Hello everyone. Welcome to the Believe in Bingle podcast. I'm your host Solomon Wilcox. And today we have a truly very special guest. He's one of the great New York Football Giants, one of the best to ever play for that proud franchise. 12 seasons in the National Football League, a two-time Super Bowl champion. He also does the radio play-by-play and color analyst for the New York Football Giants. And he took some time to come and share with us today, the great Carl Banks. Everyone, Carl, welcome to the show. How you doing, Sal?
I'm doing great. Thanks for having me, man.
Man, look, we got to let people know also, man. Look, you are a member of the Giants Ring of Honor. And when you call games for them each and every Sunday, and I know you've been doing that for what, 19 seasons now? Is that it?
Look, when you say what you need to say when you're calling these games, I know you guys have a standard. You played on some great Giants teams. You played for Bill Parcells, Bill Belichick. Man, look, you guys, you know, you hold one another accountable. And so when we made the trade, I say we, Cincinnati Bengals made the trade for Dexter, I was excited. Everyone in this town is excited. I said, I got to get Carl Banks on here because I know that this past year, Dexter Lawrence was clearly not on top of his game. I think he can play better. A lot of us think that he can play better, but you were very open and honest in terms of holding him accountable. So, I want to have a conversation with you today about what that was all about. What is it that you saw and what is it that we should know here in Cincinnati about Sexy Dexy?
Well, I think first and foremost, Solomon, I think it's worth saying that Bob and I have a really unique situation here in New York where our management and ownership only require us to be honest with the fans because they believe the fans deserve it. They don't want us to carry pompoms into a broadcast booth. Right. And so, I bring a perspective that's fair and it's honest. And, you know, I am number one a Giants fan, right? So, I want these kids to do good. I want every coach that as long as he's wearing a Giants uniform, be it a coach or a player, I want them to have success. You know, and so I'm their biggest defender when they're unjustly criticized in this ecosystem with the fans. But by the same token, I will hold them accountable. Now, and there's some things that are different. There are certain players where you see that they've set a standard of play. Right. And if that standard of play that they've gotten us accustomed to seeing is all of a sudden disappearing and there's no real explanation, and I always, because I've been where those guys are. You've been where those guys are and we don't have all the information. Right. So I always leave some window for explanation and maybe he's going through something. Maybe he's still injured. And in the case of Dexter Lawrence, he had elbow surgery, right? Yeah. And so I left it there. I left it to maybe he's dealing with something, but it's not the same. And I was pretty frank about it in saying that the opponent doesn't respect you anymore, not the guy who is a game wrecker. They don't respect you like that anymore. And you know, people got upset. He was upset about it. And I'm okay with him, you know, being upset because, you know, that shows you got a little pride. But it didn't come off the cuff. I'm looking at a stretch of about four or five games where he was dealing with backups and not a lot of help from those backups, like he was singled out. And I'm like, this never happens. He would eat these guys for lunch. And you know, for you Bengals fans out there, let me just be clear about what you have in Dexter Lawrence. He's a game wrecker. He loves playing the game. Right. So, I hope that that's the guy you have because he's Larry Allen strong. He's Reggie White strong. Like, he's not movable. If he doesn't want to be moved, he's not moving. He's not moving. And then you're moving backwards. He can impose his will on anybody in this league. He's unblockable when he's on his game. That disappeared for a stretch and I questioned it. And when I said what I said, it wasn't, you know, taking a shot at him. I'm looking at the opponent. And then after that was said, I had an opposing coach come up to me and say, 'Hey, don't wake him up. We like him just like he is.' So if that doesn't tell you, yeah, you know what they're thinking of you and they're happy you're not the disruptor that you've normally been. So, and we still don't know whether or not the injury was still bothering him or not. He finished the season relatively strong. And I know there were some contract things of that nature. He's my favorite player. He's still my favorite Giant. But he didn't smile a lot. He just wasn't happy.
Yeah, that's what I wanted to ask you about. I wanted to ask you about that because look, you played a long time in this league and you know, even Joe Burrow even said last year, there was moments where he wasn't having fun. We hear this from a guy like Aaron Rodgers that his love for the game came back after a couple of years with the New York Jets. Man, he was questioning did he still have that love for the game? And I think there are players in our career and the arc of our career at times when the team is struggling. The Giants have been struggling over the last few years. He's been one of the mainstays. I remember two years ago when the Bengals came to MetLife Stadium in that Monday night game. He was phenomenal that night. I thought he gave them a chance to stay in the game and win the game, but they just haven't been able to put it together. How much of some of those things wore on him and sort of led to the year that we saw last season?
