. You've got to take
16:44
Speaker 1: it seriously, and you've got to have a plan for
16:46
Speaker 1: if because because the worst thing is if it comes
16:49
Speaker 1: up and you recognize if it aren't prepared to sort
16:52
Speaker 1: of take advantage of it or to handle that situation.
16:55
Speaker 1: So that's that's one of my jobs is to know
16:57
Speaker 1: the rule book inside and out and be able to
16:59
Speaker 1: advise act when those sorts of things come up. But
17:03
Speaker 1: there's there. They've done a really good job of making
17:05
Speaker 1: sure that there aren't those those little loopholes in the
17:08
Speaker 1: rule book like you mentioned. How does a data analyst
17:13
Speaker 1: deal with luck? I think that's football. I think that's
17:16
Speaker 1: what makes football as successful of business as it is.
17:20
Speaker 1: That's why it has the popularity. It's it's not predictable.
17:24
Speaker 1: Um it's Baseball is probably the most predictable and that's
17:26
Speaker 1: the example. But that's what makes football. Football makes football
17:31
Speaker 1: great is on any given Sunday, you don't know who's
17:34
Speaker 1: going to win, right, and it is predictable to a sense.
17:36
Speaker 1: That sort of my job is to try and make
17:38
Speaker 1: it as predictable as possible and be able to predict
17:41
Speaker 1: certain things that are going to come up. But that's
17:44
Speaker 1: that's why people love football. Is on any given Sunday,
17:47
Speaker 1: any team can come out on top. So I hear
17:50
Speaker 1: from a lot of aspiring young sportscasters who would like
17:53
Speaker 1: to get into broadcasting. I imagine a lot of young
17:55
Speaker 1: people would like to do what you're doing right now.
17:57
Speaker 1: What advice do you give them? Find a way gain experience.
18:00
Speaker 1: That's what I always tell them. There's battle thirty two
18:05
Speaker 1: of these jobs, but there's I mean there's more than that,
18:07
Speaker 1: because obviously teams have multiple people in certain positions, but
18:10
Speaker 1: there's very few of these jobs. And what people are
18:12
Speaker 1: always looking for in a job is you have to
18:14
Speaker 1: have experience, right, and that's a tough thing to get
18:18
Speaker 1: for this job because there's only so many sports teams
18:20
Speaker 1: that you can go work for that have these positions.
18:22
Speaker 1: So I always tell them, you're always going to lead
18:25
Speaker 1: with Hey, I want to, like I mentioned earlier, connect
18:27
Speaker 1: my passions for math and analytics with my passion for sports.
18:30
Speaker 1: That's awesome. That's that's great, Like, you can't do this
18:34
Speaker 1: job without that. But I always look for the follow
18:37
Speaker 1: up of So I did whatever right. I did this
18:40
Speaker 1: project on my own time. It was my thesis or
18:43
Speaker 1: for this class, whatever it may be. I took this internship.
18:46
Speaker 1: One of the big ones now is Michael Lopez, who's
18:49
Speaker 1: the director of Analytics with the NFL, is actually a
18:52
Speaker 1: Bates grad as well. So he runs every year this
18:56
Speaker 1: competition called the Big Data Bowl, and it's open or
19:00
Speaker 1: He takes actual NFL data to the next gen stats
19:03
Speaker 1: data I think this past year at PFF Data as well,
19:05
Speaker 1: and he provides it publicly to anyone who wants to
19:07
Speaker 1: enter the competition. You get to work with real NFL
19:11
Speaker 1: data and solve problems brainstormed by real NFL people, coaches, scouts, etc.
19:17
Speaker 1: And you get to submit a project. It's part of
19:21
Speaker 1: the competition, and there's judges. I believe a couple of
19:25
Speaker 1: years ago the new GM of the Vikings, Questia Dopelmenta,
19:30
Speaker 1: was a judge in it. So there are real NFL
19:32
Speaker 1: people looking at this, and to me, that's probably the
19:34
Speaker 1: greatest way to gain experiences is to solve actual NFL
19:39
Speaker 1: problems with actual NFL data and have them judge by
19:41
Speaker 1: actual NFL people. I don't think it gets much better
19:43
Speaker 1: than that. So that's I always point people in that
19:46
Speaker 1: detection of if you're looking to do this, you've got
19:48
Speaker 1: to sort of take initiative to gain experience. It's not
19:50
Speaker 1: an easy thing, but here's sort of a competition and
19:54
Speaker 1: a resource that's out there for you to do. So.
