Special teams coordinator Darrin Simmons, who came with him to the Bengals in 2003, remembers his saying, "I see better than I hear." Defensive quality control coach Louie Cioffi, who was already here when he got here 22 seasons ago, recalls his daily "Do Your Job," mantra that became a must-have T-Shirt.
And so it was that while former Bengals head coach Marvin Lewis did his current job last week as the Raiders assistant head coach, he prepared for the Chiefs watching their game against the Bengals.
That's when he saw director of rehab Nick Cosgray slide into the frame when the ball went to the sidelines.
Lewis promptly fired a text to Cosgray.
"I wanted to know what the heck was going on with his hair," says Lewis with his signature chuckle. "What? Is he a rocker or something?"
What fans see and not hear on Sunday (1 p.m.-Cincinnati's Fox 19) when the Raiders come into Paycor Stadium are the two most accomplished Bengals head coaches ever on opposite sidelines.
In the middle of his sixth season, Bengals head coach Zac Taylor has the most playoff victories with five and is the only one to guide the franchise to back-to-back AFC title games.
Lewis, 66, has the club's longest tenure with 16 seasons, most wins with 131 and most division titles with four. And a slew of people like Cosgray with whom he still stays in contact from around Paycor and Cincinnati, where his relentless foundation centered on education left about $4 million.
"I don't know what the word is. Nostalgic?" Lewis asks. "I don't know what the word is. It was home for a long time."
The Marvin Lewis Community Fund was here so long, he figures, it helped send nearly 100 needy Greater Cincinnati students to college. When they emptied the accounts of the final $200,000 not long ago, they paid off some college loans and some grad schools.
"The people who worked at that foundation were unbelievable. They made it turn-key for me," Lewis says.
Simmons knows all the Marvinisms.
One of his favorites is "You have to find new cheese. You can't stay the same. We have to change things up. Other teams are going to catch on and figure it out."
So Lewis has found new cheese in Las Vegas.
Part of his job as the eyes and ears for Antonio Pierce in his first full season as an NFL head coach is sitting all day with the defense. Which means he's getting a full dose of Joe Burrow’s offense this week.
"We had some guys come out and play well last week that hadn't played a lot, and that was good to see," Lewis says. "I get a chance to help reinforce that this week because we'll need them again. We're going against one of the best players in the National Football League this week.
"I think they're very talented. They have the draft pick showing up. 81 (Jermaine Burton). You have the tight end (Mike Gesicki) we know is a good receiver. I don't know whether they'll have (Tee) Higgins or not, but 1 (Ja’Marr Chase) is enough, and 80 (Andrei Iosivas) is a good player. The backs do a good job of catching the ball, running the football."
Lewis has never had a conversation with Burrow. But when he was on the field at Paycor before last year's Ring of Honor game, he went over to say hello.
"I've been impressed with him since he showed up. I mean, gee whiz," Lewis says. "And I was even more impressed last year when I was there. I never laid eyes on him in person until I was down on the field. I was impressed with his stature. I didn't know he was that tall."
Lewis still stands tall in the eyes of his old boss.
"We talk from time to time. It's a friendship I'd like to maintain," says Bengals president Mike Brown, who spoke with Lewis pretty much every day from 2003-2018. "He had a successful run here. He coached here for almost as long as my father coached in Cleveland. That's a pretty long go at it. When we met, we were taken by him. He was direct, organized and impressive as a person."
Lewis notes he wasn't as successful as Paul Brown with those three NFL titles the Browns won. But like Brown, he built something. A former assistant with the Steelers and Ravens, Lewis brought a vast knowledge of the division and a sheer force of will and personality as agents of change.
Cincinnati native Ray "Rock," Oliver, one of his first strength coaches, recalled the tough times following head coach Sam Wyche's term from 1984-91.
"The Bengals benefitted more from Marvin Lewis than most people realize. More than the wins and losses," says Oliver, now the University of Kentucky's senior associate athletic director. "He showed us how to be pros. All of us. Some of the things he brought are still in place. It was a strong foundation started by Paul Brown. Then things leave and come back. This guy bought it back."
Lewis showed an uncanny ability to win with teams of all stripes and two quarterbacks as diverse as statuesque Heisman Trophy winner Carson Palmer and second-round field general Andy Dalton. The 2005 AFC North champs were sixth in offense and 28th in defense. The 2009 Bengals swept the division with the No. 24 offense and No. 4 defense. In 2015, his best team became the first AFC North team to break 8-0 with the No. 15 offense and No. 11 defense.
"Then Andy got hurt," says Lewis of the late-season broken thumb.
