Lemar Parrish's No. 20 goes up forever on the Paycor Stadium east façade during the Bengals' Ring of Honor ceremony at halftime of Sunday's game (1 p.m.-Cincinnati's Local 12) against the Jets.

Parrish, whose classmate Dave Lapham comes down from the radio booth to join him for the ceremony, hears the buzz about the current No. 20. Another cornerback who frequently gets his hand on the ball. Another 5-11, 185-pounder playing elite on the corner. Parrish has DJ Turner II's number.

"He gets good position. He's aggressive. I like his play. I like how he attacks the ball," Parrish said Thursday as he plans to leave his suburban Atlanta home Friday for the weekend's festivities. "He's a gambler. He's got good technique. I've been watching.

"Plus, he wears that number. I'm always watching that number."

Parrish watched the win over the Steelers Thursday night. He saw Turner get beat deep on the first third down. Then he saw Turner make that impossible interception on the sideline, somehow diving over D.K. Metcalf's back and wrenching the ball from him as they fell out-of-bounds.

"That showed me the kid has something. He's a sound player. It reminded me of me," Parrish said. "He came right off that hip, right in front of the guy. Boom! He was diving for the ball. A lot of corners don't dive for the ball. That reminds me of me. If you look at my highlights, I'm always coming off the ground."

These No. 20s not only have size in common, but also speed. Turner, coming out of monstrous Michigan, of course led the 2023 NFL scouting combine with a 4.26-second 40-yard dash. Parrish, out of little Lincoln University, says his best was "a 4.2something, but consistently 4.3."

After his head coach, Paul Brown, watched Parrish return a fumble 55 yards for a touchdown in his first pro game during the Bengals' first game ever at Riverfront Stadium in the 1970 preseason opener, Brown told the media Parrish and wide receiver Warren McVea were the only 4.4 guys he ever had in 20 years of coaching the pros.

"That was in pads," Parrish said Thursday. "A Paul Brown team, we didn't get timed in shorts. Paul said, "You don't play in shorts."

Turner, looking for his first Pro Bowl, is playing at that level and maybe higher with the first two interceptions of his career in his third season. Parrish, who went to six Pro Bowls in his eight Bengals seasons while turning four of his 25 interceptions into pick-sixes, has some advice for this No. 20 he enjoys watching.

"Be the first one there and the last one to leave," said Parrish, the former head coach at Lincoln. "Try to improve every year. Be better than the year before. Have that mindset where you're the best. Short memory. I've practiced hard. I've done everything I can. That's the mindset."

And this from the man whose 13 non-offensive touchdowns are the third most in the 20^th century:

"Don't just intercept it. Take it all the way and score. I was a running back in college, so I looked to score. Make them pay for throwing at you. Make them think about throwing somewhere else."

Lap On Rivers

This is the weekend the Who-Dey Nation generation that emerged in the 21^st century with Marvin Lewis and Chad Johnson discovers that Lapham, their beloved 40-year radio analyst, is the franchise's most versatile offensive lineman ever.

With rookie right guard Jalen Rivers coming into Sunday with four straight starts after playing much of training camp at tackle, Lapham put on both hats to break down the fifth-rounder from Miami.

"Very bright future. His versatility will keep him in good stead," Lapham said Thursday, prepping to play host at his Cincinnati suburban home with the influx of families and friends.

"If he can play all four spots as effectively as he's showed he can play them, he'll be around a long time. He'll play eight to 10 years, that kind of thing," Lapham said. "It's not too big for him. Mentally, he picks it up pretty quickly. He's got football intelligence. He's very coachable … He's inquisitive about why. He doesn't have tunnel vision. He wants to know what's going on in his surroundings, and you need that to play up and down the offensive line."

Sound familiar? Lapham, who twice played every O-line position in the same game, isn't sure if center is in Rivers' future. But no question, he says, the other four are. At 6-6, 319 pounds, Rivers came in as a tackle who had to show he could hold up inside. Lapham thinks he is.

"His long arms help him. He's got the length and reach you need in today's NFL," Lapham said. "I think he's very athletic. That's his main attribute. He's got good, quick feet. He can move laterally. He can change direction. Real fluid with his movements."

Finding Lemar

Parrish didn't have anything like an NFL scouting combine to show his wares. As Parrish recalls, he was discovered by Bengals assistant coach Jack Donaldson scouting a Lincoln-Kentucky State game. Donaldson made them aware of his punt and kick return skills, but when Paul Brown was looking for a cornerback opposite the second-year Ken Riley, the Lincoln running back who scored 15 touchdowns as a senior moved to the other side of the ball in training camp.

