GH: I guess being asked to come back as The Ruler gives you an idea of how much you mean around these parts.
AW: Yeah, really cool. As I always say, when people ask me about being a Ram and a Bengal fan or whatever, who do you root for, that kind of stuff, I always say, Listen. I bled for both, so I will forever be both. For me, I will always be a Bengal at heart. It's where all our kids were born and raised. And when I think of all my kids as those little babies and toddlers and running around, I think of living in Fort Thomas, Ky., and Cincinnati being home, and we will always consider that.
GH: You and Miss Louisiana had four children here. What are those little kids doing now?
AW: Man, everywhere. Sarah is a freshman in high school on the dance team dancing on Friday nights. Drew, her twin, plays football at his school. He just started playing football. He's a basketball player, like his dad, and he plays tight end and linebacker, and he just started playing. This is his first year playing every game. He actually plays every down. So he plays on both sides of the ball and loves it. He's always just played baseball and basketball.
Michael, his little brother, is in seventh grade, and I actually coach his team. He plays on a youth football team. He's the edge rusher and tight end, which is what I was. And Katherine is in fifth grade, and she's our artsy kid. Super smart and kills it in school. Always jokes she's going to end up going to some school in London or something when she's in high school. She's wired that way.
GH: You're friends with Joe Burrow, your fellow LSU Tiger. What did you think about the trade for Joe Flacco as Burrow rehabs his turf toe?
AW: It brings some steadiness. I look at it like, it's not that you couldn't have got there with Jake Browning. Obviously, he had some success the last time he had to be in there for Joe Burrow. But bringing in a guy who's experienced it all, seen it all, been a part of it all, probably just brings some calmness to the huddle.
And even though people are saying he's trying to learn on the fly, listen. Joe's played in everything under the sun. There's not a concept he hasn't heard or ever not done. In that sense, he may be somebody who in his head, there may be some chaos trying to figure out everything. But he portrays calm and steady and just who he is.
I think that's really what's going to help them a little bit. Have somebody in there who's pretty confident in what he's doing, how he's doing it. (Sunday in Green Bay) was an awesome effort. Didn't quite get it done. But, shoot, they've got to be proud of the effort of going in there and really in a game where everyone would have considered they had no chance making it a game and really having an opportunity.
GH: To me, Sunday proved again Ja’Marr Chase, another fellow LSU Tiger, is the best player in the league. I mean, that guy almost had a 100-yard game with the new guy a week after getting a 110 with the backup. He's special.
AW: He's definitely that. He's one of the rarest athletes on the planet. It's unfortunate, you know, for Joe to get hurt. You're devastated, heart wrenching. But at the same time, there's a lot of really good football players there, and they've got to keep trying to figure out a way they can be successful this season. And one of the best ways they can do that is Thursday night, shocking everybody and finding a way to win that game.
GH: A win in this series wouldn't be that much of a shock. The way they go after each other.
AW: We've seen it. Listen, on Thursday night that's been the cool part of us having tons of division games. I mean, Rams-Niners supposed to be a Rams blowout. Niners have nobody, and the Niners found a way to win it. The week before that. Seahawks-Cardinals overtime. Seahawks are supposed to win that game. They figure out a way to do it, but by no means was it easy. And then the week before that, Buffalo is supposed to be on top of the world. Miami takes them down to the wire, right? And so that's the thing about division football. There's no script that says you're winning in division games. You have to go out and earn it.
I think Cincinnati gets a chance, not just for what people think, but for themselves that you want to make something out of this season. You do whatever it takes to go out and have the best night possible and build some confidence off of if. If you can go in there and say, "All right, we go beat this Steelers team in our place. we walk out of that game, we have 10 days to get ourselves together with Joe Flacco now as our quarterback, and let's build off this confidence and see if we can go do something special and make a run to get ourselves back in the playoff picture."
And you're not talking about a team that's been clean. Pittsburgh has had some battles themselves. Defensively, they've had some question mark moments. And offensively, they've really kind of simplified a lot of things to try to take care of the football, get the ball out quick. Use some of the guys they have to be kind of more careful with the football. And then, Aaron (Rodgers) makes some of those quick throws and things that he does.
It's not like you're talking about some juggernaut that you have no chance against. This is a much better matchup for the Bengals than last week in Green Bay was, and they'll have an opportunity if they can go out and play well on offense to have some success.