19:56
Speaker 1: Did you write a football related thesis, Abates did. I
20:00
Speaker 1: wrote about, uh, like salary cap inefficiency and sort of
20:05
Speaker 1: how intra team wage disparity effects winning in the NFL.
20:10
Speaker 1: Looking back on it, I would probably do the entire
20:12
Speaker 1: thing differently. Um, sort of, that's I mean, that's that's
20:15
Speaker 1: gaining experience, that's learning from learning from your experiences. I
20:19
Speaker 1: feel the same way about the stuff I did in Buffalo.
20:21
Speaker 1: It's you learn, you learn new processes, you learn new
20:25
Speaker 1: strategies and different analytical tactics, and you sort of apply
20:28
Speaker 1: those as you go on. And then two three years
20:30
Speaker 1: everything moved so fast that you look back and you're like,
20:32
Speaker 1: I can't believe that that's that's the that's the strategy
20:35
Speaker 1: that I took, and that's how I decided to do it.
20:37
Speaker 1: But um, yeah, it's I did, and it was It
20:40
Speaker 1: was a good, good learning experience for me and wasn't
20:42
Speaker 1: as intentional as I try and tell people to be
20:44
Speaker 1: about gaining experience. But looking back on it, it was
20:47
Speaker 1: one of the things that I was able to talk
20:48
Speaker 1: about at least tep people in interviews that Hey, I
20:51
Speaker 1: did this, and this is sort of why I know
20:53
Speaker 1: this is. This is an initiative I took to sort
20:55
Speaker 1: of propel me to this type of career final thing
20:59
Speaker 1: for Sam France, how many of the players do you think,
21:02
Speaker 1: no and understand what you do? There's a few, there's
21:06
Speaker 1: a few. I'm sort of that guy who's that who's around.
21:09
Speaker 1: My office is right on the catwalk that overlooks the
21:12
Speaker 1: weight room, so they probably all see me. I interact
21:14
Speaker 1: with some of them sometimes and I don't explain to
21:17
Speaker 1: them what I do, but I think some of them
21:19
Speaker 1: are aware, just through asking questions to the coaches and whatnot.
21:22
Speaker 1: But yeah, my office is my doors open. If anyone
21:26
Speaker 1: want to come and discuss it, I'll give them a
21:28
Speaker 1: full rundown of it. Sam, this has been fun. I
21:31
Speaker 1: appreciate your time and look forward to seeing you at
21:33
Speaker 1: to training camp. Yeah. Thanks, Dan, I appreciate you. Sam
21:37
Speaker 1: mentioned the NFL's annual Big Data Bowl competition, where contestants
21:42
Speaker 1: can win cash prizes based on their football research, and
21:45
Speaker 1: you can find a bunch of those projects online. For example,
21:48
Speaker 1: one of the finalists this year was titled Punt Returns
21:52
Speaker 1: Using the Math to find the path sounds like it's
21:56
Speaker 1: right up, Darren Simmons Alley. If you want to check
21:59
Speaker 1: out some of the research, just search for Big Data Bowl.
22:04
Speaker 1: Before I get to my next guest, here's an invitation
22:06
Speaker 1: to grab your yoga mat and join HUDE on Saturday,
22:10
Speaker 1: June twenty fifth at nine am for Namas Day Yoga
22:13
Speaker 1: on the field at Paul Brown Stadium. Register now at
22:16
Speaker 1: Bengals dot com slash Yoga. It's presented by Cott Nell
22:20
Speaker 1: in partnership with Kroger and Title Babe Period Bank. Anthony
22:26
Speaker 1: Munio's has been a member of the Pro Football Hall
22:28
Speaker 1: of Fame since being enshrined in nineteen ninety eight, his
22:31
Speaker 1: first year of eligibility. But now he's also working for
22:35
Speaker 1: the Hall in a new position called the Chief Football
22:39
Speaker 1: Relationship Officer. He'll help promote the Hall of Fame, engage
22:42
Speaker 1: with prospective business partners, and be involved in philanthropic efforts.
