December 4, 2025 • 11 mins
Tony talks with Bob Mangine from NovaCare on ESPN 1530!
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome back, sincing three sixty rolls along our number three
thanks to Penn Station on the home of the Bengals
ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station. We just got you
ready to go for the Crosstown shootout with our guy
Keegan nickoson a Bearcat journal dot com.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Let's switch gears.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
Let's spend some time with our guy now, Bob Man
Jean from the University of Cincinnati and Nova care kind
enough to join us this afternoon.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Bob, what's going on?
Speaker 3 (00:30):
Like you said Tony, just getting ready for the Crosstown shootout?
Speaker 2 (00:34):
All right?
Speaker 1 (00:34):
Now, I want you to brace yourself, Bob, because I'm
I'm going to pay you some compliments here and I
don't want that to change. You know, you being able
to get out of the room and your head getting
too big. But there's so much conversation going on around
Joe Burrow and the ability of Joe Burrow to come
back as quick as he did to me. I go
(00:57):
back to the training staff because I go back to
my injury and speaking from the experience, you have friends
in your life that are saying, well, you got to
get back and play. What are you going to play?
You have family members, when are you going to play?
Coaches want you to come back and play, Teammates want
you to come back and play. The constant that I
always had through the process was you and the other
(01:19):
members of the training staff, because I knew even at
my age in college that throughout anyone else that you're
going to come in contact with, the training staff is
the one that's going to have your true best interest
in mind. I remember conversations you and I had of
if we do this, can I hurt it any further?
If we do this, what happens? But I knew that
(01:41):
I was going to get the honest answer from you,
not the answer from a coach who wants you back,
or teammates or friends or different things in the process
that Joe Burrow is going through, or any other player
coming back from injury. Talk about the importance, Bob, and
that relationship between the player and the trainer to talk
through what you need to talk through in order to
(02:01):
come back on the field.
Speaker 3 (02:04):
Well, thank you, Tony for the kind words, and again
you were a pleasure to work with at your time
here at UNI versus Cincinnati. But again, how many hours
and hours does the trainer spend with their athletes. That's
the key, the fact that you know you're really working,
you're really working super hard to to not just bring
(02:27):
him back to play, but to bring him back safely confidently.
You know it has to be gold driven rehab. And again,
you know the trainer and that athlete are spending time
and time and time together, so I kind of you know,
you knew your athlete, and I'm sure the guys at
the Bengals, you know, they know Joe Burrow, what a
(02:48):
competitor he is, how well he can heal, and and
you know, get him back on the field as safely
as possible and efficiently as possible. And I mean you're
probably still mad at you remember the time I made
you address the day after surgery with the arms so
Louisville wouldn't know that you got hurt and that they
thought you would be the quarterback. And you know, you're
(03:09):
all you're all relaxed on paying medicine. You pushed the
uniform mine and went out there like a true stud.
And you know, and and again we gave Louisville a
little run for their money. And nowadays you can't do that.
You have to have player availability, right, So you know,
those were the fun days, you know. I mean, you
can think about the guys that got injured. And I've
(03:31):
been very, very fortunate in fifty three years, you know,
working with guys like you know, I got a chance
to work with Pete Rose and his elbow way back
in the early eighties. I had a chance to work
with Carson Palmer, I got a chance to work with
Tony Pike and Dave Pollock. So over the years, you know,
(03:51):
I've been one they probably lived maybe the best life,
blessed life of any athletic trainer. But here you see,
you've had a blast for the last twenty four years,
and you know we played a lot of games, won
a lot of games. And knowing the athlete is the
most important thing. Knowing what how tough they are, what
(04:12):
they can endure, how much they'll push themselves, and you
know that they're willing to play through a little bit
of something. And but yet the same time, you've got
your other half the rain on, say, we got to
protect it. We've got to make sure we're safe. We've
got to make sure we're you know, I mean, you
remember the Louisville game where you know, Dustin got thrown
(04:32):
into the fire after you got hit in the chest
that time, and you know the question was, you know,
was it safe enough? And you know Dustin pulled it off.
And so you know Dustin Gruzzi, you you know Zach Klaris.
