The Bengals wide receiver legend will be back in the Queen City this weekend.
This weekend, not only will former Cincinnati Bengals tight end Tyler Eifert be in town to act as the Ruler of the Jungle, but wide receiver legend T.J. Houshmandzadeh will be in town as well. He’s partnering with Crown Royal, the award-winning Canadian whisky company, to bring exclusive merchandise and giveaways and raise money through their Purple Bag Project.
He will be rolling into town on the Crown Royal Rig, an 18-wheel truck, and tailgating outside Paycor Stadium with fans before the Bengals take on the Ravens at 1 pm Sunday afternoon.
The rig has been all over the country since the season began, and their next stop is in the Queen City. With it will come a Crown Royal Country Store so that fans can buy exclusive merchandise. Fans will be able to pack care packages for U.S. military members along with Houshmandzadeh for Crown Royal’s Purple Bag Project. Fans will also be able to sign up for sweepstakes to win merchandise, prizes, or tickets to Super Bowl LIX.
I was able to catch up with the former wide receiver on Wednesday afternoon, where we talked about his partnership with Crown Royal, the current Bengals, and even shared his thought on a fun hypothetical.
So why don’t you tell me a little bit about what you’re doing with Crown Royal this weekend in Cincinnati for the Raiders game.
Man, this Crown Royal partnership with the NFL, myself, you know, being obviously a former player, packing bags for Crown Rails, Purple Bag Project for the fans since we got some of the best fans, so you just never know what may happen. But Crown Royal’s Royal Rig, you can’t miss it. As soon as you see it, you just come on and pull up, have fun. But the partnership that we’re doing with Crown Royal, their unwavering support for the military, and things that they’ve done in the community, I’m just glad that they chose me to partner with them.
So where are you going to be at in Cincinnati?
We are going to be right outside Paycor Stadium. You’re going to see the Crown Royal royal rig telling all the fans, all you got to do is pull up. We’re going to have some fun.
Talk about the Bengals. The expectations were through the roof heading into the year. What do you think has gone wrong?
It’s frustrating. Offensively, we’re up and down. Defensively, it’s been tough. We’ve played better as of late, but when we play better, some will say we weren’t playing good teams. You know, we played good against the Panthers, we played good against the Giants, good offensive teams. So the defense had played better. We’re just not making enough plays for me defensively. You go back to the Chiefs game, 4th and 16, that game should be over. We lose. You go back to the Ravens game. That game, we’re up double digits, and with under five minutes left in the game, that game should be over.
What do you think they need to do to fix it?
Honestly, to be honest with you, Jason, it’s hard to fix those types of things during a season, but it can be done. Can Joe Burrow, Ja’Marr Chase, and this offense score enough points to where now the opposing offense has to throw the ball more and they can’t just stick to the run? Because that’s our Achilles’ heel is stopping the run. So now if you can force the other team to throw the ball, now Trey Hendrickson can rush the passer, we can play more pass defense. We can disguise our looks and our coverages. That will help.
Joe Burrow says they have to probably go 7 and 2 in the last nine games to get a Wild Card spot. Do you think they can do it?
It’s possible, man. I know we play the Raiders, then the Ravens, and so we should have beat the Ravens. We should have beaten them the first time. So what says we can’t beat them this second time? But it’s not going to be easy, though. That’s when you go Raiders, Ravens, Chargers. Who’s going to be right there in the thick of things?
And then the Steelers with that defense, Cowboys. By that time, the Cowboys may have crashed out. So we’re not worried about the Cowboys if that’s the case. Titans, Browns, Broncos, Steelers, again, it’s not going to be easy, but with what we have on offense, if Joe and Ja’Marr can stay healthy, we can get it done.
I want to take the big three that were in Cincinnati at wide receiver. You got Ja’Marr Chase, you got Tee Higgins, you got Tyler Boyd. And I want to put them up against the big three in their prime: Chad Johnson, T.J. Houshmandzadeh, and Chris Henry. Who wins?
Oh, man, I don’t like doing this, man, because, you know, they’ll call us old heads. The old heads always go with themselves, but honestly, I gotta go with myself, Chad, and Slim. And that’s with all due respect. I think it’s easy, really, to be honest with you. I can still run routes right now. Chad can still run routes right now. Slim, rest in peace, if he was living, he’d still be able to run routes right now.
So I’m gonna take ourselves when it comes to that. But those dudes are remarkable, man. The plays that they’ve been able to make in such a short period of time of being in the league. And that’s where I will give them the advantage is early on in Tee’s and Ja’Marr’s career. They’re much better than me and Chad were in our first four years. It blows us out of the water, but I’m rolling with us.
Do you have a standout moment from your time in Cincinnati that sticks with you?
Oh, man, I would say a couple of them. One, I don’t know why this sticks out to me. I have no idea. Somebody’s asked me this before, and this one game sticks out to me. It was just a regular game. We’re playing the Giants, man, and it was snowing and it was fourth down, and [Jon] Kitna looked at me and he was like, “I’m coming to you. I don’t care what’s the coverage. I’m coming to you.” And it was like three dudes on me. He just threw the ball up, and I jumped up and I caught it. And then, like a play or two later, Chad scores the winning touchdown to win the game. That play sticks out to me.
And then the other game that sticks out to me is playing the Steelers. The playoff game that we lost. Kimo unfortunately rolled into Carson’s knee. I just really felt like that year, I don’t think anybody could stop us. Offensively, we were the best offense in the league at that point. Just an unfortunate circumstance and situation. What could have been? I guess that would be the story. What could have been should be the title. And every year you feel like, oh, we got me, Chad, Carson, Rudy, our offensive line, we’re gonna be right back next year. And it just shows you each season is independent of each other.
I don’t know why I remember that game. It could be partially. At that point, I hadn’t really established myself, and I think that was one of the games that kind of said, okay, he can make plays in crucial situations, but I love Cincinnati. I tell people all the time. When you leave, you’re like, I can’t wait to get up out of here. And then when you leave, you’re like, damn, why’d I leave? It’s almost like you got a girlfriend or a wife and you’re not with her no more. And you be like, damn, I hope she don’t got a boyfriend or a husband, I want her back. And it’s, you know, and so it’s just one of those things you kind of live and learn. And that’s why when I deal with players of today, I try to give them all different situations and scenarios of why you should stay because of what I went through.
It may be different, but, yeah, Cincinnati will always have a place for me because they gave me an opportunity. I never had a job in my life until I went to the Bengals. That was the first job. And I never looked at it as a job, playing football. I love football, and so it was fun for me. So, yeah, we got to get this together this year because they are pissing me off.
All right, last question for you. What’s the final score on Sunday?
Oh, man. So you know, I got a little ties to the Raiders team. Jason, I know you notice AP the head coach. That’s my boy. Been knowing for almost 30 years. Obviously, Marvin is coaching with him. Jack Jones. I coached Jack in high school at Long Beach Poly. But with all that being said, we putting belt to ass. We beating them. I’ma say we’ll beat them 31 to 20.
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Who Dey!