22:47
Speaker 1: The Hall of Fame could not have made a better choice.
22:51
Speaker 1: I caught up with Anthony this week at a golf
22:53
Speaker 1: event featuring the Cincinnati chapter of the NFL Alumni Association.
23:00
Speaker 1: Anthony the Bengals had an obvious weakness to address in
23:02
Speaker 1: the offseason, and they did by signing three veteran established
23:06
Speaker 1: offensive lineman. What was your reaction, Well, I think I
23:09
Speaker 1: go back to I forget what press conference it was
23:12
Speaker 1: when Zach said, just believe in our process, you know,
23:15
Speaker 1: because I mean the first two years quite frankly, but
23:17
Speaker 1: you could see things turn into culture and stuff. So
23:21
Speaker 1: that's what I continue to be impressed with is there
23:24
Speaker 1: was that glaring weakness and man, they didn't waste any time.
23:29
Speaker 1: And I was really happy and impressed that they went
23:31
Speaker 1: after you know, Kappa and Harris and Collins right away
23:35
Speaker 1: and fill that need because you know, so many times
23:37
Speaker 1: teams go to the draft. Now you bring it in
23:39
Speaker 1: young guys that have to step in. Well, now you
23:41
Speaker 1: got some guys at a couple of Super Bowl rings
23:44
Speaker 1: and you know, another guy that played for a pretty
23:45
Speaker 1: good football team with the Cowboys. So with that being said,
23:50
Speaker 1: I'm excited about what's going on. I mean not only that,
23:53
Speaker 1: but then you lose Uzama, they go ahead and get hurt.
23:55
Speaker 1: I mean, so it's like, Okay, we lose somebody, let's
23:57
Speaker 1: get it. We have weakness. So I really like what's
23:59
Speaker 1: going on. Have you looked at those three offensive lineman
24:02
Speaker 1: closely over the years. Do you have any thoughts on
24:05
Speaker 1: any of the three? I really haven't. I haven't watched
24:08
Speaker 1: them a whole lot. But I guess anytime you come
24:11
Speaker 1: to another team and you started on a super Bowl
24:14
Speaker 1: team and you got a ring, you gotta be pretty good.
24:16
Speaker 1: And you're playing with, I guess, a pretty good quarterback,
24:18
Speaker 1: and so you're protecting, you know, one of the best ever.
24:22
Speaker 1: And then Collins a little concern there, you know, on
24:24
Speaker 1: what happened. But you know, talking to Frank Pollock, who
24:28
Speaker 1: is there and coached him, he says, pretty good talent.
24:30
Speaker 1: I guess, maybe a couple injuries in the past and
24:32
Speaker 1: a couple ofs but hopefully, you know, he comes in
24:34
Speaker 1: and stays healthy and and really plays up to where
24:38
Speaker 1: he says he can. So not Pollock, but Collins says
24:42
Speaker 1: he can. So No, I really haven't watched any of
24:45
Speaker 1: the three at all, so I'm looking forward to watching them.
24:47
Speaker 1: Left guard is open. It sounds like the top two
24:50
Speaker 1: candidates going into training campbell by Jackson Carmen and the
24:53
Speaker 1: guy they drafted this year, Cordell Volson. Are you confident
24:57
Speaker 1: that a player will emerge at left guard that will
24:59
Speaker 1: be able to a solid job. Well, I hope. So
25:02
Speaker 1: you know, uh Jackson, I mean you look at him
25:04
Speaker 1: and you watch him. I've watched him since you know,
25:06
Speaker 1: high school days in college. He has the ability. I
25:09
Speaker 1: think the main thing is just understanding what he has
25:11
Speaker 1: to do and you know, stepping you know, stepping up.