Again, I mean, all of those things are a factor. I don't know everything. I'm just, I analyze football. Right. I go by what I see and I always leave some room. If you want to, you know, rebut that, that's fine. But I'm just looking at the football of it. And but I do know he did not have fun last year. And it probably, he probably sat the whole off season thinking about, you know, how miserable it is because they just weren't a very good team. But I thought you can be part of the problem or part of the solution. I thought that as the Giants would move forward, he would be a cornerstone of, you know, really turning the thing around. But, you know, players are businessmen. He wanted a new deal. I never begrudge a player of wanting more money. I think, you know, every player is worth every penny they can get a team to pay them. So, I think from the onset he just wanted out. I don't think he left any room for them to bring him back and that's his prerogative. As a Cincinnati Bengal, he's going to be surrounded with some good players. Probably better in some areas and they just drafted some good players up front, too. So, I hope his joy for the game comes back. He is just, he's just unstoppable when he is, you know, when he's on and he's been on more than he's been off. Let's be clear, right? So, you're not getting a dog, right? Not a dog in the bad sense. His career, he's been consistently good. And then at times he's been great and unblockable whenever he wants to impose his will. I just want nothing but the best for him. And I think, you know, this change of scenery for him could be great. I think, one of the things that was a kind of a telltale sign was that, you know, he, I don't want to say he battled with it, but, you know, he was overweight and, you know, it just didn't seem like it got down. And that's a sign as an athlete that, you know, it is what it is. You know what I mean? In your head, it's like, I ain't busting my tail. And now, I'm not putting words in Dexter's mouth. But when you know when the weight issue, it just plateaus and you're just like, I'm gonna just work where I'm at right now. That just tells you that there's something inside of him that says I'm going to just be what I'm gonna be right now. Right. And that was unfortunate. But like I said, I don't know anything other than what I see. Right. And if nobody is dispelling what I see. And then, you know, there was, you know, his position coach, you know, kind of took offense to what I said, too. But, you know, there were times where the Detroit game overtime, NFL is sudden death, right? If you get the opportunity to score first, game's over. Right. So Detroit gets the ball, Dexter's not in the game in overtime. And I openly question, why don't you have your best player on the field? And the post game or that following week, the coach said it was part of a rotation. And I'm saying, it's sudden death. What is rotation? That rotation never came. Right. So if he was supposed to be in on third down, third down never came. They scored on second down. Right. I'm where I'm from, where you're from, in a competitive situation, in a situation, game on the line, baby. Game's on the line. I don't put my best guy on the sideline and say, 'I'm gonna wait until your turn comes.' Your turn is now. And so there was so much of that there and I'm like, I don't know if he was winded. I don't know. But when he's on the field, they were better in Detroit. During that game.
Go ahead. I'm sorry. Now, I was just going to ask when he is at his best and you've called, I mean, every game that he's played in with the Giants, you've seen him when he's at his best and what he can do for a team and that's what Cincinnati fans are anticipating, they're anticipating the best that Dexter Lawrence has. What does that look like when he's at his best? What does it look like? What does he do for a defense?
He demoralizes offensive players. He literally makes you not want to try to block him. And I think that's, and I'm pretty sure that's what Bengals fans can look forward to. I mean, when I talk about he's got Larry Allen strength and he's functional. He's Reggie White on the inside. I'm not talking about all the other stuff, but he's just hard to block. And he demoralizes you and he lets you know that in a fun-loving way that you're just not gonna block me today. You know, he'll tell you you're not blocking me today. You know, that's the Dexter Lawrence that Giants fans loved. You know, he enjoyed playing it and I'm just hoping that that joy has returned and I suspect that it has.
Yeah. Yeah. He's anticipated, you know, he's got a former college teammate in T. Higgins. You remember BJ Hill. He's been a godsend for the Cincinnati Bengals. In fact, we should just go ahead and send you guys some, you know, some kind of gift, a bouquet of flowers and say thank you for gifting us good defensive linemen because BJ has been phenomenal for the Bengals since he arrived. And now you have given us Dexter Lawrence. We did give you a 10th overall pick for him. But I think the Bengals fans owe the Giants some thank yous because both those guys back together. What does that mean? You know that they're good friends and he was sitting at BJ Hill's house, you know, as the deal was getting done. So it was highly anticipatory that that deal was going to get done because he was sitting with a couple of Bengals while it was happening.
