Meet the Cincinnati Bengals fan who will announce team’s first-round NFL Draft pick

The man who will announce the Bengals’ first-round pick Thursday night at the NFL Draft is actually just one half of a “Who Dey” power couple.

Phil Amrein might not be what you picture when you imagine a Bengals superfan. He admits it.

“I don’t have a nickname, I don’t paint my face or anything,” he said Wednesday. “I’m just a regular guy.”

But Amrein takes after the city he loves.

“We’re tough and we’re resilient, and we’re extremely loyal, and that’s what Bengals fans are,” he said.

On Thursday, Phil will take the podium in Kansas City and, barring a trade, tell the world who Cincinnati will pick at number 28.

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“Maybe I’ll be announcing a future Bengal Hall of Famer, and this could be the start of his career,” Amrein said. “How cool would that be?”

Amrein is the reigning Bengals Fan of the Year, and he says he owes it all to his wife, Shelley Amrein.

“The best part about this whole thing is my wife surprised me by writing this incredible letter to Mike Brown describing what kind of fan I am,” Phil Amrein said.

The Amreins have been a loyal Bengals fan.

He’s been that way since he attended his first game in 1970 at the age of 9.

“You see other fans, and they ride that roller coaster, and they go up and down, up and down, but they don’t stay up, where he’s always stayed up,” she said.

The couple has kept season tickets for 31 of the 35 years they’ve been married. They call themselves hopeless romantics − in life and football.

Enquirer media partner Fox19 provided this report