25:14
Speaker 1: I mean this, uh, this young man they drafted him,
25:17
Speaker 1: and everything I hear about him, he's he's got the
25:18
Speaker 1: mentality and the you know what you love to to
25:21
Speaker 1: see in an offensive linement. So what I love about
25:24
Speaker 1: that is you bring in a guy like that. You've
25:26
Speaker 1: got Carmen who's been here. Competition, you know, if you
25:29
Speaker 1: really want that job, Jackson, you got a guy that's
25:32
Speaker 1: you know, they're high on And that's what I loved
25:34
Speaker 1: when I was playing. You always had somebody, you know,
25:36
Speaker 1: nipping at your heels, and I think that's going to
25:38
Speaker 1: be good. Competition is always great for so you know,
25:41
Speaker 1: hopefully that will happened. You know, they have Joan over
25:44
Speaker 1: there who now has some experience to help out. So uh,
25:47
Speaker 1: you know, we'll see I'd like to see, you know,
25:50
Speaker 1: one of the two just really, you know, boom rise
25:54
Speaker 1: to the top and take it over. Joan is at
25:56
Speaker 1: your old position. Did you see a lot of growth
25:59
Speaker 1: there last year? I did. I mean, you know, I
26:00
Speaker 1: watched him closely, and you know, I've always liked his tenacity.
26:03
Speaker 1: I've always liked his work ethic. I've seen that, you know,
26:06
Speaker 1: there's progress being made, So I'm happy with that. You know,
26:10
Speaker 1: at first, you know, you know, it's hard to say, Hey,
26:13
Speaker 1: I'm a little concerned for it. But the guy's young.
26:15
Speaker 1: I mean, it's young when you expect people to come
26:17
Speaker 1: in you know, a number one picks to light it
26:19
Speaker 1: on fire. And but I have seen some progress there
26:22
Speaker 1: and I'm excited about to see how he continues to grow.
26:25
Speaker 1: Where do you like about Frank Pollock? Well, I guess
26:28
Speaker 1: the first thing I like is the technical part of it.
26:30
Speaker 1: Anytime you're teaching sound, fundamental technique, I love. But the
26:34
Speaker 1: fact that he'll get in your face, I love that
26:36
Speaker 1: even more. You know, and guys like that you don't
26:38
Speaker 1: have to be screaming young and all the time you
26:40
Speaker 1: know when to do it, and I'd forget. I don't
26:44
Speaker 1: think I've ever seen I forget. You might want to
26:45
Speaker 1: help me playoff game. He's like by the number, screaming
26:48
Speaker 1: and young, I'm going, yeah, I love that. You know,
26:50
Speaker 1: you know you're going back to I hate to do this,
26:52
Speaker 1: but when Jim mcnallyly was my coach, if something happened,
26:55
Speaker 1: I'd never come off the field where he wasn't at
26:57
Speaker 1: least three or four yards on the field looking up. Okay,
27:00
Speaker 1: what happened? What happened, and don't tell me. You don't know.
27:03
Speaker 1: So you know accountability And that's what I love about Frank.
27:05
Speaker 1: He's gonna he's gonna give you the right things to
27:07
Speaker 1: really put you in the right position. But he's not
27:10
Speaker 1: one that's gonna shy away from holding the accountable. And
27:13
Speaker 1: I love that about him. I was there at training
27:15
Speaker 1: camp last year when Joe Burrow approached you, stuck out
27:18
Speaker 1: his right hand and said, mister money was my name
27:20
Speaker 1: is Joe, which I thought was awesome. What's impressed you
27:23
Speaker 1: most about Joe Burrow? Well, if you remember that day too,
27:25
Speaker 1: he sat there and UH really encouraged Lapp and I
27:28
Speaker 1: to be around a lot, and other guys to be around.
27:30
Speaker 1: How much they appreciated that. I mean that to me,
27:33
Speaker 1: spoke volumes that you know, he got a young quarterback.