"Never played cornerback. But I got great coaching. Chuck Weber taught me technique," Parrish said of the Bengals defensive coordinator. "I could get into a backpedal. I was enough of an athlete. Once I got the coaching in Cincinnati, all I had to do was know your defense."

It also began the lifelong friendship with the late Kenny Riley, his roommate, now ringmate. A former college quarterback who also converted.

They teamed up with their notebooks to form one of the NFL's great cornerback tandems of the 1970s. When they were together from 1970-1977, no duo had more than their 61 interceptions, with Parrish getting 25 before he was traded to Washington.

"We made a report on every receiver we played," Parrish said. "What did they like to do on third down and that kind of stuff. We shared that information.

"The one thing about a Paul Brown team, it was knowledgeable. You weren't going to blow coverages because we were tested quite often. You didn't see guys in the secondary blow coverages. We were always aware. We were a talking defense."

They were also very good. In that eight-year stretch the converted roomies were on the corner, the Bengals were a top-eight defense.

Stuff of Dreams

Lapham was drafted by two leagues (the NFL and World) and played for another, the USFL's New Jersey Generals. His younger brother Roger went another route. He got drafted by two leagues when the NBA Bucks took him in the ninth round, 173 picks after the Lakers took Magic Johnson No. 1 in 1979. The next year, the Bills took Roger, a one-season University of Maine tight end, in the 12^th round.

Roger Lapham, a forward who still shares the Black Bears record with a 12-for-12 shooting against Valparaiso in 1978 during the era he and the great Rufus Harris (the Maine Man) led the school to its biggest hoop dreams, remembers a day he was 10 and Dave was 15.

Like they did every Sunday, they were watching an NFL game, and the announcers were Pat Summerall and Tom Brookshier

"He tells me, 'I'm going to be out there and one day and I'm going to be on TV,'" Roger Lapham says. "Both those guys had played, and now they were announcing and I was saying, 'Wow, really? Wow.' He could have told me he was going to be Neil Armstrong and I would have believed him. But what I didn't know then is that was his passion. It's something he dreamed of even then, and he became committed to it and look how great it worked out."

The three Lapham boys, Dave, Roger and oldest brother Bruce (all will be in place this weekend with their families), grew up like many a boy in the Boston suburb of Wakefield, Mass in the '60s. They would go out back and be who they saw on TV.

For baseball, it was Yaz and Tony C. For the Celtics, it was Havlicek and Sam Jones. Since the Patriots were blacked out most Sundays, the Giants were big in New England, and Roger would be the receiver Homer Jones and Dave would be quarterback Fran Tarkenton.

But they knew the Patriots stars. When they were kicking, they were suddenly one-time AFL Player of the Year Gino Cappelletti: "And Gino gets the PAT!"

"One time when the Bengals were in New England and I was up in the booth at halftime, we go to a door," Roger Lapham says. "It swings open, and it's Gino Cappelletti. I can't believe it. Gino had become such a long-time radio announcer for the Patriots, and there he was. He was talking to my brother like they were best friends. It's like David and Gino had known each other for years.

"But that's how it is with my brother. He's got that great personality. People gravitate to him."

Then, another door opened, and there was the NBC crew of Dick Enberg and Dan Dierforf. Roger was again struck how they greeted him like a long-lost brother.

"You played in that game, Dave, I remember. I was there," Enberg said of the 59-below wind chill AFC title game at Cincinnati's Riverfront Stadium.

"Dierdorf is really a hero of his," Roger Lapham says. "You see the quarterback and the wide receiver being in the booth, not the offensive linemen. But Dierdorf was probably the first one who did it."

On Sunday, Roger Lapham won't be Homer Jones.

"I'm proud to be Dave Lapham's little brother," he says.

Three ROH Members Advance

Three Bengals Ring of Honor members have advanced deeper into the process for senior candidates in voting for the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Parrish joined all-time passing leader Ken Anderson and four-time Pro Bowl wide receiver Isaac Curtis on a list of 34 culled from the original massive ballot of 162 seniors, a category of players who have been retired for more than 25 years.

The next step for The Hall's nine-member Seniors Blue-Ribbon Committee, of which Bengals.com is a member, cuts the field to nine semifinalists. Next month, the committee meets virtually to select the three senior nominees for the 2026 Hall ballot that includes nominees from the categories of Modern-Era players, coaches, and contributors.