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Jun 17, 2023

Bengals bring in ping

The latest breaking updates, delivered straight to your email inbox. Preseason football is finished for the defending AFC North division champion Cincinnati Bengals. In just two weeks, the Bengals

The latest breaking updates, delivered straight to your email inbox.

Preseason football is finished for the defending AFC North division champion Cincinnati Bengals.

In just two weeks, the Bengals will kick off their 2023 season in Cleveland against the Browns.

Much of what fans saw during the training camp portion of the season were highlights of the Bengals' position battles and lots of chatter about compression sleeves.

What fans didn't see is what took place behind closed doors and the rowdy team meetings designed by the face of the franchise.

While Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow was roaming the sidelines in his bucket hat at training camp, he was also scheming up ways to maintain his team's edge and chemistry while he was off the field rehabbing a calf strain.

For the ultimate competitor, team bonding comes in the form of a challenge. A pingpong tournament, to be exact.

"We've done a couple of different things over the course of training camp to just try to change up the rhythm and change up the energy. And so one of the things we did during the team meeting, we canceled meetings that we did a rookie talent show, we ate Skyline as a team, and then we, and then we, uh, had the pingpong stuff," head coach Zac Taylor said.

This wasn't the daily dose of table tennis games that typically unfold in the Bengals locker room.

This was the real deal, with pingpong professionals in the building.

Wide receiver Trent Taylor and tight end Mitchell Wilcox are known to be the most skilled on the team.

International pingpong competitors Estefanio Ramiros and Steve Hopkins put the professional footballers in their place.

See reactions from the team during the ping pong battles in the video player at the top of the story.

It seems to be a safe bet that locker room table tennis battles will only intensify from here.