He was the turning point: Bengals D.J. Reader playing with a purpose

D.J. Reader runs through the same routine before every game: tape, jersey, pants, cleats. The usual.

As the opening kickoff draws nearer, next comes the eye black. Only, this isn’t about the eyes at all.

It’s about transformation.

With each stroke covering every space on his cheeks between eyes and beard, Reader erases the compassionate, affable comedian roaming the halls of Paul Brown Stadium and streets of Greater Cincinnati in search of brightening somebody’s — anybody’s — day.

This face paint smears on the grit instilled in him at the YMCA of Greensboro, North Carolina, and work ethic ingrained by his mother and rock, Felicia. He pastes on the soul of a father gone too soon and the honor of carrying his legacy.

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But, mostly, the paint is about the photo. Like nearly everything in his life now, this habit is about his 2-year-old son, Rocky.

“I always send him a picture of my painted face,” Reader said. “So, he knows the face is painted, we are ready to go, we are locked and loaded. I send him a picture just to make sure he knows I’m there.”

Along with FaceTime calls after every game, the message reminds Rocky his dad isn’t just thinking about him, but playing for him.

Rocky’s arrival wasn’t just a smiling face and family blessing. In life and in the trenches, he changed everything.

“He was the turning point in my career in football,” Reader said. “I did my best all the time. I tried hard. I was a fighter. But when I had him, it was like there is no excuses for anything you got going. I don’t care what you are seeing, D.J., you grind. If he ever sees you let your foot off the gas, what does he think of what a man is supposed to be when he’s called upon? He’s supposed to go work. When he’s called upon to do something, he does it.”

Grinding in the anonymous shadows of interior run defense, Reader is undeniably doing it. Rocky may not be ready for Pro Football Focus just yet, but one day he’ll search and see Reader currently residing as the highest-graded player on the Bengals’ defense and fifth among all defensive tackles.

It wasn’t always this way. The 2016 fifth-round pick coasted for his first three seasons in comfortable lanes of pretty good and not bad for the Houston Texans. He’s lived in the top 10 of the position since 2019 and reset the nose tackle market upon signing a four-year, $53 million deal with the Bengals last year. He’s returned better than ever this season from a devastating quad injury.

“He changed my whole outlook on what I want my career to be,” the 27-year-old Reader said of Rocky, who lives in Oklahoma with his mother. “I wanted it to mean something. I didn’t just want to be known as a player who played in this league. When I found out, I wanted my career to really mean something — to me, to him. I want him to know I changed it.”

Reader made a habit of eating BBQ after games when he played in Houston. The transition was natural and options endless for the 330-pound North Carolina native living in Texas. He needed to do some research upon arriving in Cincinnati as a free agent.

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He quickly was directed to Lucius Q, a BBQ hot spot in downtown Cincinnati’s Pendleton neighborhood. It became a regular stop and favorite. So, when Reader looked for a partner to give back to the city over the holidays, his team’s first call was to co-owner Aaron Sharpe.

What came next were 100 turkeys with Lucius Q dry rub given out by Reader, his mother and Sharpe to those in the neighborhood and around the city.

The same purpose and motivation inspiring him on gamedays were changing the dynamic of days like this.

“That got more important to me when I had my son,” Reader said. “I used to just do it, just to do it. That sounds bad. I knew the impact it had, but I just did it. There was really no purpose or intention. I was just making sure I was doing something. Doing whatever. Having my son now, you pay a little bit more attention to details on things you are doing, how it impacts him. I want him to know you always can help anybody with anything.”

Reader may have been the star of the event, but his outgoing mother was the star of the show. None of this is new to D.J., who grew up tagging along to charity functions and fundraisers Felicia worked with during her now 35-year run up the ranks working at American Express.

Know this: Felicia Reader will be there. Always has been. Whether the highs of when D.J. agreed to his massive contract with the Bengals or the lowest low when his father passed away in June 2014, as kidney failure claimed David Reader at age 51 after years living with rheumatoid arthritis.

“After losing my dad, that became my rock; that was my one parent,” said Reader, who was home-schooled until sixth grade by his father, who also took on the role of tutor and coach to many in his neighborhood despite being limited by his health issues. “I leaned on her for everything. My mom is a hard-working, beautiful woman. That impacted me so much as a kid. Also, letting my dad lead our family. Not being overbearing or making him feel belittled for being disabled or anything like that. She was everything that a mom is, nurturing, caring and loving while also being a bread-winner and one of the hardest-working people I’ve ever met in my life.”

