dpIf the rain in Spain does indeed stay mainly in the plain, then the drops won’t hit Jeff Brickner, the Bengals’ whirling dervish director of operations planning the trip to Madrid for the past six months.
Brickner begins to finish his Picasso of a masterpiece Tuesday night when the Bengals board their 201-member traveling party on American Airlines’ sprawling 306-seat jet for the eight-hour flight to the Spanish capital for Sunday’s game (9:30 a.m.- Cincinnati’s Channel 5 and NFL Network) against the 3-5 Falcons.
“What was very attractive about this aircraft is it has 60 lay-flat seats,” Brickner says. “Lay-flat is allowing our players to stretch out. And there are eight of them that are oversized and made for big people, so it gives those kinds of guys a little extra room.”
Big not only as in Dexter Lawerence II and Amarius Mims and Orlando Brown Jr., but also big as in Joe Burrow and his NFL-leading 20 touchdown passes. If it sounds like Brickner has thought of everything, he has to, as he and his team build a temporary Spanish-style Paycor Stadium.
Equipment, food, software, hardware and everything from plugs to studs.
“The biggest thing is we’re just trying to handle the details so the players and coaches can focus on football,” Brickner says. “If they can go through the week without thinking about the logistics, we’ve done our job.”
About a half hour after the Bengals did their job with some nifty teamwork on both sides of the ball that consumed the last five drives of Sunday’s overtime win over the Titans, Brickner checked in with the part of his team leaving Sunday night for setup.
That included IT chief Jake Kiser sifting through plug adapters and step-down voltage convertors to ensure the Bengals’ equipment can operate on Spain’s electrical system.
Also on the way was the Vicar of Video, Travis Brammer, as well the man who is the pre-trip pick for behind-the-scenes MVP, trainer Roberto “Berto,” Cardona. Cardona, a Texan who speaks fluent Spanish, has helped Brickner translate in all areas.
“Berto is smooth, and he’s going to be carrying us pretty much,” says equipment manager Adam Knollman.
Knollman has been doing some heavy lifting himself since the May announcement of the Bengals’ third international game ever and first since the 2019 trip to London in head coach Zac Taylor’s first season.
“The day it was announced. That’s when the planning started,” Knollman says, “and it’s honestly on your mind since whatever that day was. It consumes you.”
While Brickner began collecting the players’ passports in May to make sure they were updated, Knollman started his massive inventory for the bulging manifest that is demanded by customs before placed in the bottom of the plane. He’s got an extra 2,000 pounds of just-in-case equipment, up from 10,000 for an AFC North game.
“You have to inventory it all the way down to the country of origin,” Knollman says. “The quantity. Any item. Trunks get weighed, hampers get weighed. You’ve got to have the dimensions on there. You’ve got to have the country of origin of the trunk, and you’ve got to have the country of origin of all the contents inside the trunk. You’ve got to get a quantity of shirts, pants, any apparel that we pack.”
One difference from ’19 is that the makeup of every piece of clothing making the trip has to be chronicled. Shirts, shorts, pants, socks and what percentage of cotton or whatever else it is made of.
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