The secret to Bengals WR Ja'Marr Chase's elusiveness on the field? A little baby oil
Would you like to know the secret to Ja'Marr Chase's Houdini act on the field, and how he excels at making the first defender miss?
Baby oil.
It's the oldest trick in the book, and the Cincinnati Bengals receiver shared a story about how he became such a hard player to bring down.
When he was in youth football, his father helped him develop the mindset he now uses with a little help from Johnson & Johnson.
“[My dad] just said, ‘Come here,'” Chase told The Athletic's Paul Dehner Jr. “Then he rubbed hella baby oil on me … He used to do it almost every game. Then he told me don’t touch myself."
Chase obviously had to move away from that tactic as he got older and played upper levels of football. But what those few years of using baby oil did was help the three-year veteran establish the philosophy.
“Just putting it in my head that I’m not going to get tackled,” Chase said. “I thought and believed it. Him telling me they are not going to tackle you because you have baby oil on you. They are going to slip off you. Something like that sits in the back of your mind and lets you know you aren’t getting tackled."
After a rough start for both Chase and Cincinnati, the team seems to be back on track after starting the season 1-3. During the opening quarter of the season, Chase had 29 receptions for 284 yards and no touchdowns.
Initially, it appeared as though his bid to post three-consecutive 1,000-yard receiving seasons was in trouble. But the Bengals have completely turned it around as they've reeled off four consecutive wins and Chase has amassed 413 yards and four touchdowns on 35 catches during that winning streak.
In Cincinnati's 30-27 loss to the Houston Texans on Sunday, Chase had five receptions, 124 yards and a score. The Bengals are currently 5-4 and last in the AFC North, but only a game-and-a-half back from the first place Baltimore Ravens (7-3).