I mean, you guys were tough quarterbacks. And the bottom
line is I knew that you know, you guys would
endure things that you know maybe other people wouldn't, and
(04:56):
you guys rehabbed your butts off.
Speaker 1 (04:58):
How how important when you're I went to that process?
What are you trying to read from the athlete? Because
it's one thing say, okay, go back out and play.
But if that player is going out and they feel
compromised at all, maybe they're not playing as hard as
they could, maybe they're still hesitant, and that could lead
to a different injury or any type of reinjury. So
what are you looking for in those early stages of Okay,
(05:20):
you can go back out there and play, you can
go back out there and practice. But what are you
watching for to make sure that there isn't a setback
or that that player is physically ready to go.
Speaker 3 (05:31):
Well, you're evaluating them after every practice, you're sitting there
with them. How to go. You know, high your pain
level or your mechanics right? Are you able to do this?
Can you control the environment? You're in football, well, almost
any college sports, it's an uncontrolled environment. You do not
know what's going to come at you at what angle,
at any giving time. Same thing in professional sports. So
(05:54):
you know, prior to getting on the field, you do
your best in the trading room to mimic things that
are going to run into and then once you get
them back in practice, you got to look at their eyes.
You know, were they able to go? Are they not
able to go? Do they look apprehensive? You know, if
they look apprehensive, they're not ready yet. You know, but
a lot of times the athlete has you know, I
(06:14):
want to say the final say do you think you
can do this or not? Because you know your body,
you know what your pain level is, you know what
you know we're asking of you, And the bottom line
is can you can you do your job safely and
efficiently and protect yourself? Remember how much time do we
spend on how to fall?
Speaker 2 (06:35):
Yep?
Speaker 3 (06:37):
You know, because I want easy to protect yourself.
Speaker 1 (06:40):
That so that that to me leads me to the
last point and I think what it's the most important,
and it's the mental side because when you're when you're
injured as an athlete, there's multiple things that happen. One Physically, yes,
it's tough, but mentally, now all of a sudden, you're alone,
a lot more guys are practicing, you're in the training room.
Speaker 2 (06:59):
If you if you.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
Go through something where you've been injured and then you
get injured again, mentally it's harder because there's a point
in your mind you already knew what it took to
get back and all the hard work, and now you've
got to go through that again. So mentally, I wonder
and how you prioritize that in a sense of all right,
physically they're ready to go. Mentally, how's this athlete doing
(07:21):
as well? How much are you paying attention and how
much do you check in Now in today's world, with
the mental health of players that are injured and trying
to get their way back.
Speaker 3 (07:32):
I think it's always been a priority of mind to
make sure that the mental side of what they're about
to go through when they get back in a game
is at optimal level. It's a priority because I can
give the best job or rehab in the world and
I've had kids, high school kids and some college kids
who who basically said, I don't want to play anymore. Mentally,
(07:54):
I can't handle it, and so you would have to,
you know, not clear them to go back and play
and advise them to go down another route. So the
mental aspect is really critical, and the trainer and the
pets they have to make that we have a positive
situation goal driven the first two weeks, here's our goal,
(08:16):
the next two weeks, here's our goal. And as you
achieve those goals, now we're ready for the next level.
And making it positive gives you that positive experience back
to make sure mentally you're staying you know, staying up
on where you need to be. But the mental element
is really really important. And again over the years, I've
(08:39):
had kids who just we're done. You know. I've had
kids come in saying, I don't want to do this again.
I've torn my a c L and I've torn it
twice and and now I'm pretty much, you know, over it.
Then there are some kids who just are they're tough,
and you can friggin you know, do whatever you need
to do to get them to play, and there will
(09:00):
to play. So I mean, it runs a gammut. That's
where the trainer knows, unlike the physicians or unlike other people,
they know what their kids able to handle. And that's
where the trainer has a solid voice and making sure
that they protect the kid and make sure. You know,
my favorite saying, and I probably used it to you.