27:36
Speaker 1: A lot of times they kind of look, do I
27:37
Speaker 1: go over? Do I not? And he just came right over,
27:39
Speaker 1: and man, he was bold and I love that. But
27:42
Speaker 1: just watching the way he he handles it. And I'm
27:45
Speaker 1: not inside the facility, so I can't say, but I
27:47
Speaker 1: love watching reaction interaction, and you can you can tell
27:51
Speaker 1: that the guys absolutely love the guy, will follow him
27:54
Speaker 1: and just have fun playing with them. And to me,
27:57
Speaker 1: and not to talk about his physical bility, because that's
27:59
Speaker 1: over the top. I mean, I mean someone who's got
28:02
Speaker 1: been hit that much and did what he did last year,
28:04
Speaker 1: you know, he's a competitor. But I just love the
28:06
Speaker 1: intangibles of him, the leader he is, and you know,
28:11
Speaker 1: I'm sure he gets rattled inside, but he doesn't let
28:13
Speaker 1: you see that he's rattled if something and it always
28:16
Speaker 1: happened if the adversity happens, Man, he pops back and
28:19
Speaker 1: he makes things happen, you know, good after that adversity.
28:23
Speaker 1: So I enjoyed watching him. I really do enjoy watching him.
28:27
Speaker 1: And uh, you know, the kind of reminds me of
28:29
Speaker 1: a guy that I played nine years with and Boomero
28:31
Speaker 1: Science and you know, it's very confident and tremendous leaders
28:35
Speaker 1: and not bad with physical ability and the mental part
28:38
Speaker 1: of it. I mean, it's it's rare if somebody gets
28:42
Speaker 1: him on the mental side of the game. Last thing,
28:45
Speaker 1: he played on two super Bowl teams. What's the biggest
28:48
Speaker 1: challenge the year after going to a super Bowl? From
28:51
Speaker 1: that last game the super Bowl until camp is is
28:55
Speaker 1: really keeping the priorities not being because you're gonna be
28:58
Speaker 1: pulled and tugged to do this and do that, and
29:00
Speaker 1: not let that overtake what you have to do, and
29:03
Speaker 1: that's get ready for another run. And you know, looking
29:05
Speaker 1: back at those two I think there was a little
29:07
Speaker 1: bit of that with us. I think, you know, I
29:09
Speaker 1: got to a super Bowl and now you're speaking here,
29:11
Speaker 1: you're doing this appearance you're doing, and you forget you
29:14
Speaker 1: forget about what you made it possible for you to
29:17
Speaker 1: do those appearances, and that's busting your tail and getting
29:20
Speaker 1: ready and having a great year. So I'd say that's
29:22
Speaker 1: probably the biggest thing, is the distractions of taking away
29:26
Speaker 1: from your preparation. I always appreciate your time. Congratulations on
29:30
Speaker 1: the new position with the Hall of Fame. The Hall
29:32
Speaker 1: could not have found a better ambassador. Well, Dan appreciate
29:35
Speaker 1: it very much. You know, when that came up, I
29:38
Speaker 1: really didn't think that that was something that I'd be
29:40
Speaker 1: looking at. But you know, when I heard there's a
29:42
Speaker 1: lot of board members nominating me, I looked at the
29:44
Speaker 1: job description. I said, Man, this is what I've been
29:46
Speaker 1: doing in the last twenty twenty five years, and I'm
29:48
Speaker 1: thrilled to be representing the entire Hall and everything that
29:51
Speaker 1: it stands for. And I'm looking forward to building this
29:54
Speaker 1: new position with our President Ampany. By the way, he
29:58
Speaker 1: held his annual golf tournament about a week ago to
30:00
Speaker 1: raise funds for the Anthony Munio's Foundation. Over the years,
30:04
Speaker 1: he's awarded more than two and a half million dollars
30:08
Speaker 1: in college scholarship money to students in need. That's going
30:12
Speaker 1: to do it. For this episode of The Bengals Booth
30:14
Speaker 1: podcast presented by Ultimate Bengals, download Ultimate Bengals ahead of
30:19
Speaker 1: the twenty twenty two season. It's free to play next
30:22
Speaker 1: level fantasy football with fantastic Bengals prizes. Get it now
30:27
Speaker 1: on the App Store and Google Play, And if you
30:29
Speaker 1: haven't done so already, please subscribe to this podcast and
30:33
Speaker 1: if you have a minute, give it a rating, or
30:35
Speaker 1: share a comment that helps more Bengals fans find us.
30:40
Speaker 1: I'm Dan Horde and thanks for listening to the Bengals
30:42
Speaker 1: Booth podcast