Welcome back to the latest edition of the Ottawa presented by Trader Joe's.

I'm Bruce Fulf and joined, as always, by my colleague from The Athletic, Stuart Mandel,

Stu, you and I are both Bengals fans now.

One, because you grew up there, me because some of the LSU guys that I liked ended up

going there and changing the franchise, but they could not beat the Chiefs in Arrowhead

back-to-back years. How are you taking this loss? Well, it's one thing to lose by three points

to Pat Mahomes in the AFC championship game. I can take that. But to lose in the way they did.

And this is why, if you remember on this podcast around this

time a year ago, I was kind of dipping my toes back in the world of fandom. I wasn't sure if I

could quite go all the way in. This year I've been all the, these playoffs I've been all the way in.

And this is why I don't necessarily think it was a great idea to start emotionally investing myself.

So we covered Joseph Osai in college. I remember, in fact, covering him against Joe Burrow

in the 2019 LSU Texas game. Good player. Can't say I had an opinion one way or the other.

Now, here I am, it's only two years later. And when he pushes him out of

bounds for the late hit that ultimately costs him the game, I'm texting my Bengals body going,

what a moron. I can't believe he did that. I can't, you know, now I've calmed down since then.

But I don't think it's a healthy place to be in when you're calling an adult athlete a moron. I'm sorry, Joseph Fasai. I understand. I calm back down. But that is a tough way. If you're going to lose and miss your chance of the Super Bowl, that is a tough way to do it. Yeah. I also, Joseph Fassai plays really well for them. It was just that moment where i think i saw something on

my timeline rich ganon who was obviously was a terrific quarterback for the raiders and a league mbp i

think even um at one point he said something he talked about just you know you're sitting and

watching it on tv and at the same time he said you know if you're a player you're out there running and you're just trying watching it on TV. And at the same time, he said, you know, if you're a player, you're out there running

and you're just trying to, trying to get him out of bounds or get, you know, or tackle him.

And it's like you're going full speed and you lose track for a second of where you are on the field.

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