(09:21):
I don't know how many times. My job is to
be the VR, the voice of reason. You know, what
what can we accomplish and what should we avoid and
not let anybody put themselves into a situation where it's
you know, do no harm. I don't want to make
you worse. And so has that happened? Sure, it happens,
(09:42):
you know. I mean, athletics is an uncontrolled environment and
there's kids we think that are ready to go, and
they think they're ready to go, and then the next thing,
you know, they get another injury. So if we were
in a controlled situation, then that would be easy. But unfortunately,
athletics and playing games and even practice is not a
controlled situation.
Speaker 1 (10:04):
You're the best, it is, Bob man Jeans from the
University of Cincinnati and Novacare Bob, enjoy the shootout. Best
of luck, and you know, good luck to the Steelers.
Speaker 3 (10:14):
You and Austin come over to shoot out tomorrow.
Speaker 2 (10:16):
Bob, I don't.
Speaker 1 (10:17):
I told myself two years ago, I'm not going back
to the centas for the shootout just because mentally, you
want to talk about mental health. It's not a good
place for my mental health. But as we get closer.
Speaker 3 (10:28):
What do you do to my mental health?
Speaker 2 (10:31):
That's more about you.
Speaker 3 (10:33):
We have a won there for like quite a while.
Speaker 2 (10:35):
Yeah, it was it. You were like twenty five, weren't you.
Speaker 3 (10:38):
Oh my gosh, Bob. I'll come if you can get
me a seat at the end of the bench, right.
Speaker 2 (10:44):
There next to you. Austin's got some things he wants
to talk about.
Speaker 3 (10:47):
Bust time. You're more than welcome to somewhere over and
sit with us.
Speaker 2 (10:52):
I love it, Bob, You're the best man. Thanks so much.
Speaker 3 (10:56):
Okay, guys, have a good weekend, and I'll see you
next week.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
Let's go.
Speaker 1 (11:01):
That is Bob manjeing the University of Cincinnati and Novacare.
From traveling to the game, walking to your seats, and
partaking in postgame celebration, your body can take a beating
from all the activity of game day. At Novercare Rehabilitation,
they understand how important it is for fans to be
there to root for their team. So the power physical
therapy you don't need to let as pains or injuries
keep you from the game. Find a center near you
at novacare dot com today. Since he three to sixty
(11:23):
rolls along next on ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station
Speaker 2 (11:27):
You've got a be
Welcome back, sincing three sixty rolls along our number three
thanks to Penn Station on the home of the Bengals
ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station. We just got you
ready to go for the Crosstown shootout with our guy
Keegan nickoson a Bearcat journal dot com.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Let's switch gears.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
Let's spend some time with our guy now, Bob Man
Jean from the University of Cincinnati and Nova care kind
enough to join us this afternoon.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Bob, what's going on?
Speaker 3 (00:30):
Like you said Tony, just getting ready for the Crosstown shootout?
Speaker 2 (00:34):
All right?
Speaker 1 (00:34):
Now, I want you to brace yourself, Bob, because I'm
I'm going to pay you some compliments here and I
don't want that to change. You know, you being able
to get out of the room and your head getting
too big. But there's so much conversation going on around
Joe Burrow and the ability of Joe Burrow to come
back as quick as he did to me. I go
(00:57):
back to the training staff because I go back to
my injury and speaking from the experience, you have friends
in your life that are saying, well, you got to
get back and play. What are you going to play?
You have family members, when are you going to play?
Coaches want you to come back and play, Teammates want
you to come back and play. The constant that I
always had through the process was you and the other
(01:19):
members of the training staff, because I knew even at
my age in college that throughout anyone else that you're
going to come in contact with, the training staff is
the one that's going to have your true best interest
in mind. I remember conversations you and I had of
if we do this, can I hurt it any further?
If we do this, what happens? But I knew that
(01:41):
I was going to get the honest answer from you,
not the answer from a coach who wants you back,
or teammates or friends or different things in the process
that Joe Burrow is going through, or any other player
coming back from injury. Talk about the importance, Bob, and
that relationship between the player and the trainer to talk
through what you need to talk through in order to
(02:01):
come back on the field.
Speaker 3 (02:04):
Well, thank you, Tony for the kind words, and again
you were a pleasure to work with at your time
here at UNI versus Cincinnati. But again, how many hours
and hours does the trainer spend with their athletes. That's
the key, the fact that you know you're really working,
you're really working super hard to to not just bring
(02:27):
him back to play, but to bring him back safely confidently.
