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Third-quarter touchdown has Thurman dancing


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[size=6]Third-quarter touchdown has Thurman dancing [/size]

By C. Trent Rosecrans
Post staff reporter


NASHVILLE, Tenn. -Odell Thurman danced in the end zone and he danced in the locker room.

"I need some cameras over here," the Bengals' rookie linebacker shouted as recreated the dance he did following his 30-yard interception return for a touchdown.

It's called the "Laffy Taffy," and it may just find its way alongside the "Ickey Shuffle" in Bengals lore.

"I've seen it on videos," Thurman said. "I do at home, at parties, it don't matter. That's the new famous dance."

It's even more famous now after Thurman broke it out.

Thurman said most of his younger teammates know the dance, but no one joined him in his end zone celebration.

"Some of them might know it, but they can't do it," he said.

Thurman then shouted across the locker room asking Deltha O'Neal if he knew about the Laffy Taffy. O'Neal's look more than adequately got the message across that he didn't.

As for the other Bengals with interceptions? Thurman didn't think Kevin Kaesviharn could do it and Tory James "doesn't have the hips" for the dance.

And what about his college teammate? Can David Pollack dance?

Thurman just laughed. He shouted at Pollack and asked if he could dance before breaking into laughter again.

"Let's see your touchdown dance," Thurman yelled at Pollack.

"I ain't gotten in the end zone," Pollack said.

"My point," Thurman responded.

As for someone who did get into the end zone, Bengals receiver Chad Johnson's grandiose plans were halted by rookie cornerback Adam Jones.

Johnson caught a 15-yard touchdown pass from Carson Palmer in the fourth quarter to give the Bengals their first lead of the game, but a flag was thrown.

So instead of launching into his dance, Johnson waited to see what the call was going to be. It was pass interference on Jones, but by the time the call was made, Johnson had missed his opportunity.

"It would have been a square dance - the heel-toe thing," Johnson said. "I was going to go around the goalpost and all that good stuff. But I had to wait and see what the penalty was and then the heat of the moment was gone."


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[size=6]Former Bulldog does his 'Laffy Taffy' dance[/size]

By Mark Wiedmer
The Chattanooga Times Free Press
Chattanooga, TN - NASHVILLE -- The oddest thing happened during Cincinnati's 31-23 victory over the Tennessee Titans Sunday afternoon. A Bengal other than the self-absorbed Chad Johnson performed a touchdown dance.


Adding to the weirdness, that player wasn't an offensive performer, but rather rookie linebacker Odell Thurman, who rather quietly delivered great work a year ago as a Georgia Bulldog.

But with just over a quarter to play against the Titans, Thurman returned an interception 30 yards to tie the game at 17, then began swaying back and forth and moving his arms in a circular motion as if stirring a giant cauldron.


"The Laffy Taffy," Thurman chuckled when asked the dance's name after the game inside a jubilant Bengals locker room. "I had to do it. It's not like I score a touchdown every week."

Said Johnson, who has now scored five touchdowns this season, including the Bengals' go-ahead score with 4:19 to play: "I was going to do a square dance ... the heel-to-toe thing. I was going to go around the goalpost and all that good stuff. But I had to wait to see what the (pass interference) penalty was and the heat of the moment was gone."


Oh, shucks.

But there is still plenty for Thurman and his fellow former Dawg David Pollack to kick up their heels about now that the Bengals are 5-1.


"Right now, I'm spending a lot of time on the sidelines, praying they'll call the defense I'm in," said Pollack, who has dropped nearly 15 pounds from his Georgia playing weight of 268 and has been moved from defensive end to outside linebacker. "But when I get used to it all (the defensive scheme), it's going to be a lot of fun."

Added Thurman, who leads Cincinnati in tackles with 51, "I'm still trying to get used to things. The touchdown was just luck. It got tipped right into my hands and I just started running."


Pollack and Thurman both spent Saturday night in their Nashville hotel running back and forth between meetings to catch updated scores from the Georgia-Vanderbilt game, which was being played on the Vandy campus.

"I saw all the (Vanderbilt) game I could," said Pollack. "If we hadn't had a 10 o'clock meeting, I'd have watched all of it. I love what I'm doing now, I really do, but I had four great years at Georgia. Not two OK ones and two good ones. Four great ones. I'll always be a Bulldog."


Said Thurman in a loud voice, "Six and oh. You hear that? Georgia's 6 and 0."

Georgia, of course, defeated the Commodores 34-17 on Saturday night roughly two miles and 18 hours from where the Bengals clawed the Titans. If you're a Bulldog backer this morning, you can proudly call the weekend the Music City Massacre.


"Big weekend," Thurman said. "Great weekend to be a Bulldog and a Bengal."

Few players have displayed more enthusiasm on a consistent basis throughout their young careers than Pollack and Thurman, who were Bulldogs together for two years, and should be Bengal teammates for many more seasons than that.


Of Pollack, the team's first-round pick who had one tackle against the Titans, Cincinnati head coach Marvin Lewis said, "David has a magnetism about him that's important to me. I think he adds to the quality and character of our team. And if you're not going his speed, he's going to run over you."

Of Thurman, the Bengals' second-round selection who made the play of the game when he intercepted a third quarter pass and returned 30 yards for a touchdown to tie the score at 17, Lewis said, "You can see it in Odell's eyes that he's a football player."


On paper, Pollack was clearly the more coveted pick. A two-time SEC Defensive Player of the Year winner, he was the 17th overall selection in last spring's draft, then held out all 20 days of training camp before inking a 5-year, $10 million deal.

That didn't particularly please Bengal fans, but as Pollack pointed out, "If you want a fair deal, it's necessary. If you take a poll of this locker room, probably 30 percent of the players have done the exact same thing."


Thurman's contract is roughly half that, though one suspects that will change if he continues to play the way he has thus far.

"Someone asked me the other day about the Pepsi One rookie of the year award," said Pollack, "and I told him that I thought Odell should win it. He's tearing it up every week."


And we've now got Thurman's rendition of the Laffy Taffy to prove it.


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