To understand Reader’s life and football journey — as well as why Rocky’s arrival ignited this motivation — you need to understand these influences. His family has always supported and fueled breakthroughs. There’s a reason the name of his foundation and an emblazoned tattoo reads ASNF, standing for A Son Never Forgets.

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Reader briefly pauses during the conversation and says he’s getting teary. He’s talking about his hometown of Greensboro. He calls himself a “neighborhood kid,” as the town embraced him and his family, with sports at the core of it for Reader, who would eventually play both football and baseball at Clemson.

Felicia and D.J. team up every year in Greensboro to donate, speak or give time to kids in his hometown. They gave out school supplies this past summer at the New Zion Church he grew up around.

“I love that city,” Reader said. “What it means to me as a person. That’s where my parents’ journey started, so for me, I feel like that’s where my legacy was born. It was a city that made me really gritty and appreciative. It showed me the same love back.”

Bengals defensive line coach Marion Hobby was coaching for Duke when he first heard about Reader as a short, stocky, two-sport ninth-grader for the Grimsley High School Whirlies. He later coached him at Clemson and last year reunited in joining the Bengals. Few know better about what made Reader the player he’s become, including overcoming the grief from his father’s death, which eventually sidelined him for six games his final season at Clemson.

“He has come from a good group of people,” Hobby said. “His mother, I still see her at the games. They were always there by his side. Always at the games. He was raised right. It’s funny, he knows I can still tell on him and get him in trouble as a 27-year-old man.”

So, when Reader tore his quad five games into last season, make no mistake the impetus to starting his long grind back to full health for a 2021 return. Felicia was there by his side. This time, the former softball star at North Carolina A&T was ready to re-tell her own stories.

“My mom, she suffered a double-compound fracture in college,” Reader said. “Her claim to fame is she was in shock so much she didn’t go through anesthesia. They did the surgery and she was up. She watched it. They gave her something, but she doesn’t let people live that down. When I got hurt, immediately, she was like, ‘You know I had a double-compound fracture’ ‘Oh my God, all right, I’ll be back. I got you. I hear you. I don’t even want to hear the story.’ You can’t be tough enough for her. She just doesn’t fold, ever.”

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Her voice played in the back of his head when D.J. and then 1-year-old Rocky hung out together through every minute of the most challenging early days of the grueling rehab.

“He was in the process of learning how to walk, I got to learn how to walk again, essentially,” Reader said. “It was funny watching both of us in our own individual struggle. I’m looking at him looking at the steps. I’m looking at the steps like, ‘I don’t know how I’m going to get up there, either.'”

Reader was back as the starting defensive tackle for the Bengals 10 months later on opening day against the Vikings. Rocky was gleefully receiving photos of his dad in face paint.

Don’t kid yourself, Reader may work in the anonymous trenches of run-stopping tugs-of-war, but he still dreams about big-man touchdowns.

“I tell people all the time I am like a 330-pound Julio Jones,” Reader said. “They just don’t know. I’m secretly a receiver in my head. I definitely don’t limit myself, but I enjoy the dirty work.”

He better enjoy it, because there’s rarely glory in his anonymous role. And odd dichotomy for the highest cap hit on his team. When running down the list of Pro Football Focus’ top interior defenders, the household names with reels of sack dance highlights lead the way.

One of these things is not like the other in terms of national profile. A passing league dominated by sacks, pressures and high draft picks leaves the ugly trench techniques of late-round picks taking on double teams and holding the point of attack hardly must-see TV.

So, what exactly is Reader doing that makes him impactful for the Bengals? Those who study and understand know.

“Where he makes his money as a run blocker, taking on double teams, resetting the line of scrimmage and that’s on the front side of runs,” said Brandon Thorn, scouting coordinator for OL Masterminds and OL/DL analysis for Establish The Run. “On the back side, resetting the line of scrimmage eliminates that cutback lane. He does a real nice job on the front and back side as the run defender. He’s just so stout at the point of attack.”

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Thorn ranks and compares interior players on a regular basis and puts Reader up with the best, most versatile true nose tackles in the league along with Green Bay’s Kenny Clark and Tampa Bay’s Vita Vea.