You know it has to be gold driven rehab. And again,
you know the trainer and that athlete are spending time
and time and time together, so I kind of you know,
you knew your athlete, and I'm sure the guys at
the Bengals, you know, they know Joe Burrow, what a
(02:48):
competitor he is, how well he can heal, and and
you know, get him back on the field as safely
as possible and efficiently as possible. And I mean you're
probably still mad at you remember the time I made
you address the day after surgery with the arms so
Louisville wouldn't know that you got hurt and that they
thought you would be the quarterback. And you know, you're
(03:09):
all you're all relaxed on paying medicine. You pushed the
uniform mine and went out there like a true stud.
And you know, and and again we gave Louisville a
little run for their money. And nowadays you can't do that.
You have to have player availability, right, So you know,
those were the fun days, you know. I mean, you
can think about the guys that got injured. And I've
(03:31):
been very, very fortunate in fifty three years, you know,
working with guys like you know, I got a chance
to work with Pete Rose and his elbow way back
in the early eighties. I had a chance to work
with Carson Palmer, I got a chance to work with
Tony Pike and Dave Pollock. So over the years, you know,
(03:51):
I've been one they probably lived maybe the best life,
blessed life of any athletic trainer. But here you see,
you've had a blast for the last twenty four years,
and you know we played a lot of games, won
a lot of games. And knowing the athlete is the
most important thing. Knowing what how tough they are, what
(04:12):
they can endure, how much they'll push themselves, and you
know that they're willing to play through a little bit
of something. And but yet the same time, you've got
your other half the rain on, say, we got to
protect it. We've got to make sure we're safe. We've
got to make sure we're you know, I mean, you
remember the Louisville game where you know, Dustin got thrown
(04:32):
into the fire after you got hit in the chest
that time, and you know the question was, you know,
was it safe enough? And you know Dustin pulled it off.
And so you know Dustin Gruzzi, you you know Zach Klaris.
I mean, you guys were tough quarterbacks. And the bottom
line is I knew that you know, you guys would
endure things that you know maybe other people wouldn't, and
(04:56):
you guys rehabbed your butts off.
Speaker 1 (04:58):
How how important when you're I went to that process?
What are you trying to read from the athlete? Because
it's one thing say, okay, go back out and play.
But if that player is going out and they feel
compromised at all, maybe they're not playing as hard as
they could, maybe they're still hesitant, and that could lead
to a different injury or any type of reinjury. So
what are you looking for in those early stages of Okay,
(05:20):
you can go back out there and play, you can
go back out there and practice. But what are you
watching for to make sure that there isn't a setback
or that that player is physically ready to go.
Speaker 3 (05:31):
Well, you're evaluating them after every practice, you're sitting there
with them. How to go. You know, high your pain
level or your mechanics right? Are you able to do this?
Can you control the environment? You're in football, well, almost
any college sports, it's an uncontrolled environment. You do not
know what's going to come at you at what angle,
at any giving time. Same thing in professional sports. So
(05:54):
you know, prior to getting on the field, you do
your best in the trading room to mimic things that
are going to run into and then once you get
them back in practice, you got to look at their eyes.
You know, were they able to go? Are they not
able to go? Do they look apprehensive? You know, if
they look apprehensive, they're not ready yet. You know, but
a lot of times the athlete has you know, I
(06:14):
want to say the final say do you think you
can do this or not? Because you know your body,
you know what your pain level is, you know what
you know we're asking of you, And the bottom line
is can you can you do your job safely and
efficiently and protect yourself? Remember how much time do we
spend on how to fall?
Speaker 2 (06:35):
Yep?
Speaker 3 (06:37):
You know, because I want easy to protect yourself.
Speaker 1 (06:40):
That so that that to me leads me to the
last point and I think what it's the most important,
and it's the mental side because when you're when you're
injured as an athlete, there's multiple things that happen. One Physically, yes,
it's tough, but mentally, now all of a sudden, you're alone,
a lot more guys are practicing, you're in the training room.
