Bryan Cook, who first ran around Paycor Stadium as a Marvin Lewis Camp first-grader and shivered here at his first NFL game a few years later in a December game against a forgotten foe, has always had ties to the Bengals.

Even when he played for their bitter archrivals from Kansas City.

"Born and raised," said Cook, whose smile never left him when he returned Thursday morning as the steel-belted safety they need.

Cook came out of the Cincinnati neighborhood of College Hill and the University of Cincinnati to become one of the NFL's top safeties. And Cook says it was two interactions with Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow during his rookie year of 2022 that helped put him in front of the microphone Thursday as his hometown team's richest safety ever.

One helped Cook get his mind right. The other one righted his career.

The first one came on the field where he was a camper in the regular season, and he was struggling. Cook played just eight snaps as Burrow beat Patrick Mahomes in the fourth quarter of that 4:25 p.m. national window game. But he'll always remember what happened on the field before one of those plays.

During a break before he huddled them up, No. 9 saw Cook and asked, "You're a Cincy kid?" because he knew he was. When Cook said, "Yeah," Burrow encouraged him with, "Keep it up. Doing a good job."

"His character," Cook said. "Really simple, but it was a time where I was mentally really trying to figure out my place in the league and I think from that, it was like, 'Hey, I'm being seen.'

"For me, as a rookie coming in, especially at that time … He didn't know that at that time. I had three weeks I was not figuring it out. It helped me a lot. Having that understanding for someone that the city would say was basically the Golden Goose, to be humble enough to speak to me in that aspect, and support me even though I was on the opposite team. It was nice."

Nice, but no bigger than a moment about six weeks later in Kansas City when Burrow came in trying to engineer a second straight road AFC title game win in Arrowhead Stadium.

Cook had been playing more. There had been 19 snaps the week before in the divisional, and with vets going down left and right on this championship Sunday, he'd be in on 27 plays.

One of those snaps gives you insight on why the Bengals went after Cook as a level-headed, savvy field general who can cover unafraid with the short memory that makes DBs tall in big moments.

It's also the snap, Cook says, that got his career on the right track.

"I was getting mad. I was getting beat. On fourth down" said Cook of that third-and-three from the Bengals 36 with 7:02 left in a 20-20 game.

Moments earlier, on the first play of the fourth quarter from the Chiefs 41, Burrow and head coach Zac Taylor went for it all on fourth-and-six, and they were rewarded with more magic from the Bayou voodoo of Burrow and Ja’Marr Chase. Chase beat Cook, allowing him to split Cook and rookie cornerback Jaylen Watson on Burrow's 35-yard bomb that set up the tying touchdown.

So, seven minutes later and still 20-20, this Cincy Kid was determined not to give up third-and-three as Burrow, Chase and Tee Higgins leered at another Super Bowl.

"Our defense was in quarters. I'm watching No. 1 (Chase)," said Cook, still able to walk you through it three years later. "At that point, Tee Higgins ran a slow-go … a slant. As a quarter safety in that down and distance, that's my job. So I went down to the slant."

But Cook had enough presence of mind to see if Burrow had let it go. When he saw Burrow still had the ball in the pocket, he knew something was up.

"To my knowledge and what I was seeing, he kept dropping back. That was an indicator it's a double move," Cook said. "Once he did that, I go to Tee Higgins and matched the route as best as I could, and there I was able to be in position to make a play."

A play? Try a gem. In KC, an heirloom.

Cook stayed with Higgins step for step and reached with his right hand to knock Burrow's feather away at the 25 before it bounded into the hands of teammate Joshua Williams at the Bengals 14 with 6:53 left. The Bengals didn't get it back until 2:30 left, and when they didn't score, the Chiefs did and won.

"It's a tie game. If you don't make play there, you may not win," Cook said. "That play kicked off my career."

It's also a play that shows what the Bengals are getting in Cook.

"He'll bring the energy," says Bengals captain and former Cook teammate Orlando Brown Jr.

Imagine it now in stripes.

His buddies who are Bengals fans have been blowing him up ever since the deal surfaced on Monday.

"There was always a different feel when I played against the Bengals. Always when I played this team. Now I play for them," said Cook, wearing a Reds hat but wearing his own slice of Bengals history on his sleeve.

"So it's going to be that much more important. My friends are highly into the Bengals. There's always been back and forth. There's been appreciation, as well as intensity."