"I always remember that moment just the way Bill was with his players," Golden says, "and the way he treated me at that moment."
There was also a moment last month at training camp when Golden received the Frank Broyles Award for being named the best assistant coach in college football last season. Broyles' daughter sensed in him a trait her dad had.
"Kindness," she said that day she gave him the trophy in front of the Bengals. As the cameras closed in, Golden called up three guys who worked with him at Notre Dame to get in the photos. Cross, the rookie D-Tackle, and two Bengals defensive assistant coaches, Ronnie Regula and Mike Moon.
"It meant a lot," says Regula, a walk-on tight end/long snapper for Golden when he was the head man at the University of Miami. "He made it about everyone else and not individual success. He knew it included everyone."
Regula has watched Golden in virtually all phases. "He treated me like I was a scholarship player as a walk-on," he says. When Regula got his scholarship in his senior year, he watched Golden add special teams to his head coaching duties. After Golden brought Regula to Notre Dame a few years ago, he gave Regula all of his tight ends info when Regula briefly became a position coach at another school before he landed with the Bengals last season.
"He does a great job balancing being hard on players and knowing he has to have faith in them," Regula says. "His door is always open and it's a genuine relationship."
It is 5:29 a.m. and Golden makes sure to point out the other guys who are in the hallway closest to his office. Defensive line coach Jerry Montgomery. Linebackers coach Mike Hodges. He knows Bengals president Mike Brown is upstairs, too. Forget the traffic. Golden says he gets in at 4:30 so he can beat the pressure.
"There's so much stress in this job. Because, I mean, let's face it, it's a job where people are attacking us, right?" Golden asks. "That's what offenses do. they attack us. So you have offenses attacking you. You have the stress level of the job itself. We don't need internal stress.
"So I come in early. I try to delegate. To make sure things are smooth for the guys, to iron out any issues, and to make sure that everybody feels like they're being the most efficient. I say it all the time. If we're efficient and we're not B.S. in that work and we're not on the internet doing all that, then get in and still see our family, see our kids, and be really productive."
Relationships, he says. In the early-morning white noise, Golden can still see the dinnertime catch against the Fighting Irish from 35 years ago. There's a photo somewhere. Kelly had it painted, and it hangs in the house on the Jersey Shore.
Folklore now, more than anything, he says with a laugh. They'll tell you it was a snow game, but it wasn't. Cold. But no snow.
"Sprint Right 80 Throwback," Golden recalls the play called by quarterback Tony Sacca.
No folklore here. Just a relationship. A moment.
"Recruited his son to Notre Dame," he says triumphantly of linebacker Anthony Sacca.
The clock blinks 5:29 a.m.
"Players don't want to get yelled at when they give up a touchdown," says Golden, turning to his blank slate. "They want solutions."