Dalton breaks mold of franchise QB
With personality atypical of franchise quarterback, Bengals star seeks to be defined by his faith, family
Not one to yell at teammates or glare at receivers, the Bengals’ Andy Dalton is a different kind of franchise quarterback.
On a secluded patio at Joe T. Garcia’s Mexican Restaurant, with a setting April sun peeking through tree leaves, Andy Dalton’s voice cracked. Nearly 300 people were hanging on his words, and then seeing his tears. He tried to finish, to say why he and wife Jordan use his status as an NFL quarterback to funnel money to children’s hospitals and families that need help making ends meet and why they need help to continue to do so. He couldn’t finish, though. He didn’t have to. Jordan Dalton gently reached for the microphone while rubbing her husband’s back. He wiped his face and took a breath as she closed the speech.
He then said grace over the meal, which preceded a fundraising event that collected more than a quarter of a million dollars. Football had allowed for that moment, that event, but served only as a backdrop for the man, for who Andy Dalton has been, how he has defined himself.
It’s why he didn’t have an answer for local and national media members when they converged upon the Cincinnati Bengals’ locker room in 2015 to ask what changed in him, what could have led to the MVP talk and a 10-2 start by the team. But in the search for what was new, people began to see, for the first time, who Andy Dalton had been all along.
He had complete command of Hue Jackson’s offense en route to career highs in every major statistical category. The team was vying for the best record in franchise history. Guard Kevin Zeitler called his play inspirational.
To many there had to be a definitive reason why, something to point to. Only there wasn’t.
That’s the person Jordan has always known — committed, funny, compassionate — which is why she was as befuddled as her husband when they received questions about what was different about him.
“I would even tell him, this is the same Andy. Everyone, it’s the same Andy,” Jordan says. “Everyone’s like he’s changing his work ethic and who he is in his leadership, where he’s just the same.”
The questions, or their regularity, didn’t bother him necessarily. They were rooted in positivity in his mind. He just didn’t get it.
“It wasn’t my first time to have