The Sports Xchange

Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Andy Dalton, off to the hottest start of his career, may be responding after being booed at a celebrity softball game this summer.

Offensive coordinator Hue Jackson thinks the softball game held a couple of days before the Major League Baseball All-Star Game in Cincinnati was a “turning point” for Dalton.

Dalton, who has made two trips to the Pro Bowl, was booed by local fans when he took his first at bat in July. Dalton shrugged off the boos later, saying at the time “I’m not worried about it.”

“I truly believe that was a turning point for Andy,” Jackson told Peter King of TheMMQB.com. “I’m not going to tell you it didn’t bother him. It did. When you have the success he has had — four seasons in the league, four times in the playoffs — getting booed in your own city, that has to hurt a bit. But he was able to hit one over the fence for a home run. And he flipped the bat. His message was sort of, ‘You might not like me now, but you’re going to love me later.'”

The Bengals are 4-0 as they face the Seattle Seahawks on Sunday, with Dalton’s best start to a season on 78-of-116 passing for 1,187 yards, nine touchdowns and just one interception.

“We see a quarterback who is emerging, who has been through a lot,” Jackson said. “He did everything a quarterback needed to do in the offseason, both physically and mentally, and we have created an environment for him to be as successful as a quarterback can be. I hear what people have said about him. But I see what is on the other side. There are things about him that people do not see. They say he doesn’t have passion. They say he doesn’t have the work ethic. All totally untrue. He has the burning desire to be the best. I see it every day. I’ve really seen it this week.”