Kliff Kingsbury and Zac Taylor have something in common, besides being winless rookie NFL head coaches.
Via Bob McManaman of the Arizona Republic, the Cardinals and Bengals head coaches were actually once teammates, and reserve quarterbacks for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers.
It was 2007, and both were buried on the depth chart behind Kevin Glenn and Ryan Dinwiddie, of course. But Kingsbury was hanging on for his playing career as the third-stringer, and Taylor was the fourth man in line. For three months, they were together up north, developing a friendship that lasts.
“We were both very cold,” Taylor said. " . . . We threw practice-squad reps with ski gloves on and hooded sweatshirts over our ears and it was more about survival than trying to impress anybody with our arms at that point.”
After that season, both started on coaching careers, with Kingsbury beginning as a quality control coach at Houston, and Taylor working as a grad assistant at Texas A&M. Sunday, they’ll meet in Cincinnati, each of them looking for their first win in a situation they couldn’t plan would work out this way.
“No, I can promise you we did not,” Taylor said. “It was more just complaining about being in the CFL to be quite honest with you. . . . We didn’t really plan on that career path necessarily happening so quickly, but we stayed in touch just because we both went into coaching and kind of recruited the same kids and played the same opponents and just stayed in touch ever since. . . .
“Really, we just tried to survive the weather. That and just show up the next day and hope that the other players were able to lead us to a Grey Cup championship because believe me, neither one of us contributed a thing.”
And while they haven’t gotten their respective teams to a Grey Cup level yet, they’re at least warm.