Vice President JD Vance made a homecoming visit to the Cincinnati Bengals training facility on Wednesday, taking in parts of practice, touring the locker room, and meeting with players and coach Zac Taylor.
Vance, a Middletown, Ohio native who also maintains a home in Cincinnati’s East Walnut Hills neighborhood, arrived at the Kettering Health practice fields adjacent to Paycor Stadium in a motorcade consisting of six black SUVs, police vehicles, and motorcycle officers. His stop in Cincinnati also included delivering a speech at the FBI’s Cincinnati Field Office and holding a campaign rally at the Sharonville Convention Center.
A lifelong Bengals fan, Vance previously watched the team lose an AFC wild card game to the Pittsburgh Steelers while serving in Iraq in January 2006. During Wednesday’s visit, he shook hands with several players and coach Taylor, eventually leaving the facility with a football. It remains unclear whether Vance brought the ball with him to be autographed or if the club presented it as a memento.
Despite Vance’s presence at the facility, star quarterback Joe Burrow noted that the two did not interact during the visit.
“We did not. We did not,” Burrow told reporters. “He came with everybody and left with swiftness and efficiency before the end of practice, so I didn’t get to.”
Burrow lightheartedly redirected a question about the vice president’s visit into a comment centered on his own status on the team.
“Yeah, a lot of people, a lot of people around, you know, that’s what I love about what I do is, it brings a lot of people together, and people want to take time out of their day to come and watch what we do, watch what I do, and watch all the work that I’ve put in to come and watch greatness, and that’s everybody in the locker room,” Burrow said.
“That’s why we do what we do, and whether it’s on the TV, whether it’s in person, whether it’s on the practice field, and that’s what we do.”
Vance’s visit to the Bengals follows a series of recent appearances by political figures alongside prominent athletes and sports personalities during the current political campaign cycle.
