A DANE XMAS: Whatever happens, Dane Sanzenbacher is going to remember Christmas, 2012. The Bears cut him Christmas Eve, the Bengals claimed him Christmas, and he had to leave his family Christmas night to beat the storm out of Chicago. He pulled into Cincinnati at 2 a.m., and like Santa, the second-year wideout is just glad to be here.
"You never know. My agent and I thought there was a pretty good chance of getting picked up somewhere," Sanzenbacher said after Wednesday's practice. "But this late in the season a lot of teams have one game left on their schedule, so we really didn’t know. I was in the dark for most of my Christmas morning. I was obviously relieved getting a call from anywhere, but getting to come back to Ohio and play in this beautiful weather is great."
The weather outside was frightful, but Sanzenbacher is used to it as a Toledo native who had such a fine career at Ohio State. It's all happening on the fly after he spent his first two years in the league in Chicago. The Bengals coached him at the 2011 Senior Bowl, but that was under a different coordinator and receivers coach.
"Not a whole lot, to be honest," Sanzenbacher said when asked what he knows about his situation. "Obviously it’s going to start with learning everything, knowing the offense before you can do anything. To be honest, I’m still getting familiar with the guys and the coaches and the atmosphere. I’m six hours into it, so we’ll see how it goes from here. But it seems like a good opportunity."
All he knows is he's wearing No. 11 and that it feels a little bit like Columbus.
hoping he can get some reps.... i really liked that last line
via bengals.com
Dane! Good luck to him, I might not puke in my mouth thinking of the bengals
Love this pick up for the Bengals..
I can hear Gruden now:
Dane Sanzenbaaaaaacccccchhhhheeerrrr!!
“Right now, Michigan is not at the pinnacle of college football, and that’s all Urban Meyer cares about...He’s been there and knows what it takes to get there.”
good luck to dane, but i still hate the bengals, go browns
Shitty of the Bears to cut the poor guy on Christmas eve. I know they're on the cusp of a playoff bid, but you could give the kid two days to get the holiday season behind him. Glad he felt like he was coming home.
Note: I am no Bengal or Bear fan. AZ Cardinal shame all the way :/
"There is a force that makes us all brothers, no one goes his way alone." --Woody Hayes
Like the comment about getting to play in this beautiful weather. Spoken like a true ohioan. Welcome home dane...sucks you're a bengal, but glad to have you back where a true buckeye belongs. Go Browns!
Go Dane!
Sidebar, I don't get why the Bengals or Browns aren't intentionally signing as many Buckeyes as possible in an effort to own the Columbus.
The bengals, have clements, herron, nugent and now dane. That is alot. Of course it would be nice to draft simon and hankins.
Collards