Jim Lippincott, the Bengals’ former director of football operations who scouted their prospects for 20 years, is now on the other side of the aisle after they selected Ohio State defensive end Sam Hubbard Friday night in the third round.
As a member of the draft room that evaluated and scouted most of this Bengals defensive line, Lippincott coached the latest addition when he retired from the league and put Hubbard in the middle of his defense at Moeller High School as a 6-5, 225-pound safety. They won two state titles together for Cincinnati’s fabled football powerhouse and the 69-year-old football lifer and the 23-year-old lacrosse transplant are still texting.