2024-08-19 01:00:02
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.
