CHICAGO _ Erick All Jr.'s unique and at the same time quite typical Cincinnati story comes here for Saturday's preseason game (1 p.m.-Cincinnati's Channel 19) against the Bears, where he's expected to get his most action as his hometown Bengals' up-and-coming rookie tight end who likes to mix it up as well as catch it.
Expect All to go All Day.
Or, at least a heck of a lot after playing just two snaps in last Saturday's preseason opener.
Barely nine months removed from a torn ACL during his one season at Iowa, not many people thought he'd be taking these snaps. Except maybe his dad and first coach, Erick All Sr., who knows this route well as a trucker whose longest trip of the work week is Evansville, Ind.
"About another half hour and we'll be there," his dad says of Saturday's kickoff at Soldier Field. "He's a non-stop kid. When he gets after something, he gets after it.
"A lot of kids were scared of contact. But he mixed it up. It didn't matter. Size. I always tried to tell him, practice how you play and turn it up a notch in the games."
That kindergarten lesson reverberates all the way through his last college coach, Kirk Ferentz, heading into his 27th season at Iowa.
"Once we put the equipment on him, it was like 'Holy crap, this guy likes to practice,'' Ferentz says. "He just likes football. And he likes people. He enjoys practice. He goes hard. He goes hard."
If anyone knows how tough an AFC North player has to be, it is Ferentz, there at the creation when Browns head coach Bill Belichick sifted him out of the University of Maine in 1993 to be his offensive line coach.
Ferentz helped build the Ravens' first great team with Pro Football Hall of Fame left tackle Jonathan Ogden and he developed the heart and soul of the franchise when he molded the undrafted Orlando Brown Sr. into one of the top right tackles in the league. The division legacy lives on the Bengals' current team with Orlando Brown Jr. holding down left tackle.
"You're not supposed to have favorites, but I probably had more fun coaching him than anybody. Certainly in my pro career," Ferentz says. "What a great guy. Willed himself into being a good player."
He sees the AFC North in All.
"No question. I'm not saying he's (Rob) Gronkowski, but that was a really good pick when they took him a little bit down the ladder," Ferentz says. "If Erick had stayed healthy all year, he would have been a higher pick. No question about it. I just think his upside is tremendous."
Although All played less than half a season at Iowa, Bengals tight ends coach James Casey loves how much he picked up the elements of Iowa's heavy NFL scheme when it comes to its use of the tight ends.
The Bengals coaches love how All attacks the day and the position and see a smooth, athletic receiver who is a potential two-way threat coming out of the fourth round.
And if anyone knows what an NFL tight end looks like, it has to be Ferentz with his assembly line of Pro Bowlers he's produced in Iowa City. Start with Dallas Clark, run through George Kittle and now there is Sam LaPorta. A total of nine Iowa tight ends have played at least four NFL seasons after leaving a Hawkeyes team coached by Ferentz.
"He's pulled and done all that," Ferentz says. "Some guys like blocking more than others. He likes blocking. He doesn't shy away."
Ferentz chuckles a bit when he recalls All's first practice snap.
"He's off the ball and he had a single back. Typically, guys find a way to get there, but not really," Ferentz says. "Kind of get there and get in the way. But Erick came back and smacked the end. 'Oh, OK.' When you can hear it, that's OK, that's a good thing. He likes to mix it up."
It's been like that since All can remember growing up in Cincinnati's northeast suburbs before graduating from Fairfield High School. One of the first things he can remember is his dad presenting him a rubber football.
"He lined up my fingers with the laces and let it roll off," All says.
But there was that one time he didn't want him to throw it.
"I was in kindergarten in the Super Bowl playing quarterback against Edgewood," All the younger says. "I was all by myself and my dad yelled, 'Go!" and it scared me. It was my first fumble. There was no one around and it rolled out of bounds. We had nothing going the whole game.
"He was a tough coach. He didn't like you playing soft, but he could turn it off and on. He wanted me to have fun, that was the big thing."
All Sr. stopped coaching him at sixth grade and has enjoyed watching. He showed his own brand of toughness without playing football. He couldn't play because he was hit by a car when he was a freshman in high school and broke a growth plate in his foot.
Now he's driving an 18-wheeler, a real-life version of the work ethic his son has replicated on the field. Erick All Jr. also watches his mother come through on the job as an LPN at a doctor's office. They didn't raise a stranger.
"It took him like a week. He knew everybody around here," Ferentz says. "A pleasant guy to be with and visit. That was seamless. Real easy.
"I knew he was a good player. I didn't know he was that good of a kid. You meet him and you're around him for a while and you say, 'I'm glad he's on our team.'"
The family is close enough that All can glance at his phone in the Bengals' locker room and see that his mother and father are having lunch at Skyline Chili about 30 minutes away.
"I'm off on Mondays. That's our thing," Senior says. "She works out there so I drive out to the Ross Skyline when she takes her lunch."
But there's a new agenda Friday. Driving past Evansville.
"My wife is hell-bent. Get off work Friday and we're going," All says.
A Cincy story rolls west.