The Raiders are 2-6 entering November, so when he's asked about the Paycor games that stand out, one from Lewis' first Bengals November comes immediately to his mind. The Nov. 16, 2003 win over the 9-0 Chiefs vaulted the Bengals into first place that late in the season for the first time since the days of Wyche. He points to that first class of free agents: John Thornton, Reggie Kelly and Tory James. And players who were already here in 2003, such as Artrell Hawkins, Jon Kitna, Corey Dillon, Rudi Johnson.
He ticks them off easily.
"The offensive line," he says. "Richie Braham. Willie (Anderson). And I had great coaches."
Now, another November.
"Ironically, because of where we are here right now, I thought obviously the Kansas City game in '03 was kind of a breakthrough. We're looking for a breakthrough here," Lewis says. "I was seeing a number of different (big games). Denver. Monday night in '04. It just gave credibility to a lot of the things we were trying to get done. The shame of it, with the drafting of (David) Pollack and that group in '05. We never got to reap the benefits of those kids."
First-round pick David Pollack suffered a career-ending neck injury early in his second season. Second-rounder Odell Thurman, a linebacker Lewis compares to current Ravens Pro Bowler Roquan Smith, played one season before off-field problems cut short his career. Third-rounder Chris Henry, a spectacular big-play artist as wide receiver, died in a truck accident before he could complete a comeback in his fifth season.
But Lewis overcame injury and heartbreak and continued to turn around the franchise in a joint venture with Mike Brown.
"I think the beauty of that is it was basically one-stop shopping. Nothing was going to be a surprise to either one of us, because we had discussed it earlier in the day. We talked every day. Nothing ever came up that was completely a surprise," Lewis says. "Whether it was something that was on Mike's mind or something that was on my mind or whatever. And if we talked about something, he would think about it. He might ask me to come back up later in the day, discuss it further, or the next morning."
The bond is still there. When former Bengals cornerback Ken Riley was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2023, the Bengals invited Lewis to the reception. A month later he visited with Brown and his family in Brown's office the night Chad Johnson went into the Bengals Ring of Honor. Those are two gestures that mean a lot to Lewis.
"It's just kind of how we did business, which was really a good thing," Lewis says of his relationship with Mike Brown. "The people that left me when they went other places, that's what I encouraged them to make sure they did. That they have that relationship with the general manager, or the owner, whoever was making the decisions."
Lewis does a little bit of everything nowadays.
He breaks down the strengths and weaknesses of the opposing defense for the offense.
He's a go-between with special teams and Pierce when it comes to personnel.
He has a period during Wednesday practice and a period on Thursday where the coaches and coordinators have no idea what he's going to do in a three- or four-play sequence. He puts them in situations that could come up in the game or things he thinks they need work on.
"That's probably the biggest difference I see is a lot of the stuff that we do here came out of the New England philosophy," Lewis says. "So we work on a lot of single-play situations and things like it that may come up in the game to try to get the guys to be relaxed in the situation. 'Hey, we've been here before. We've practiced this.' And I see the advantage of that. A lot of those things, we used to try to coach them through on the run."
On Sunday, he'll be on the sidelines, the go-between for Pierce and the situation guys.
"Fourth-and-seven, what do you do? I'd take the points here," says Lewis of a simulated game moment. "You take everything into account. Who they're playing with, who you're playing with. Who's hurting, who's a backup."
There are many out there who believe after Lewis left here, a team should have given him the title without "assistant," affixed to it. But after a flurry of unsuccessful head coach interviews, he's at peace with the idea the call is never coming.
"For whatever reason, I'm one of the few people that never did [get another shot to be a head coach] and it's just the way it goes," Lewis says. "I had a very fulfilling coaching career, and very fortunate and blessed to do what I did for as long as I did it, and now my job is to help others."
But Darrin Simmons, now the longest-tenured kicking game coach in the league after Lewis hired him at age 29, says he's always been helping others. While watching Lewis work, Simmons tried to take his best traits.
"His ability to manage different personalities. A big trait for him. I think it stems back from his time with the Steelers as a position coach," Simmons says. "He trusted me. He let me work even though I was a young guy. We'd sit down every week and go over the inactives. He helped me grow learning the game."
Simmons, still telling his guys this week that he can see better than he hears, was another guy that came out of the division after a brief stint in Baltimore, where he met Lewis. He had faced the Bengals.
"He's the one that really changed this place in my mind," Simmons says. "He's the one that opened the doors here a little bit and let people in and that changed the way I think this franchise operated a little bit. He had the vision of what he wanted that to look like and both ownership and he saw it and believed in it."
Two weeks ago, Rock Oliver was in Lexington for a grand welcome when coach Rick Pitino returned to Kentucky. Now Lewis returns to do a job back in Cincy.
"I hope he gets a good reception," Oliver says. "I think sometimes we forget all the great things people did at a place."
