04-27-2022, 10:59 PM
I bet many of you are like me.
I learned to read on the sports page. I learned math by studying baseball and football statistics.
When I was 7, my parents bought me a football outfit (see attached pic). Yes...I put it on every Sunday for the game KNOWING that it helped determine if the Bengals won or lost. And yes, my favorite player became the uniform's #44, RB Doug Dressler. (And yes... I was clearly a doofus, lol).
Like many of you, I went out and played football with my friends virtually every day. My favorite position? Wide receiver.
All these memories came flooding back to me because of a Draft article at Bengals.com about my favorite player growing up: Isaac Curtis. He's probably the strongest early Bengals memory I have. And I will say it: he's the greatest Bengals WR ever. Heck, how many other players have a rule made up for them?
I loved playing WR and here the Bengals were picking one in the 1st round. Watching him that rookie year...wow...he was on another level. Even a 10-year-old could see that. On top of that, the man exuded COOL, from the way he walked to the way he casually flipped the ball over his shoulder after a touchdown. He was like the Shaft of football... even had the same mustache
The two most interesting things about the article were some insights into Curtis' early development. First, he was coached in college by Don "Air" Coryell. In fact, without Coryell, we may never have seen Curtis; it was he that switched Curtis from RB to WR. Second, Ken Riley took extra time with Curtis to teach him how to better run routes.
And whenever I want to beat myself up over what "could" have been with the Bengals (we Bengals fans have many of those moments), I think about what it would have been like if Greg Cook never got hurt. Cook to Curtis.... Heck, if Bob Trumpy could average 22.6 ypc with Cook, imagine what Curtis would have done.
Anyway, here's the article: https://www.bengals.com/news/inside-the-drafting-of-isaac-curtis-and-how-he-helped-the-bengals-change-the-gam
I learned to read on the sports page. I learned math by studying baseball and football statistics.
When I was 7, my parents bought me a football outfit (see attached pic). Yes...I put it on every Sunday for the game KNOWING that it helped determine if the Bengals won or lost. And yes, my favorite player became the uniform's #44, RB Doug Dressler. (And yes... I was clearly a doofus, lol).
Like many of you, I went out and played football with my friends virtually every day. My favorite position? Wide receiver.
All these memories came flooding back to me because of a Draft article at Bengals.com about my favorite player growing up: Isaac Curtis. He's probably the strongest early Bengals memory I have. And I will say it: he's the greatest Bengals WR ever. Heck, how many other players have a rule made up for them?
I loved playing WR and here the Bengals were picking one in the 1st round. Watching him that rookie year...wow...he was on another level. Even a 10-year-old could see that. On top of that, the man exuded COOL, from the way he walked to the way he casually flipped the ball over his shoulder after a touchdown. He was like the Shaft of football... even had the same mustache
The two most interesting things about the article were some insights into Curtis' early development. First, he was coached in college by Don "Air" Coryell. In fact, without Coryell, we may never have seen Curtis; it was he that switched Curtis from RB to WR. Second, Ken Riley took extra time with Curtis to teach him how to better run routes.
And whenever I want to beat myself up over what "could" have been with the Bengals (we Bengals fans have many of those moments), I think about what it would have been like if Greg Cook never got hurt. Cook to Curtis.... Heck, if Bob Trumpy could average 22.6 ypc with Cook, imagine what Curtis would have done.
Anyway, here's the article: https://www.bengals.com/news/inside-the-drafting-of-isaac-curtis-and-how-he-helped-the-bengals-change-the-gam
