Bengals High 5: Five questions with Ryan Glasgow

Bengals rookie defensive llneman will match up against his brother in Sunday’s game vs. Lions

Cincinnati Bengals defensive tackle Ryan Glasgow will be keeping his own personal scorecard Sunday when he lines up against the Detroit Lions.

The rookie out of the University of Michigan will be matching up nose-to-nose with his older brother, Lions left guard Graham Glasgow, for the first time in a competitive game. The two were on the same youth, high school and college football teams together and only played against each other in backyard games.

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They even lined up next to one another in high school, Graham at left tackle and Ryan at left guard, and Ryan Glasgow said they “destroyed people.” Now, they are in opposing positions on opposing teams and ready to duke it out, following a pre-Christmas family dinner Saturday.

Ryan Glasgow has 21 tackles in 14 games and one start, while Graham Glasgow, in his second season with the Lions, has started all 14 games, blocking for an offense that averages 340.5 yards per game. The younger Glasgow talked about the opportunity to match up against his older brother in this week’s Cincinnati Bengals’ High 5:

Q: What will it be like going up against your brother, nose-to-nose?

A: It’s going to be pretty crazy. I’ve never really gone up against him in a real game. Practice plenty of times, probably thousands of reps going against him, but in a game it’s a little different, especially in the NFL, where we’ve both kind of realized our dream over the past couple years. Being able to square off in Cincinnati is pretty cool. It’s just going to be going at each other the whole game trying to get the best of each other while also doing our job to help our team. I’ll be keeping my own scorecard and I’m sure he’ll be keeping his, but probably neither one will match up.

Q: How will your parents handle that?

A: I’m not really sure. I know my grandma is the one freaking out the most about it, definitely, but they will remain neutral. We’ve got to work something out and get a half-and-half jersey because I remember growing up and seeing Peyton and Eli Manning’s mom wearing one of those or like Tiki and Ronde Barber’s mom or something like that. We’ll have to work something out to get one of those.

Q: Your younger brother, Jordan, is playing at Michigan now. Are you three pretty competitive? Talk a lot of smack?

A: It is pretty competitive about who’s done more or achieved more, always striving to be the best between us three. There is some smack talk. There hasn’t been as much this week. We’re trying to keep it pretty vanilla in the conversations, not trying to really expose anything we’re trying to do.

Q: What was your backyard like playing together as kids?

A: We played backyard football all the time. We had a pond back there, so there were a couple times people would get shoved into the pond if tempers flaired. I have ended up in the pond. I think everyone has ended up in the pond at some point.

Q: What’s the biggest thing Graham told you to help you through your rookie year?

A: He helped prepare me for how long it was going to be. He told me when he was a rookie he felt like he was playing almost two seasons because with the four preseason games its 20 games in 21 weeks. In college, it’s two-thirds of that, so he helped prepare me for that.

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