Where defensive coordinator Lou Anarumo has found value in Reader’s game is the ability to play a light box against the run knowing his nose tackle will plug the middle and penetrate past the center.

“He’s able to control that A-gap, or both A-gaps when he’s playing the nose,” Anarumo said. “It just allows us to do so many different things and the fact that he and all the other guys have really done a good job in that area frees us up to play some more coverages and things like that. Not always over-commit to the run and D.J. is a big part of that.”

Hobby says if you don’t want to know the truth about something, then don’t ask Reader. So, no surprise he puts the concept a little more bluntly.

“Honestly, I feel like I am the best defensive lineman in the league versus the run,” Reader said. “Whether that means drawing attention from two guys or taking on the one-on-one and leaving it up to the linebacker. There’s a lot of things that go into recognizing the play, knowing what’s going on with the scheme. That’s just something I’m good at, I’ve been blessed with that and I work really, really hard because I care about it.”

Reader has 18 stops (tackles for offensive failure), 20 pressures and only one missed tackle this season, via PFF, one of only four interior defenders who can claim numbers that good in all three categories.

Reader drew the nickname “Grave Dave” among his close friends in the defensive line room in Houston for the mentality of working the graveyard shift, a lunch-pail, blue-collar guy in the trenches. That’s why he pulls out the imaginary shovel as a celebration for a big play. Sacks don’t come often for Reader, he’s only got one this year, but his value shows up when watching others like Trey Hendrickson rack up numbers like the 11.5 overall and franchise-record nine straight with at least one.

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“His quickness for a nose is really a force to be reckoned with,” Hendrickson said.

For example, on Hendrickson’s strip-sack for a turnover against the Steelers in Week 12, Reader is one of just three pass rushers on first-and-10. He takes on a double team and pushes them both back five yards into Roethlisberger’s face. So, when the QB pumps and resets his target, he’s unable to climb up into the pocket. When he takes a step back, Hendrickson busts around the edge and hits him from behind, jarring the ball loose.

Reader gets no credit. He gets no stat. Nobody voting for Pro Bowls will notice. Like most of his plays, he does the dirty work that makes the difference.

This happens often. Being the forgotten, often unrecognized factor comes with the territory.

“That’s the life,” Reader said. “It sucks, but the people who watch ball, the people who really, really matter — hell, the people who sign my checks — they don’t pay attention to (public praise). That was the hardest thing when I was playing and working on a contract. I can only play my game. That’s my game. And I love it.”

Reader says he’s built to play this position. Really, he’s built to play games like Sunday. Some teams like the Chargers can be seen as the future of football and one that phases out the run game and powerful run stoppers, opting for swing passes to the back and deep balls. When Kyle Shanahan and the 49ers’ potent, diverse running attack arrive in Cincinnati, suddenly Reader’s work won’t live in the anonymous shadows anymore.

The Bengals defense will lean on him to hold the point of attack against an offense designed to take him out of it. This won’t be about finesse. It will be brute force. That suits Reader just fine.

“I would be crazy or delusional to look at myself and say, ‘you are 6-3, 330 pounds, let’s go run around blocks out here today,'” Reader said. “Luckily, there is a position in football I can thrive in and it’s perfect for me and I enjoy it.”

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Enjoyment makes all the difference.

“Sometimes, guys don’t like it in there,” Hobby said. “It’s a little noisy. He likes it in there.”

Reader came to find out liking it and being motivated by it produce two different results when it comes to a battle of wills. The sense of responsibility and maturity Rocky instilled continue to translate clearly on game day during a 2021 season spent living up to a high bar set during his final year in Houston.

“I wasn’t satisfied with what was going on,” Reader said. “That was really when I started taking my career in my hands. I wasn’t going to be put in this box of this is all you can do. This is who you are as a player, this is it. I was already starting making plays. I knew I was a decent player. I was like, ‘Damn, this career is going to be really what I make it into.’ He helped me realize that.”

Rocky connected the inspirational and foundational dots between Greensboro, his father and his mother. Now as a father, trying desperately to live up to the example he puts on a pedestal, every aspect of Reader’s life makes more sense: on the field, off the field, the charity work, the direction.

“I had to take control of my life,” Reader said. “Not just live, live with a purpose.”

That purpose will be receiving a photo of Reader’s face paint a little before 4:25 p.m. this Sunday.

(Top photo of Rocky and D.J. Reader: Provided by D.J. Reader)

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