Why Sam Hubbard's Bengals career quietly resides among all-time greats in Cincinnati
The play was perfect. Instantly iconic.
The Fumble in the Jungle against the Ravens in the 2022 season wild-card round will forever remain the indelible image of a remarkable career, one Sam Hubbard concluded by announcing his retirement from the NFL on Wednesday.
There was the zoomed-in shot of Hubbard's face, eye black prominent behind the face mask, ball tucked, sprinting 98 yards while the hometown crowd erupted. There was NBC's Mike Tirico perfectly exclaiming, 'The Cincinnati Kid!' on the NBC broadcast. Then Hubbard's signature flex in the end zone amid pandemonium. All that before finally announcing, 'You can't catch me,' screaming for 'oxygen!' and flexing while mic'd up.
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It even prompted a tradition at his Cincinnati alma mater, Moeller High School, where football players run Hubbards — 98-yard gassers — during training.
Hubbard cemented a legacy that night that will last generations among Bengals fans.
It is not the moment that perfectly encapsulated the Bengals' defensive end, though. Not to me.
In true Hubbard fashion, the moment that symbolized his career came in the shadows.
It was Week 18 of the 2022 season. The Bengals had been eliminated from the postseason the previous week. They were 0-5 in the AFC North and the Browns were coming to town, cemented to the playoffs and not playing their starters. The epitome of a throwaway game on the NFL schedule.
Hubbard battled an ankle injury for months, sacrificing performance to keep faint playoff hopes alive with Jake Browning at quarterback for an injured Joe Burrow. And not just any ankle injury. He needed what turned out to be major ankle surgery. He'd eventually undergo tightrope surgery and deltoid reconstruction that would leave him in a walking boot for much of the offseason.
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Yet, going around the locker room that week checking in on the long list of players with nagging injuries who would be shut down to get right for the offseason, I'll never forget listening to Hubbard proclaim without hesitation he would be running out the home tunnel to play that Sunday.
'Didn't think twice about it,' Hubbard said that day. 'I came this far, I'm playing. I'm finishing the year strong. I wouldn't have it any other way. I wouldn't leave my guys hanging. I love being out there. I told them today I'm going to be with them.'
The line branded into my brain forever, a defining glimpse into the soul of the Bengals defense's heart and soul: 'I wouldn't leave my guys hanging.'
He never did. Not after a grade 3 hamstring tear early in training camp last year that he played through rather than take an easier option for surgery to end his season. Not after a calf injury late in 2022 that left him powering through pain in the playoffs only weeks before his 98-yard sprint to history.
He played more snaps than any defensive lineman in football from 2021-22. He ranks 13th in total snaps among defensive linemen since entering the league in 2018, tied for second-most run stuffs in the league over that span.
These stats are often overlooked and less sexy than counting up sacks by Trey Hendrickson, but without Hubbard, the impact of Hendrickson never happens.
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'He was just a warrior,' director of player personnel Duke Tobin called Hubbard last year. 'Played through things most human beings wouldn't play through and gave us the opportunity to go out there with a chance to win. That's what Sam Hubbard is all about.'
In every way, he reset the standard in Cincinnati.
He served as a foundational image of reliability through seven seasons: 427 tackles, 295 pressures, 231 stops, 61 tackles for loss, 42.5 sacks, 17 passes defensed, seven forced fumbles, two fumble returns for scores combined in regular season and postseason, and one leaping touchdown reception from Burrow on his final NFL snap.
Things you love to see: defensive ends catching touchdowns @Sam_Hubbard_
📺: #CINvsTEN on FOX📱: https://t.co/waVpO909ge pic.twitter.com/oDsJJzlBcM
— NFL (@NFL) December 15, 2024
The Bengals were rudderless before Hubbard emerged as a captain alongside his close friend Burrow in 2021. Their reset established a culture of accountability, professionalism and what it means to be a teammate, to be a Bengal.
That base served as the central core of the best two-year run in franchise history, eyelashes away from consecutive Super Bowls.
Burrow, Hendrickson, Ja'Marr Chase and Tee Higgins rightfully draw the attention, but there's a reason Hubbard is the last player left pre-dating Zac Taylor's arrival. It took unique knowledge of the team, the history, what winning looked like and a proper path forward to change the culture.
'One of my all-time favorites 'til the day I die,' Taylor said of Hubbard. 'Because this dude's all ball. He's all about the team. He's represented himself and his family and community that way. Since Moeller to Ohio State to Cincinnati Bengals, you're going to talk to every person in that man's life, and they're all going to tell you the same thing. One of the greatest people you'll ever be around. Really cared more about others than he cared about himself, quite frankly. And that's why he's experienced all the success. Because when you've got a team full of Sam Hubbards, then you're going to achieve success because they're just doing what's best for everybody else and willing to make sacrifices.'
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Those four stars filled in under the 'C' on Hubbard's jersey meant more to him than most. Not because he was the kid who grew up dressing in Bengals gear and rooting for Chad Johnson from the upper deck. Because the revitalization of Cincinnati football culture was as much his calling card as the Fumble in the Jungle.
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He took care of his body with meticulous detail, down to the second, every day. If you needed an interview during post-practice maintenance time, you knew exactly the moment and should be prepared to walk-and-talk if it goes too long. But he always politely made time for you, whether win, loss or family waiting outside.
He treated people the same way he treated his body, with attention to detail, time and thoughtfulness.
That made him stand out among his teammates and is part of what will make his legacy in Cincinnati continue to grow despite turning in retirement papers.
The Sam Hubbard Foundation expanded from the idea of Hubbard's Cupboard to filling 21 schools with supplies for those in need in three years. His devotion to using his platform to bring equitable access to food, education and a healthy lifestyle across Greater Cincinnati earned back-to-back nominations as the Bengals' Walter Payton Man of the Year.
He'll get married this spring and can properly pour himself into the next chapter of his life, one where he'll forever be remembered as a football legend in his hometown.
That doesn't make a career cut short any easier to swallow. At 29, after seven seasons, Hubbard's body failed him. Football won, as it eventually does at a 100 percent rate.
What he produced in seven seasons, however, without the national fanfare and accolades of so many of his peers, was a career 95 percent of those to touch an NFL field would die for.
He made $36.5 million, was captain in the Super Bowl, sacked Patrick Mahomes and Tom Brady, reset the culture for his hometown team, earned the respect of every person in the building and authored one of the most iconic moments in their playoff history.
He topped it off by catching a touchdown pass from one of his best friends on his final play. Fittingly, he stood up to celebrate with his teammates despite a torn PCL that ended his season and career.
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Hubbard changed the face of Cincinnati football. He set up his teammates. He leaned into leadership. He put together his finest moments in the shadows of others. He lived for football, winning and being the greatest teammate. How he did that in Cincinnati set him apart from so many others during the Bengals' renaissance.
Yeah, his 98 yards of fame will draw the headlines today. Deservedly so. For me, however, only one line will resonate tomorrow and beyond.
'I wouldn't leave my guys hanging.'
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