Speaker 2 (06:59):
If you if you.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
Go through something where you've been injured and then you
get injured again, mentally it's harder because there's a point
in your mind you already knew what it took to
get back and all the hard work, and now you've
got to go through that again. So mentally, I wonder
and how you prioritize that in a sense of all right,
physically they're ready to go. Mentally, how's this athlete doing
(07:21):
as well? How much are you paying attention and how
much do you check in Now in today's world, with
the mental health of players that are injured and trying
to get their way back.
Speaker 3 (07:32):
I think it's always been a priority of mind to
make sure that the mental side of what they're about
to go through when they get back in a game
is at optimal level. It's a priority because I can
give the best job or rehab in the world and
I've had kids, high school kids and some college kids
who who basically said, I don't want to play anymore. Mentally,
(07:54):
I can't handle it, and so you would have to,
you know, not clear them to go back and play
and advise them to go down another route. So the
mental aspect is really critical, and the trainer and the
pets they have to make that we have a positive
situation goal driven the first two weeks, here's our goal,
(08:16):
the next two weeks, here's our goal. And as you
achieve those goals, now we're ready for the next level.
And making it positive gives you that positive experience back
to make sure mentally you're staying you know, staying up
on where you need to be. But the mental element
is really really important. And again over the years, I've
(08:39):
had kids who just we're done. You know. I've had
kids come in saying, I don't want to do this again.
I've torn my a c L and I've torn it
twice and and now I'm pretty much, you know, over it.
Then there are some kids who just are they're tough,
and you can friggin you know, do whatever you need
to do to get them to play, and there will
(09:00):
to play. So I mean, it runs a gammut. That's
where the trainer knows, unlike the physicians or unlike other people,
they know what their kids able to handle. And that's
where the trainer has a solid voice and making sure
that they protect the kid and make sure. You know,
my favorite saying, and I probably used it to you.
(09:21):
I don't know how many times. My job is to
be the VR, the voice of reason. You know, what
what can we accomplish and what should we avoid and
not let anybody put themselves into a situation where it's
you know, do no harm. I don't want to make
you worse. And so has that happened? Sure, it happens,
(09:42):
you know. I mean, athletics is an uncontrolled environment and
there's kids we think that are ready to go, and
they think they're ready to go, and then the next thing,
you know, they get another injury. So if we were
in a controlled situation, then that would be easy. But unfortunately,
athletics and playing games and even practice is not a
controlled situation.
Speaker 1 (10:04):
You're the best, it is, Bob man Jeans from the
University of Cincinnati and Novacare Bob, enjoy the shootout. Best
of luck, and you know, good luck to the Steelers.
Speaker 3 (10:14):
You and Austin come over to shoot out tomorrow.
Speaker 2 (10:16):
Bob, I don't.
Speaker 1 (10:17):
I told myself two years ago, I'm not going back
to the centas for the shootout just because mentally, you
want to talk about mental health. It's not a good
place for my mental health. But as we get closer.
Speaker 3 (10:28):
What do you do to my mental health?
Speaker 2 (10:31):
That's more about you.
Speaker 3 (10:33):
We have a won there for like quite a while.
Speaker 2 (10:35):
Yeah, it was it. You were like twenty five, weren't you.
Speaker 3 (10:38):
Oh my gosh, Bob. I'll come if you can get
me a seat at the end of the bench, right.
Speaker 2 (10:44):
There next to you. Austin's got some things he wants
to talk about.
Speaker 3 (10:47):
Bust time. You're more than welcome to somewhere over and
sit with us.
Speaker 2 (10:52):
I love it, Bob, You're the best man. Thanks so much.
Speaker 3 (10:56):
Okay, guys, have a good weekend, and I'll see you
next week.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
Let's go.
Speaker 1 (11:01):
That is Bob manjeing the University of Cincinnati and Novacare.
From traveling to the game, walking to your seats, and
partaking in postgame celebration, your body can take a beating
from all the activity of game day. At Novercare Rehabilitation,
they understand how important it is for fans to be
there to root for their team. So the power physical
therapy you don't need to let as pains or injuries
keep you from the game. Find a center near you
at novacare dot com today. Since he three to sixty
(11:23):
rolls along next on ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station
Speaker 2 (11:27):
You've got a be
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