Balancing the bad news with some good

Jay Reichwein, owner of Power Play Sports in Milford, just called to pass along some good news related to the holidays and Bengals.

Jay was the host of Bengals defensive tackle Sam Adams last week at his store on Route 28. The appearance was a hook to collect toys for the Marine Corps' Toys for Tots program, which collected money and toys Sunday before the Bengals-Raiders game at Paul Brown Stadium.

Jay said that 400-500 people showed up to have Sam sign autographs.

"He signed everything everybody had," Jay said. "He wasn't mad. I was surprised. He was absolutely wonderful. He shook hands. He thanked them for donating."

The donations: 14 barrels of new toys were collected for Toys for Tots.

For all of the bad news about the arrests of various players for DUI and other offenses, the Bengals do have a number of great guys on the roster, people you'd like to have as neighbors (if you could afford their zip codes).

"I was just in awe of him," Jay said of Sam. "He was as down to earth as he could be. He was great with the kids. It was really impressive how he talked to the kids."